Honey is a gift from nature with a unique composition. Many have heard that it cannot be heated. Allegedly, in the process of increasing temperature, the product loses everything valuable that it contains. However, some culinary and medicinal recipes require honey to be heated. It is often added to baked goods, dishes and even mulled wine. It is also melted to return the candied product to its original consistency. Is it worth doing this, at what temperature does honey lose its vitamins and beneficial properties?
In fact, honey intended for treatment can be carefully melted, but you should not add it to hot tea, porridge, or mix it with boiling herbal infusions. The product will lose all its beneficial properties and may even cause harm. At high temperatures, compounds are formed in honey that the human body does not need.
At what temperature does honey lose its beneficial properties?
Honey is the most useful product that nature gives to humans. It contains a huge amount of vitamins, minerals and other substances that are vital for good health. However, there are some features of consuming honey in which it loses its properties and even becomes harmful to humans.
It's about heating honey. Research has proven that if honey is heated to more than 40 degrees , its structure begins to change. At the same time, the compounds of fructose and glucose, unique enzymes, are destroyed. As the beneficial substances disappear, honey becomes just a sweet syrup, which also loses its characteristic aroma.
Features of storing and eating natural honey
What happens to honey after heating?
Heating natural honey above 60 degrees means turning the most valuable bee product into useless syrup with your own hands. Moreover, a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius is already an undesirable threshold.
Benefit is lost
Adding honey to hot tea leads to the loss of its beneficial properties. Vitamins and valuable enzymes are destroyed - everything that is responsible for the unique healing properties.
Hot honey is useless for the treatment and prevention of colds, and it will not help in the treatment of other problems. But a teaspoon of fresh product before breakfast can significantly strengthen the immune system and prepare the body for the changing seasons.
The taste spoils
Connoisseurs of fine taste will immediately notice the difference: an ordinary product, even if it has been in the cupboard for a long time, retains bitterness, herbaceous, floral, pine and other notes - heated honey cannot be compared.
Allergy risk rises
And one more thing: honey and products containing it are known allergens. After heating to 45-60 degrees, the likelihood of allergic reactions increases.
At what temperature does honey become harmful?
It is believed that honey should not be heated to more than 40 degrees. This can be achieved by dissolving honey in boiling water, baking it with dough in the oven, heating it in the microwave, and even in cases where you leave honey on a sunny windowsill in the hot summer.
INTERESTING: It is believed that honey should also not be frozen, because under the influence of low temperatures negative changes also occur with it. The optimal temperature for storing honey so that it does not lose its usefulness is +14-30 degrees.
How can and how can you not heat honey so that it does not turn out to be harmful?
How to eat honey correctly
Even properly stored honey in large quantities can be harmful to health. Follow the dosage: for an adult, 200 g of product is enough. The norm for each person is set individually depending on age, need for certain substances and health status.
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If you like sweet drinks with honey, then make sure that the temperature of your tea does not exceed 30-35 degrees at the time of adding the beekeeping product to it. You can dilute honey with warm water, berry juice, milk, coffee, cocoa, etc.
Advice Store-bought honey most often undergoes pasteurization, that is, heating. Give preference to fresh product from the apiary if you want noticeable improvements in health.
Other ways to eat honey without exposing it to high temperatures:
- It’s very tasty to mix honey mass with nuts, berries, fruits, dried fruits, and citrus zest.
- Add it to warm porridge for breakfast.
- Spread on toast instead of jam or marmalade.
- Dress salads with honey by mixing it with lemon juice and vegetable oil.
Miss Clean Tip: Honey is a natural preservative and can be used to store butter at room temperature. Mix the two products and use for breakfast sandwiches.
Why can’t honey be heated above 60 degrees?
If you heat honey to more than 40 degrees (up to 60 or even more), you will completely destroy the beneficial substances in it . The honey will turn into a sugar syrup, very thin and watery. That is why try not to add it to freshly brewed tea (the temperature of boiled water in a kettle is approximately 70-90 degrees). Such tea will be completely useless and even harmful.
How to distinguish processed and natural healthy honey? What are the differences and features of this product?
We distinguish a quality product from fakes
Such an expensive product as fresh honey is often counterfeited: mixed with crystallized honey and heated. To avoid falling for the tricks of unscrupulous beekeepers, check the product before purchasing according to the following rules:
- Fresh honey has a distinct sweet aroma and taste. Heated old honey has a weak odor.
