Dissolve two pounds of the purest white sugar, in as much hot water as
will be just necessary to reduce it to a syrup; take one pound of the
nicest white clover honey, (any other light colored honey of good flavor
will answer,) and after warming it, add it to the sugar syrup, and stir
the contents. When cool, this compound will be pronounced, even by the
best judges of honey, to be one of the most luscious articles which they
ever tasted; and will be, by almost every one, preferred to the unmixed
honey. Refined loaf sugar is a perfectly pure and inodorous sweet, and
one pound of honey will communicate the honey flavor, in high
perfection, to twice that quantity of sugar: while the new article will
be destitute of that smarting taste which honey alone, so often has, and
will be often found to agree perfectly with those who cannot eat the
clear honey with impunity. If those engaged in the artificial
manufacture of honey, never brought any thing worse than this, to the
market, the purchasers would have no reason to complain. As however, the
compound can be furnished much cheaper than the pure honey, many may
prefer to purchase the materials, and mix them themselves. If desired,
any kind of flavor may be given to the manufactured article; thus it may
be made to resemble in fragrance, the classic honey of Mount Hymettus,
by adding to it the fine aroma of the lemon balm, or wild thyme; or it
may have the flavor of the orange groves, or the delicate fragrance of
beds of roses washed with dew.
I have recently ascertained that if two pounds of the best refined sugar
be added to one of common maple sugar, the compound will be a light
colored article, retaining perfectly the maple taste, and yet far
superior to the common maple sugar. After making this discovery, I
learned that a large part of the very nicest maple sugar is made in this
way!
Attempts have been made to feed to bees, to be stored in the honey
boxes, a mixture of the whitest honey and loaf sugar; but the result
shows a loss rather than a gain. The mixture, before it is fed, will
cost about 10 cents per pound. At the very furthest, not more than one
half of what is fed, can be secured in the comb, for it requires about
one pound of honey, to manufacture comb enough to hold a pound of honey.
The actual cost of the honey in the comb, will therefore be, at least 20
cents per pound; and the pure white clover honey can be bought for less
than that. Those who desire to have something exceedingly beautiful to
the eye, and delicate to the taste, at a season when the bees are not
storing up honey from the blossoms, and in situations where the natural
supply is of an inferior quality, if they do not regard expense, can
place upon their tables, something which will be pronounced by the best
judges, a little superior to any thing they ever tasted before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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