Honey. by Mathieu Dierinck

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2 Introduction History of honey "We all work with honey or different honeys, eat it, drink it with milk or with lemon juice when we have a sore throat We all hear about the bee population slowing down dramatically, about good and bad qualities of honey and of course about the super-expensive and the cheaper ones. But I wanted to know what the truth was behind all of this is, the why, what and the how, and as it s almost always the case we need to study the base before we go any further in any research and development. This is the main motivation behind this bulletin, interest, knowledge and in all honesty Because I simply love honey and the different flavors it brings and the way it daily inspires so many of us to buy and use it." Well let s be honest, we can t imagine honey without talking about bees, and we can t imagine flowers without bees either, and as we all know all three of them are correlated. Though the first bees only appeared 25 million years after the first flowers where found on earth, since then both have been growing side by side and have a mutual dependence on each other. The first humans known to keep bees are the Mayas, thousands of years before the Europeans even set foot to shore in South- America. The Asian honey-bee was kept in Egypt 4500 years ago and in China 1500 years ago. In Europe, bees were really used since the middle ages, due to the invention of new tools which are still used today. It were the monks which where mostly in charge of keeping bees, specially for their honey and pollination. Wild bees where caught and kept in hollow tree trunks, woven baskets or clay hives, and for harvesting the bees where killed with sulfuric smoke, hives broken open and then the honey was harvested. Only halfway through the 19th century, the American reverend Langstroth created hives with moveable frames. This meant that humans could check the honey production without disturbing the bees too much by simple lifting out frame by frame and there was no need for killing the bees responsible honey production. This is to this day the most used method in beekeeping and honey production, therefore mostly referred to as the Langstroth method. Chef 3

3 Flower, Bee, Nectar, Why do bees produce honey? Well flowers are the main source of food for the bees, but what can we do during the seasons without flowers? Well most types of bees solve this problem by living fast and dying young, though honeybees can live season after season. The secret lies in their ability to change the nectar from the flowers into honey, this way they can store there food for when there are no flowers. It s because of the survival instinct of the bees that they produce honey, not just to please us humans. Other types of bees keep just a small reserve of honey, enough to eat and to reproduce. Bumblebees, the big fluffy giants, on the other hand do produce enough honey for harvesting and they keep a nice reserve. However the production takes somewhat longer than with honey-bees, the bumblebees defend their hive, not with a stinger, but with strong jaws with which they bite. What is nectar? Nectar, which naturally occurs in flowers, consists of different natural sugars and water. The difference in all types of honey are due to the different balance in these sugars and of course the different provenances (type of flowers, trees, ). Harvesting honey The honey harvesting is quite simple since most of the work has been done by the bees. The first step of the process consists of lifting out a frame from the hive, slightly shaking and smoking the frame to remove and confuse most bees and thus removing them making the extraction from the hive easier. Step two is cutting of the excess wax which can be created on the frame or on any spot within the hive where the bees have space. Step Three. With clean and sterilized knives, cut the top layer of the honeycomb open, showing you the liquid gold, then it s left to drip out slowly or the opened frame is placed in an extractor which uses centripetal force to get the honey out of the honeycomb. Step four the honey is sieved and placed into jars, ready for use. From Nectar to So nectar comes from trees and flowers, which is sucked up by the worker-bee which uses the nectar as a source of energy, but stores the most part in it s stomach, where it s mixed with enzymes which then creates honey. Upon its return to the hive, the worker-bee spits the nectar into a house-bee, which on it s turn will place the droplets of honey into a cavity of the honeycomb. Once the cell or cells are filled, the bees will keep on moving over the surface of the honeycomb waving it s wings. With the heat in the hive - due to the thousands of bees being on such a small surface - and the wind created by the bees flapping their wings, the bees reduce the water content to about 17-18%. When this stage is reached the bees will cap the cell with beeswax, the honey is ready. Chef 5

