Storing honey

I have quite a few plastic bottles of honey. They are starting to become hard. I heated them up in a pan of water and put the honey in pint jars. It worked but how do I store it ? Do I water bath it or can I just put a lid on it and store. Or should I pressure can it?

Sherry Obermann
Waukesha, Wisconsin

Hard or crystallized honey is perfectly natural and is nothing to worry about. As you said, warming it up turns it right back into its liquid form. You don’t have to process honey in canning jars, just put a lid on it and store in a cool, dark place. Honey will stay good for decades without further treatment. If it crystallizes, just warm it up and it’ll be a liquid you can more easily use. Personally, I love crystallized honey as it’s much easier to use, not dripping and running over your fingers when you have it on toast or a biscuit! — Jackie

Canning lids

I was canning some beans today, and opened a new box of Kerr lids. I noticed that the instructions are different, and no longer require heating in a pan of water and keeping warm. Now, they simply require washing. So, after searching everywhere I could, I found that on the www.freshpreserving.com website, there is a little tiny area that says keeping the lids warm is no longer necessary. I guess I would like to know if you are doing this? It’s one of those things that sort of goes against the grain, so I thought I would ask you since you really keep better track than most of us do about this stuff.

Judy Sloan
Spokane, Washington

It goes against my grain, also. The new Ball lids still have the old instructions on heating in a pan of water but I know the new Kerr lid boxes have eliminated this step. Maybe they’ve changed their seal formula or maybe not and just figured heating them in a pan of water was old-fashioned. I don’t know but I still heat mine. (Have you seen the sentence on the boxes of new jars that says “Use your canned food within a year.”) WOW, I sure don’t buy that one! — Jackie

3 COMMENTS

  2. Years ago as a new, self-taught canner I simply wiped the rims of the jars, wet the lids and canned the food. Nearly every seal failed. Eventually I realized that the simmering water softened the compound for a better seal. I don’t think I would ever trust a lid without simmering it again.

  3. Not only is there no need to can honey (as indicated), but canning would pasteurize honey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most store bought honey is not only heat treated, but it is also diluted with corn syrup (the phrase “pure honey” means PURIFIED honey, not 100% honey). Both the heat treating and diluting of honey tends to extend the time before it will crystalize. In many European countries, honey is used in it’s crystalized state in many cases. ALSO, do NOT add water to honey (not even a drop!) unless you want mead (fermented honey).

    I am a beekeeper in TX.

Comments are closed.