Coarsely granulated ("French") honey - how?

[fatshark]

When holidaying in France I've previously bought pale coloured, relatively mild flavoured and coarsely granulated honey from farm shops - no label to indicate source or anything helpful like that. My wife considers this is the best honey she has ever had ... the coarse granulation being particularly desirable.

I'd like to be able to produce something similar here ... to keep her happy. I've failed to convert her to the soft set and runny floral honeys I've managed to make so far.

I realise that generating coarsely granulated honey (that spreads leaving a gritty texture) is the very opposite of what many people want but would appreciate any advice. I've got lots of OSR honey in buckets and quite a bit of 'mixed summer hedgerow' supers to harvest.

Of course, moving to France isn't (yet) an option ;-)

Thanks

--
fatshark

 

[thedeaddiplomat]

The small quantity of honey I harvested in the Spring is very coarsely granulated. I harvested it because I thought it was rape - which it wasn't. I now think it probably contained a high proportion of dandelion. Whatever, it is going down very well with the B&B guests.

 

[Midland Beek]

I would think the stuff you got in France was OSR.

 

[kighill]

Drop a jar full of OSR honey into a bucket of runny honey and stir, this should seed your runny honey into set honey. Pour into your jars BEFORE it sets.

Lots of other ways though which I look forward to reading.

 

[Meg]

...OSR sets with a fine grain - hence it is used for seeding for soft set. You want a coarser grain - something like Blackberry for a 'grittier' texture.

 

[drstitson]

how about just stirring some tate and lyle or silver spoon (or whatever bookers/tesco is offering) into a cheap jar of baker's honey. that's probably what the french do!

 

[dclewis]

I think that's a bit unnecessary as I believe that the French are very proud of their record about product quality.

 

[Tom Bick]

Most honey will granulate in time, its just a matter of time.

 

[Adam]

Keep it warm in jars, above 14 degrees, so that granulation takes a long time, and large, gritty crystals have time to form.

Adam

 

[m100]

...OSR sets with a fine grain - hence it is used for seeding for soft set. You want a coarser grain - something like Blackberry for a 'grittier' texture.

Interesting about blackberry - that might explain some of the honey I got last year - I knew they were fetching in the pollen.

What does blackberry honey taste like when fresh?

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Perhaps the gritty honey was a mistake!.

OSR is fine-grained. All to do with the fructose/glucose mix.

 

[Tom Bick]

Interesting about blackberry - that might explain some of the honey I got last year - I knew they were fetching in the pollen.

What does blackberry honey taste like when fresh?

Not able to give you a definite answer but my main crop in the year is perhaps Blackberry and Lime Trees amongst others and its lovely honey slow to granulate and reasonably light in colour.

As we are on the subject of granulated honey I often have a couple of jars from the previous years crop hanging around and if you give the honey 7 months it will start to granulate and eventually I will get something that resembles wet sugar.

I take it from this the slower to granulate the larger the crystals.

 

[Luminos]

If the honey is for tourists I imagine that the gritty texture is from...grit