4 What s what? Good to know! Nectar: The natural sugars inc. water being taken from flowers by worker bees. : the by enzymes changed Nectar, with a reduced water content, which humans harvest from the hive, and which serves as the number 1 source of energy for the bee. comb: When the colony gets into a hive they will start by creating the honeycomb, which is made out of beeswax, and has it s typical hexagonal structure. It s function is to keep the honey capsulated and stored. The second function is as a breeding chamber for the "queen" to enlarge the colony. An added advantage is that the bees can cap the cells with wax to keep disease and sickness away. Beeswax: The basic structure for bees - the honeycomb - is entirely made out of beeswax, which is produced naturally by young worker bees which have glands at the bottom backside of their body. Beeswax has a melting point of 62º/64ºC, and is used in a wide array of products: food, candles and cosmetics are the main ones. Propolis (or bee glue) is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the hive. Its color varies depending on its botanical source, the most common being dark brown. Propolis is sticky above room temperature (20ºC (68ºF)). At lower temperatures, it becomes hard and very brittle.i t is often is being sold by beekeepers for further use in recipes. Royal jelly is a honey bee secretion that is used in the nutrition of larvae, as well as adult "queens". It is secreted from the glands of nurse bees, and fed to all larvae in the colony. When worker bees decide to make a new "queen", because the old one is either weakening or dead, they choose several small larvae and feed them with copious amounts of royal jelly in specially constructed queen cells. This type of feeding triggers the development of queen morphology, including the fully developed ovaries needed to lay eggs. Royal Jelly has long been sold for its nutritional benefits as dietary supplement or even as medicine, though current research does not support these facts at all. - 75% of the sugars present in honey are glucose and fructose. - 10% to 15% of the other sugars are disaccharide type of sugars which are divided in small quantities. - The sugars present in the honey are responsible for the taste, viscosity, energetic values, hygroscopic values and the texture. - The way the glucose and fructose levels are divided is the best way to identify and classify the MONO-floral honeys. ( comingprimarily from 1 type of flower - plant - tree). - In almost all the honeys there is more Fructose than glucose which will give them a sweeter taste except in rapeseed honey and in dandelion honey, where the glucose levels are higher than the fructose, and due to this, a quicker crystallization will occur. - Technically we can say honey is a flavorsome inverted sugar syrup, thus making sure we keep water in the products we make with it, creating a better color due to the mallard reaction, and is also responsible for having a softer result in sponges. (Eg Madeleines). Chef 7

5 Sustainability We ve all been hearing and reading the headlines in the news, on the internet well everywhere, sentences like one third of the bees died last year, what s happening with our bee population or even no more bees appear everywhere. Yes there is truth in the fact that bee populations have declined in the lasts 10 years though some say the phenomenon has been going on for 50 years. Why is this important? Well bees are important for the pollination of our crops worldwide. The declining population of bees is incoherently linked to our food production, and with an ever growing global population of people this is THE main cause of concern. Even though honey production does fall back too? the main problem here is a rise in the price. What can YOU do? All the above are elements we - as individuals - can t really do much against, though there are things we can do since the pesticides and big farmlands destroy a lot of the natural flora, it s great to plant some wild flowers in your garden, and plant them early in the year. This way you will increase the possibility that bumble bees will nest near your garden, and try to have wild flowers blooming in your garden all year round, bees are longer actives than you might think. You could of course start to keep your own bees and harvest the honey: you ll be doing your garden, the bees and yourself a huge pleasure. Some numbers: - 75% of the 100 most important crops in the world depend on insect pollination, insect I say so not all are bees, though 80% of insect pollination is done by bees. - The dependence of insect pollination on crops has risen 300% in the last 50 years. - In Japan, the fall-back of bee populations has been 25%, in the USA 30 to 40% and in Europe the fall-back rises to 50%! Reasons for the fall-back The great (r)evolutions in the agricultural field, with bigger and bigger machines, pesticides and commercial pollination techniques have had a huge negative impact on the bee population, the problem of bigger fields with only 1 type of crops doesn t help the bees to create a diverse diet, which - like humans - they need to be able to fight natural or chemical disease. Another problem is the breeding of bees, not aggressive, follow with ease and don t leave the hive as often or don t fly as far to collect nectar and pollinate as their non-human-breed cousins. Chef 9