- Fresh honey has a uniform consistency, it is liquid but viscous. The melted product is characterized by increased wateriness.
- Try a spoonful of honey, hold it on your tongue: the fresh product will reveal additional tart or sweet notes, and a pleasant warmth will appear in your throat. Old and reheated, it has no flavor, it's just sweet.
- If you understand the shades of different types of honey, you can catch the seller: old melted honey will be darker than its fresh counterpart.
Finding high-quality honey in regions where beekeeping is not common is quite difficult, but you can always use the postal service. Honey is truly a valuable product, along with rare vegetable oils, nuts, fruits and berries, and it is up to you to get the most out of it. It is very easy to store and use.
Conclusion
We can conclude that heated honey is a safe product, but it is unhealthy and can cause harm. If glucose and fructose disintegrate in it when heated, there is no point in treating it. It is recommended to consume the products only fresh. It is allowed to warm it up a little in a water bath. It is better to drink tea, milk, coffee with bee product, without dissolving or heating it. If the recipe requires heating the nectar, do it; it will not lose its taste, only its properties. The answer to the question why it is not recommended to heat a bee product is simple, it becomes useless, and in some situations harmful. Instead of being treated with nectar, it can lead to serious consequences and lead to intoxication of the body, the accumulation of carcinogens, which negatively affects the functioning of blood vessels, kidneys, liver, stomach, and intestines. When you need to heat up honey, you must adhere to certain rules, temperature, this is the only way to preserve its benefits, quality, naturalness, and will not cause harm to the body.
Video
The appearance of a white coating during crystallization - what is it?
Sometimes a white coating appears in a jar of liquid product. It often scares away buyers. They wonder: real honey is candied, isn’t plaque a sign of spoilage? In fact, it is crystallized glucose. The plaque can be in the shape of a flower or a complex pattern. Therefore, the process is called “honey blossoming.” Just like in snowflakes, its pattern is not repeated and depends on the location of the crystals relative to fructose.
This phenomenon indicates the naturalness of the healthy delicacy. Likewise, grape sugar crystallizes only in a product with a low moisture content and indicates the quality of the sweet delicacy.
Package
It is not recommended to store honey in iron containers - such containers can oxidize and spoil the product.
The best storage option is a glass jar with a tight lid. Honey can also be stored in enamel containers (without chipping!), ceramics and food-grade plastic. The container in which you are going to store honey must be perfectly clean and dry, and tightly closed. When buying honey in a store, pay attention to the quality of the packaging - it must be airtight.
Otherwise, do not take the can: it may have been damaged or already opened before you. The “tab” sticker will help ensure the integrity of the package.
Tips and tricks for heating honey
Now we know whether honey can be heated and to what temperature. Now let's look at the methods that can be used for this.
Microwave. You can heat honey quickly and easily using this popular electrical appliance. However, it is worth remembering to what temperature honey can be heated. The dangerous mark, as we already know, is +40 ˚C. By heating healing nectar in the microwave, you risk depriving it of all its healing properties. It will heat unevenly and will most likely turn into the usual mixture of glucose and fructose. If you still choose this method, then you should melt the honey in the “Defrost” mode, starting from 30 seconds. It may take you longer, but the product will not lose beneficial enzymes. The heating interval should be 15-30 seconds, during which the honey should be stirred vigorously. It is necessary to carry out manipulation until the substance becomes completely liquid. Now we know to what temperature honey can be heated in the microwave.
Water bath. To what temperature can honey be heated using this method? Let's figure it out now. Note that this method is considered optimal for heating honey. It is not only simple, but also safe for the beekeeping product. You need to take a wide container and fill it with water. You should put some fabric on the bottom. Place a vessel with honey in a container. It should be 1/3 covered with liquid. Now put the container on the stove and bring the water to a temperature of +40 ˚C. Then set the oven to the minimum mark and stir the product periodically. This is how uniform, slow and safe heating of honey is achieved. Beekeepers recommend using a cooking thermometer during the process. It will allow you to control the degree of heating.
Heating near the battery. This method is the best. The jar of honey must be placed from a hot radiator at a distance of 10 to 40 cm. The method is very slow, but allows you to preserve the beneficial qualities of the product.
So now we know whether honey can be heated. Tips and tricks will help you avoid the most common mistakes.
