Does honey go bad?
I found an open jar of honey wayyy back in one of my kitchen cabinets. I know I purchased it several years ago (4 years? 5 years?). It's partially crystallized, which is fine, but it has a fairly serious beeswax smell to it. I can't remember if it smelled like this when I first bought it.
Should I eat it?
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17 Comments:
Yes it' fine.
simon at 12:17PM on 12/22/08
Honey gets solid. Once you warm it back up it goes back to a homogenous liquid. It it tastes funny throw it out.
JerzeeTomato at 12:25PM on 12/22/08
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_honey_spoil
caramel at 12:26PM on 12/22/08
Cool, thanks, guys. I think I'll sort of enjoy that beeswax flavor.
Kerosena at 12:37PM on 12/22/08
As an aside, I used to be a professional archaeologist (okay, I am still registered, but I don't do much with it anymore - very long story), and I had a chance to sample, while I was overseas, some honey that was a couple of thousand years old -no joke. Honey is the one identified foodstuff that does not appear to ever go rancid. It merely changes texture and flavor.
@JerzeeTomato is right, too, in that you can easily just re-heat it.
Traveller at 12:59PM on 12/22/08
Traveller, that is sooo cool! I love the idea of ingesting things that are super old, it's like a time machine. The only occasion I've had to travel back in time like that has been from drinking old wine, and even then, the oldest bottle I've sampled was about thirty years old. I recenlt went to a resto that had a bottle from 1900 on the list. They wanted $15,000 for it. Wasn't gonna fit into my budget unfortunately :) And then, there's this. Wonder if they would make good brownies?
simon at 1:27PM on 12/22/08
This is weird but I once had green mold in a jar of honey. It was almost empty...I threw it out! Yikes...Maybe it was contaminated..
sailingsam at 1:49PM on 12/22/08
honey has anti-bacterial qualities as well, way back when they used to put it on wounds..... you know, those centurian guys...... hey, it's cheap enough... maybe we should start doing that as well......
pooch at 1:53PM on 12/22/08
Actually, the mold is just fine. That happens, and basically serves to form a barrier to other nasty things. I wouldn't have worried about it. You can actually just remove that part and eat the rest.
@simon: The honey was good. It was the homemade chicha that wasn't. But then, that could have been because my professor and his sons had made it.
Traveller at 2:03PM on 12/22/08
@Traveller--I heard that some Egyptologists found honey in one Pharaoh's tomb (I forget which) and it was still edible.
I've always joked that given the choice between Spam (which supposedly keeps forever) and BCE honey, I'd take the honey.
HeartofGlass at 5:53PM on 12/22/08
My brother loves Spam.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 1:42AM on 12/23/08
@Heart I'm totally with you there. Honey is one of the greatest food finds EVER, and its ability to last forever is astounding. Spam is just not food. Period.
(And I eat meat, and I don't think you do.)
nightowl at 2:25AM on 12/23/08
@nightowl--haha, you're right, I don't eat meat. But I would say: "I don't eat meat--or Spam," if you get my meaning, to be perfectly correct ;)
(My apologies to the Hawaiians in the audience.)
HeartofGlass at 5:43AM on 12/23/08
Honey is the perfect food and never goes bad.
If your honey crystalizes, put the jar (provided it's glass) into a pan of VERY GENTLY simmering water. Eventually, the crystals will disappear leaving you with lovely liquid honey. You can do this in the nuke, too, but I've always had 100% success with the water/pan method.
chiff0nade at 7:12AM on 12/23/08
The thing with crystallized honey is that, even if you melt the crystals in a water bath, they'll come back once it's cold. You can just warm it up again, though.
gentlyferal at 12:30PM on 12/23/08
I was so happy to find these comments. I have 2 jars of sourwood honey and was about to throw it out. It has not crystallized or molded or anything. I think it's about 20+ years old - I'm still not convinced it's a good idea to eat it though.
sharonincharlotte at 4:58PM on 12/27/08
sharonincharlotte - yes, it should be quite edible! Send it to meeeee if you don't want it! :P
SpeedyGenie at 9:12AM on 08/11/09