6 Types of honey Here we do a quick deep dive into the different types of honey, though there are a vast amount of different ones. Local honey Well depending on who reads this, local honey will have it s own meaning, but what we mean to say with this term is a honey made from a variety of wild flowers and garden flowers indigenous to it s own area. Some may have the luck of having buckwheat honey, or lavender honey as a local honey, and each honey will be different in color, taste and origin. It will also vary from year to year depending on the available food for the bees. dew dew is a sugar-rich sticky liquid, secreted by some insects as they feed on plant sap. dew is collected by certain species of birds, wasps, sting-less bees and honey bees: these last 2 process it into a dark, strong and even sour honey. Whipped honey Some varieties of honey will have more fructose, others more glucose, others slightly more water and depending on the plants used by the bees to produce the honey, due to this lack in equilibrium some honeys will decant and go grainy quite fast. Therefore they can be beaten or whipped to obtain a lighter color and remain spreadable on room temperature. Crystalized honey All honey fresh from the hive is liquid, depending on the temperature it might be more or less runny but liquid nonetheless. Due to shifts in temperature, bad storage, humidity, etc. the honey will start to crystallize sooner or later to obtain a liquid honey again heat it up to 40ºC to melt down the crystals and cool evenly. Filtered honey Is honey which has been heated, to then be(e) sieved to remove the most of the air bubbles, pollen or other particles. Dried Is honey with all (or most) of the water removed and thus comes in powdered form. Raw honey Is honey which hasen t been treated in any way, and thus comes straight from the hive. Pasteurized honey Has been treated to 71,7ºC or higher before being put in to jars. Natural vs supermarket honey I don t want to say that supermarkets don t sell real honey though it is a fact that cheaper types of honey are actually honey mixed with glucose syrup, this is not only done for price reasons, but also to counter the crystallization of the natural sugars. So these can be diluted versions and have no place in the real honey world since they don t have the great taste and different properties compared to "the real deal." The glucose naturally present in the honey will make the honey crystallize faster, though the glucose syrups added will slow this process down due to the different chains of sugars present in the syrup and the addition of a few percentages of water. Chef 11

7 What honey to use, why the price-difference and what to watch out for What honey to use? After conducting several tests, it comes as an evidence: if we are working with a sweeter preparation and would like to use honey, use a more aromatic mono-flower honey which tend to be a bit darker, such as chestnut honey, mountain honey. In most cases these honeys taste less sweet (lower fructose) and therefore tend to crystallize faster (due to the elevated glucose levels). If we need to keep the typical sweetness and flavor of honey, we would recommend a good quality multi-flower honey or an acacia honey, which most people immediately associate as THE "typical" honey taste. Why is there an important price difference between different types of honey? General honey prices have nearly doubled over the last 10 years, this is mostly due to the fact that sustainability is more important than ever. The demand on the other hand didn t go down either, specially since it s considered as a healthy and flavorsome replacement for sugar. But in honey itself the price is mostly to be divided by: - Mono-floral - Multi-floral Then, how rare is the source: - Due to the season - Due to the flower - Due to the age of the honeycombs - Due to the hype an health benefits which are given to some honeys (but mostly without proof) What to watch out for? Well as with everything, some labels don t have a lot of meaning though to get organic certification beekeepers have to meet certain qualitative standards such as: source of the nectar, honey bees foraging area, bees management, honey extracting process, transportation, processing temperature, packaging materials, etc. In a way, it s safe to say that organic honey is a qualitative label for which you pay the price. On the other hand the "raw" honey doesn t really have a legal requirement. We could say all honey is "raw" honey since the bees do all the work, but "raw" fans will tell you that something can only carry the label if the honey has never reached more than 40º - 49ºC (which in all honesty can t be checked since temperatures inside the beehive can get pretty hot, a specially in the summertime). When a honey is stated as "raw", it mostly means that it s not pasteurized nor heated to 72ºC. Today there are no legal requirements for "raw" honey so you might be(e) cheated in the end anyways. The last point to watch out for is the use of the term "local" honey. Don t get me wrong, I m an avid supporter of local food in any way possible. Though if the glass jar with expensive label and all says local ask yourself local from where? Chef 13

