creamed Honey

[Liam]

I havent made any soft set /creamed honey before although I do understand the process and how to do it. My question relates to the honey used itself. I understand honey that has set hard is rather a good choice for using to make soft set honey but none of my honey sets hard.
Picture is of my 2022 summer harvest, I have around 90lb of this left, as you can see it sets pretty soft. Will this be a good or bad candidate?



p.s some air bubbles are I just transfered some into a 30lb bucket.

[AdamD]

The key is to start with some very fine grain set honey - oil seed rape honey sets quickly with a fine grain as does ivy honey. Summer blossom honey does not set so quickly and usually does so with a coarser texture. (High gluc
ose honey granulates quickly).
Stewart in this video explains the process quite well and shows how to grind the honey down to a fine texture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWugwfMct9o

I do find that sometimes my attempts at making soft set don't always come out as I would like - temperature control has been an issue for me in the past.

[NigelP]

You deffo need cool temperatures to make good soft set....you can't call it creamed as no cream is added
It’s a 2 part process where adding fine crystallised soft set honey to liquid honey causes the liquid honey to follow suit and crystallise into small crystals. But that is not the end of the story, if you leave it to set like that electrostatic charges on the crystals cause many of them to amalgamate as larger aggregates, making a "coarse" soft set.
You need to physically disrupt these larger aggregates back to the very fine crystals. The electrostatic forces holding them together are quite weak so a simple shearing or rubbing of crystals against crystals causes the aggregates to break down.
You know when you have it right as your soft set should be almost white in colour, anything darker indicates the larger aggregates (Light diffraction) are present. It will still be a soft set but slightly grainy
Thornes sell a huge potato masher that does the job but causes you a lot of physical work. I have a machine that acts like a butter churn, works the soft set for 15 minutes allows it to set for an hour then works it again rubbing the crystals against each other. This is what it look like just before jarring.

[JoJo36]

I remember seeing yours in jars Nigel and they looked absolutely incredible!
The honey looking so white, looks like such a creamy texture, absolutely beautiful!
I'll give it a go some time but I don't want my food mixer smoking!!

[AdamD]

"I'll give it a go some time but I don't want my food mixer smoking!!"
I burnt out an electric drill motor trying to break up some partially set honey - so it can happen. The drill was a very old one so I had the excuse of getting myself a new one. Yay!

[Alfred]

I use a 400w hand mixer from asda-it does a good job for £8.
I was given a 280w one but that does grunt a bit.
The fridge is a good tool for temp control

[Liam]

The key is to start with some very fine grain set honey - oil seed rape honey sets quickly with a fine grain as does ivy honey. Summer blossom honey does not set so quickly and usually does so with a coarser texture. (High gluc
ose honey granulates quickly).

Thanks, this is all I need to know, as stated I know how to make it but my Honey in the picture is obviously not suitable so I wont ever be able to make any, unless i find oil seed rape fields to place hives as my honey doesnt set fully.

[JoJo36]

That's interesting Adam re drill!
Was thinking of adapting my extractor (well my husband was) using a drill instead of turning by hand??!!
The motor upgrade is around £250-£300 and seems a lot compared to original price of extractor?!
That's a cheap creaming too Alfred, with that price you don't mind if it burns out after a while!!

[NigelP]

#

Thanks, this is all I need to know, as stated I know how to make it but my Honey in the picture is obviously not suitable so I wont ever be able to make any, unless i find oil seed rape fields to place hives as my honey doesnt set fully.

Not true Liam....people use OSR honey because it sets so fast that it can never be sold as a "runny" honey; hence popular for soft set as no other serious use. You need 2 ingredients, one being a finely ground seed honey.....I used a pestle and mortar to make mine first ones. And any liquid hioney from any source from any time of the year. I've been doing this for many yeras so have a little experience that it works regardless. The only thing to watch is the temperature....Alas I cannot fit my creaming machine into a fridge....so winter is the only time I make soft set.

[Alfred]

Has the water content at extraction got a bearing on this?