If you’re like me, you love honey! In tea, lemonade, milk, marinades and bbq sauce; on toast, fruit, crepes and biscuits. Honey ranks high on the list of universal condiments! It’s a tasty additive that makes many good things even better. If you’re a honey lover, you’ve no doubt encountered the frustration of crystallized honey – the solid cloudy state that takes over if honey has been overcooled or shelved for a long period of time. Sure the crystallized stuff looks bad, but it’s perfect safe (and delicious to eat)! You may, however, want to recapture it’s golden days, before crystallization, so that it can be easily poured, spread or measured.

Crystallized honey may be an eye-sore, but it’s perfectly safe and delicious to eat!

Use any of these methods to reverse crystallized honey:

• Heat water in a container that is slightly larger than your container of honey. Place the honey container in the hot water bath for 10 – 20 minutes until the crystals dissolve and the honey becomes more fluid. Be sure to heat the water so it does not exceed the heat capacity of the container of honey – not all plastics and glasses are heat-hardy.
• If your honey is stored in a heat-safe glass jar, bring a saucepan of water to a boil, remove the lid from the honey and place the container into the boiling water, before reducing it to a simmer. The crystals should dissolve in mere minutes
• If you’re unsure of the heat-fastness of your container of honey, it’s best not to heat it too much. Sitting the container on the sunny dashboard of your car on a bright sunny day will dissolve the crystals in a matter of hours.

Most varieties of honey will eventually crystallize to some extent. These simple tips will help hold off the crystallization process as long as possible:

• Don’t store honey in the refrigerator. Cold temperatures will cause honey to crystallize quickly
•  Store honey in a lidded, air-tight container
• Avoid storing honey in humid parts of the kitchen such as the area over the stovetop, or the top of the refrigerator. Opt for a dry cabinet instead.
• Always dispense honey using clean, dry utensils. If the spoon, wand, or other utensil has touched another food or surface don’t place it back in the honey container. Treat it like dip: No double-dipping. This helps protect the honey from cross-contamination and the introduction of external humidity and bacteria.

Remember, the crystallization process is natural and harmless. It’s perfectly safe to consume crystallized honey in its crystallized state or after the crystals have been dissolved, as long as it’s been properly stored.