8 1. Bon bon Bon bon For this bonbon, we chose to work with Inaya TM 65% dark chocolate couverture. Part of the Cacao Barry "Pureté" range we focus here both on the flavor intensity and its sustainable impact. These are common points to be also found back in the honey where we use single flower (acacia) honey, and honey from open fileds, both without additives and from honnest farners, so we can enjoy the same quality and taste in the years to come. passion jelly 10,3% 100 g Water 20,5% 200 g Passion fruit puree 32,9% 320 g Acacia honey 34,2% 333 g Sugar 1,6% 16 g Yellow pectine 0,5% 5 g Acid 50% 100% 974 g Total Put the water, passion fruit puree and acacia honey in a pan, mix the sugar and the pectine and add to the pan. Bring everything to boil on a medium heat then boil to 104ºC. Poor on a bowl and cover with cling-film, place in the fridge till cold (set) then place in a blender to cutter to a smooth texture. Note: Here I use a classic acacia honey (single flower) since this was the best pairing with the freshness of passion fruit. Inaya ganache 36,97% 383 g Cream 35% 4,62% 48 g Sugar dextrose 2,90% 30 g Milk powder 1% 37,66% 390 g Cacao Barry Inaya TM 65% dark chocolate couverture 6,76% 70 g Butter anhydrous 17 11,09% 115 g from open fields (dark) Mix the milk powder with the cold cream and mix untill dissolved. Add the dextrose and honey, then heat to 40ºC Meanwhile melt the Inaya TM dark chocolate to Mix both elements and emulsify. Add the liquid butter and incorporate well. Fill the molds at 31-32ºC. Note: I chose a darker aromatic honey for the ganache since the flavor needs to be dominant enough to match the beautiful cocoa notes of the Inaya 65% dark chocolate couverture. Crispy layer 28,9% 370 g Pure hazelnut paste 21,1% 270 g Praline Amande Valencia 15,6% 200 g Toasted buckwheat 26,6% 340 g Zéphyr Caramel 35% white chocolate with caramel taste 7,8% 100 g Cocoa butter 100% 1280 g Total Melt the Zéphyr TM caramel chocolate, the cocoa butter, add to the praliné and the nut paste, add the toasted buckwheat and temper to 24ºC. Roll out between two layers of parchment paper to the thickness of the buckwheat (2 mm). 100% 1035 g Total Chef 15

