set honey question

[thenovice]

I made a batch of "soft set" this year and somethings went not quite right with it.

I added 10% soft set to my clear honey after I warmed it for a couple of hours to around 40C and and jarred up after mixing. the jars were kept outside (this was at the beginning of september when night temperatures were around 10C and daytime around 15C). all went well and after a couple of days i had beautiful soft and creamy honey. it transferred it all into in my garage and now, 2 months later, the honey set further? to a pretty hard consistency and there is a white blooming (not mould!) on the top and sides. the crystal structure is till nice and fine though. when taken indoors, it does not become soft again.

is this because of the lower temperatures in my garage causing it to crystalize to much or something else? any advice and pointing out rooky mistakes are welcome.

 

[Millet]

Try warming some up to room temperature, i have a jar of runny honey in the kitchen cupboard that is fine, i have some from the same batch in a bucket in a cold room and that will not flow through the gate valve unless i bring it up to normal room temperature.

 

[MartinL]

I made a batch of "soft set" this year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . when taken indoors, it does not become soft again. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
is this because of the lower temperatures in my garage causing it to crystalize to much or something else? any advice and pointing out rooky mistakes are welcome.

The blooming would be air bubbles. Not sure you've done anything wrong, "Set" honey is just that!

As with clear honey the longer it's left the more likely it is to set.

Do you know what the nectar source was? That's more likely to affect things.

 

[Finman]

.
That small crystalls and hard honey happens, when you add extracted/liquid honey to the stirred crystalled honey. New honey acts like a glue between crystalls.
You should stir it more and brake the connections between crystalls. Then it becomes vaseline like.

White surface comes into hard honey. Glucose is as crystalls and fructose is as liquid.

When honey becomes colder, its volume constricts and it sucks air between crystalls. Crystall net is rigid and you cannot help it any more. But you can spoil the product. Tell that it is cold store room, which makes it and tell that it is air between glucose crystalls.

So, do nothing.
.

 

[thenovice]

The blooming would be air bubbles. Not sure you've done anything wrong, "Set" honey is just that!

As with clear honey the longer it's left the more likely it is to set.

Do you know what the nectar source was? That's more likely to affect things.

It was a bucket of my autumn crop which is a mixture of blackberry, sweet chestnut, honeydew and the odd meadow flower.

I am new to the whole set honey bussiness. are soft and creamy honeys that are easily spreadable always creamed with one of those stirrer things then?

 

[thenovice]

.
That small crystalls and hard honey happens, when you add extracted/liquid honey to the stirred crystalled honey. New honey acts like a glue between crystalls.
You should stir it more and brake the connections between crystalls. Then it becomes vaseline like.

White surface comes into hard honey. Glucose is as crystalls and fructose is as liquid.

When honey becomes colder, its volume constricts and it sucks air between crystalls. Crystall net is rigid and you cannot help it any more. But you can spoil the product. Tell that it is cold store room, which makes it and tell that it is air between glucose crystalls.

So, do nothing.
.

thanks for that info finman. So from what I understood from this I should let it set hard in a bucket and then stir like a madman next time around.

 

[thenovice]

now that I read between the lines the stirring is required. good ald thornes has an instruction sheet. Sorry for the time wasting

http://www.thorne.co.uk/image/data/Documents/Creaming and Seeding Honey.pdf

 

[Madge]

Sometimes my jarred soft-set honey also becomes fairly hard again - but if you've stirred it well before jarring, then all you need to do now is to stir it again with a sturdy knife or spoon. It will become soft again.

 

[Finman]

now that I read between the lines the stirring is required. ]

But before jaring.

.

 

[Finman]

. So from what I understood from this I should let it set hard in a bucket and then stir like a madman next time around.

You should stir it 10 minutes a day when it forms crystals. You break the crystals to numerous small instead of few big ones.

When bucket is hard, it is a storing form. And when you want to jar it, put it into warm kabinet or into warm water bath, that it softens but crystalls melt only partly so, that it flows into the jar.

. Before that take a air foam away from the surface with grease paper.

20 litre buckets are good in this handling. But to some 25 kg weigh is too heavy.
.

 

[For want of a better word]

Use a stainless corkscrew stirrer.. and use it slowly as to mix in you batched softset ( make up enough to add 20%v/v) added to your warmed liquid honey (28.5 degrees C)
as soon as mixed jar and cool s l o w l y to 14 degrees C for 24 hours and then hold at 11 degrees C dropping to 8 degrees C over around 2 weeks

Then keep in dark and cool place.

I recently sold 50+ 8 oz hex of Cornish Black Honey~ bee softset to a top chef for his London deli... He wanted the " Marble effect", because his customers wanted it that way!

Yeghes da

 

[thenovice]

Use a stainless corkscrew stirrer.. and use it slowly as to mix in you batched softset ( make up enough to add 20%v/v) added to your warmed liquid honey (28.5 degrees C)
as soon as mixed jar and cool s l o w l y to 14 degrees C for 24 hours and then hold at 11 degrees C dropping to 8 degrees C over around 2 weeks

Then keep in dark and cool place.

I recently sold 50+ 8 oz hex of Cornish Black Honey~ bee softset to a top chef for his London deli... He wanted the " Marble effect", because his customers wanted it that way!

Yeghes da

So you do NOT stir your soft set periodically to get it creamy and soft then? what you do is similar to what I did but in a more scientifically controlled way . is yours hard or nice and creamy?

 

[thenovice]

Sometimes my jarred soft-set honey also becomes fairly hard again - but if you've stirred it well before jarring, then all you need to do now is to stir it again with a sturdy knife or spoon. It will become soft again.

that is the obvious thing to do of course but I am after a way to make sure I do not have to explain this to people when I give or sell them a jar .

 

[Madge]

that is the obvious thing to do of course but I am after a way to make sure I do not have to explain this to people when I give or sell them a jar .

[emoji3] let me know when you've found the ideal way.

 

[thenovice]

[emoji3] let me know when you've found the ideal way.

let's hope the answer is in the previous posts. Or maybe there is yet another way of doing this better .

 

[For want of a better word]

So you do NOT stir your soft set periodically to get it creamy and soft then? what you do is similar to what I did but in a more scientifically controlled way . is yours hard or nice and creamy?

Soft set... should not be set solid like Brighton rock.. but spreadable... like chocolate spread!

It is possible to stir it too much and ruin it.... now I believe there is a YouTube video of Rooftops* ( now ex forum member) making soft set... worth watching!

* Took up Carp fishing and moved away from Kingsbridge in Devon?

Yeghes da

 

[Finman]

It is possible to stir it too much and ruin it.... da

You can learn then how not to ruin...

.

 

[thenovice]

Soft set... should not be set solid like Brighton rock.. but spreadable... like chocolate spread!

It is possible to stir it too much and ruin it.... now I believe there is a YouTube video of Rooftops* ( now ex forum member) making soft set... worth watching!

* Took up Carp fishing and moved away from Kingsbridge in Devon?

Yeghes da

that the video I based my method on. I missed out on the 'you can also keep stirring untill the honey has set. this is recommended if less than 10% seed is used'. I used 10% so should probably have stirred...

 

[Madge]

let's hope the answer is in the previous posts. Or maybe there is yet another way of doing this better .

You don't understand - soft-set honey, even when prepared and jarred correctly (as already described), can harden again, but fortunately not rock hard as the first time round.