9 2. Petit gateau honey Petit gateau honey Since we use a variety of different ingredients and textures in pastry, and eat pastries at different temperatures, I chose to play with the flavour pairing combinations with honey, more than going honey all the way. Int the end, we all want to taste the honey but agree that we like some freshness and some great chocolate flavors to bring everything together. I therefore took my inspiration from François Chartier flavour pariing science to create this "Petit Gateau". Chocolate roulade sponge 25,3% 166 g Egg whites 19,1% 125 g Sugar 20,3% 133 g Egg yolks 2,7% 18 g Cacao Barry Cocoa powder "Plein arôme" 5,5% 36 g Flour 3,4% 22 g Corn starch 11,9% 78 g Cacao Barry Alto el Sol 65% dark chocolate couverture 11,9% 78 g Cream 35% 100% 656 g Total Whip the egg whites and sugar to obtain a firm foam with small air bubbles: add in the liquid yolks and fold these in with a rubber spatula. Now add in the sieved dry ingredients, and finish with the ganache made up of the Alto el sol and the cream. Bake for 12 minutes at 165ºC. When taken out of the oven, cover staight away with cling-film to keep the sponge nice and moist. Apricot and mandarin compote 49,9% 467 g Frozen apricot halves 19,7% 187 g Orange puree 17,3% 164 g Water 10,5% 100 g Sugar 1,2% 11 g Pectine NH 2,1% 20 g White wine vinegar 100% 949 g Total Whipped Equateur ganache 27,6% 400 g Milk 13,8% 200 g Multifloral honey 24,1% 350 g Cacao Barry Equateur 76% dark chocolate couverture 34,5% 500 g Cream 35% 100% 1450 g Total Heat the milk to 70ºC and poor on to the chocolate and the honey. Emulsify with a stick blender and add the liquid cream. Leave to crystallize one night in the fridge before whipping it to the right consistency. Note: Here we use inverted sugar in the honey to give our whipped ganache a nice and soft texture without loozing the amazing flavor of the Equateur chocolate. Zéphyr TM Caramel - Buckwheat glaze 80,0% 1000 g Zéphyr TM Caramel 35% white chocolate with caramel taste 4,0% 50 g Neutral oil 16,0% 200 g Toasted buckwheat 100% 1250 g Total Melt everything together and temper to 28ºC. Before dipping the roulade pieces in to the upper edge, scrape the bottom well on a griddle and set aside in the fridge. Add the defrosted puree and apricot halves to the water along with the sugar and pectine NH mixture. Poor into a pan an bring to the boil. Mix with an immersion blender to obtain a smoother texture. Poor into a bowl and add the vinegar. Leave to cool down. When cold, spread 850 g on the sponge (40X60) and roll tightly to a firm roulade: if needed, tighten in cling-film and keep in the freezer. When frozen, make 3 cm makes and cut into slices. Place - with the cut side down - on a baking paper. Place 2 tooth picks in the top and dip into the Caramel Zéphyr TM glaze. Scrape the bottom on a grill to obtain a flat side. Chef 17

10 3. comb comb comb is one of those oldschool classics often named as "toffee" and here we play on the versatillity of this recipe. I use it a lot as a snacking option though it's just as easy to use them in a tablet and use the leftover small pieces for a plated desert. For me this is literally "the golden oldy". comb 37,9% 200 g Multi-floral honey 9,5% 50 g Glucose DE40 37,9% 200 g Sugar 3,8% 20 g Isomalt 9,5% 50 g Water 1,5% 8 g Sodiumbicarbonate 100% 528 g Total Place the water in a heavy bottom pan with high edges, then add the sugars. Boil on a medium heat to obtain a light caramel while gently steering. Add the bicarbonate all at once and whisk it in to the "caramel": this will now blow up and become bubbly. Poor on to a silicone mat and leave to cool. When cold, break in to the desired size pieces and store airtight. Options to process Snacking Just enrobe the small pieces with your favourite dark chocolate couverture (since the honeycomb is sweet, we use dark chocolate) leave to crystallize and store at room temperature. Plated dessert When cold, cutter the honeycomb to a fine powder, sieve an even layer through a stencil placed on a silpat, bake 1-2 minutes in a hot oven 180ºC. Leave to cool down and you now have shiny caramel shards to use for plated desserts. Do watch out since the powder will take on humidity quite fast, so store in a vacuum bag or airtight. Tablet Add about 10% in weight of the small honeycomb pieces to your favourite, tempered Cacao Barry chocolate, mould in to the desired shape. Leave to crystallize before demoulding. Chef 19

11 4. plated dessert plated dessert Chocolate sponge cake 25,9% 190 g Milk 3% 15,0% 110 g Oil 14,3% 105 g Egg white 2,7% 20 g Egg yolk 26,5% 195 g Sugar 14,3% 105 g Flour 1,4% 10 g Cacao Barry powder "Plein arôme" 100% 735 g Total Put all the ingredients into a mixer (blender) and mix for 5 minutes until you have a homogeneous mass, pour into an espuma bottle and insert two gas capsules. Put into the fridge for a few hours. Pipe 1/5 into a plastic cup and "bake" in the microwave for 20 seconds. Speculoos 20,2% 200 g Butter 86% 20,2% 200 g Dark cassonade 8,1% 80 g Sugar 2,0% 20 g Chestnut-honey 5,0% 50 g Whole egg 40,3% 400 g Flour 0,4% 4 g Salt 0,5% 5 g Orange zests 0,6% 6 g Baking powder 2,0% 20 g Ground cinnamon 0,2% 2 g Ground cardamon 0,1% 1 g Ground coriander 0,1% 1 g Ground ginger 0,1% 1 g Ground nutmegg 0,1% 1 g Licoricepowder 0,1% 1 g Ground fennel 100% 922 g Total Cream the butter and sugars (incl. honey) add the eggs followed by the rest of the dry ingredients and the zests. Make into a dough and roll out on 3 mm thickness. Cut into stripes of 15mm by 100mm, sprinkle with fleur de sel and bake 170ºC for 8 minutes. Milk and honey ice cream 37,7% 500 g Cream 35% 30,2% 400 g Milk 3% 9,1% 120 g Egg yolk 15,1% 200 g Acacia honey 7,5% 100 g Dextrose 0,4% 5 g Ice cream stabilisher 100% 1325 g Total Mix the dextrose and the stabiliser, this is to avoid lumps in the ice cream mix, make an anglaise with all the ingredients and leave to rest 12 hours, or overnight in the fridge at 4 c, churn the ice cream for 3/4 of the way and place in the shock freezer for 30 minutes. Store at -15 c for the best result. Cacao mass - honey crémeux 27,4% 300 g Cream 35% 18,3 % 200 g Whole milk 27,4 % 300 g Acacia honey 11,4 % 125 g Egg yolks 15,5 % 170 g Grand caraque cacao mass 100% 1095 g Total Create a "crème anglaise" with the cream, milk, honey and yolks. Poor on to the cacaomass and emulsify. Store in the fridge for use the next day. Note: In this crémeux recipe we use cacao mass since it doesn't contain any sugar. We can then add more honey to increase its flavor intensity as a primary reason, and also for the inverted sugars present in the honey which will give this crémeux a silky smooth texture. and lemon Gel 47,4% 360 g Lemon puree 2,6% 20 g Milk powder 1% 18,4% 140 g Water 26,4% 200 g Multi-floral honey 4,0% 30 g Sugar 0,8% 6 g Agar Agar 0,4% 3 g Gellan gum 100% 759 g Total Dissolve the milk powder in the water, add the puree and the honey. Mix the sugar, the agar agar and gellan gum together in a saucepan. Bring to boil and poor in to a bowl, leave to set for a few hours until solid. When cold, place in to a blender at full speed or until there are no more pieces. We then obtain a smooth gel, pass though a fine sieve if needed. Store in a pipping bag or bottle. Chef 21

12 Mathieu was born and raised in belgium, but chose - after his studies - to look up the limits of his passion abroad working in the UK and Belgium for renowned chefs such as Michel Roux and Gordon Ramsay. After this side step into these high end Michelin starred kitchens, he was responsable during 3 years for the creation at Oberweis before joining Barry Callebaut in 2015 at the Belgian Chocolate Academy. Since 2017 responsible for Cacao Barry in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg, supporting customers in any way possible. Chef 23

13 Sources: The bee book, ISBN: , published by Dorling Kindersley Limited, London : A global History, ISBN: , written by Lucy M. Long Ph. D, Reaktion books 2017 Wikipedia: blog about beekeeping and, producing at the end the production of honey. DUTCH Determination of sugars in honey by liquid chromatography, by Kamal and Klein by