Fruits preserved in honey

Fermenting in RAW honey will last without processing. Fruits have high moisture content, may require refrigeration after fermenting process is complete. Roots, like garlic and ginger last months, years? And are excellent for digestion, good bacteria the body needs. Do your research.

I realize that this is an old lost, but I was very interested in all of the advice that I found here...however I did have a question I would like to ask...I only ask because this did not come up during the discussion. Could you not use dehydrated raspberries. They would shrink during the dehydration but retain original shape. Then place the rasberries in the honey and vacuum pack the jar. This would draw any remaining moisture out of the jar and would fill the rasberries with honey which should restore original size and shape. Am I correct in this assumption?. Would that work?

Thank you everyone. Nice "FOOD52 for Thought".

Also the claims of botulism in honey were founded after the Chinese started selling corn syrup infused honey to consumers in the US, botulism spores are not present in raw honey, but in store bought honey (especially chinese) the infused corn syrup will contain botulism.

The first case of botulism suspected to be caused by honey happened in the late 1970's, the Chinese started exporting honey infused with HFCS in the early 1970's. If botulism was an issue with HONEY instead of HFCS it would have appeared long before 1978. Indians on the subcontinent have been giving raw honey to infants for HUNDREDS of years, with no real documented harmful effects. The germans and gaelics would do the same throughout history. So the more you know..

Honey is actually full of bacteriostatic and bacteriocidal compounds produced by flowers to preserve the pollen for the journey to it's partner plant. Bee Honey is in fact HIGHLY preservative for more reasons than just sugar and water content. Ancients would preserve their food in honey vats without canning procedures and they lived to tell the tale to generations after them. The ancients also would entomb the dead in honey in order to preserve the flesh for long journeys home or to far away lands.

Dr. S. Mladenov performed experiments with honey's preservative effects in a labs setting. The control was a sugar solution of glucose and sucrose in a similar water content solution. Items preserved were chicken eggs, seeds, liver and kidney tissue. The eggs were preserved for 2 years with no microbial growth, the liver and kidneys were preserved for 4 years with no microbial growth. All of the controls using sugar solution failed within days. The seeds after 1 year had a higher germination rate and more vigor than the control as well. Honey is a PROVEN preservation technique, within reason. Adding pounds of ground hamburger to a jar of honey probably won't bode well, however taking into consideration its limitations- fruit, seeds, meats and eggs CAN be preserved in honey safely.

Bees are a wonder of nature, their entire existence does nothing to detract or destroy from nature in any way. All of their food is accumulated while performing a service to plants, and doesn't detract from the plant nor the process of pollination (quite the opposite.) Honey, propolis, pollen, and beeswax all have documented health benefits imparted by the plants and the bees themselves. Even bee venom has proven to CURE and treat diseases like MS, Arthritis, Lupus, and other immunological disorders or inflammations in a large amount of cases when taken therapeutically in bee Venom therapy techniques.

-Honey is not just sugar
-Honey is a preservation technique
-Bees are amazing creatures


Sources: http://honeypedia.info/the-preservative-effect-of-honey

While alcohol is indeed toxic to microorganisms, as with all toxins (and honey -- see post above), the key is concentration*. For example, wine yeast flourishes at lower levels (witness the alcohol content of a bottle of wine). It takes around 20% alcohol in solution before most microbes will be dead. You can see this effect at work in fortified wine (wine preserved with added alcohol).

* Other factors enter into the equation including time, temperature, aW and pH.

Alcohol is much different than honey. While honey may be an inhospitable environment for bacteria growth, alcohol is toxic to bacteria, its like poison to them. That being said, I dont know how to properly handle an infused alcohol. I can tell you that today, scientific proof exists that fruits (like peaches in brandy) should in fact be canned and processed in a hot water bath. The scientists have in fact found botulism in such items, where air pockets in the fruits create an environment for bacteria to grow, even if the fruit is siubmerged in alcohol. As for infusions where the fruit is removed, I dont know!

I'm sure that the product purchased was canned properly, I was responding to the statement that "all would be fine" simply because it was in honey. My concern, not anger, is that someone may read it, take their 2 quarts of honey, and put something up without proper canning protocol. The original question was "how could these raspberries look so great if they were canned?". The answer is that of course they can look great, canning doesnt have to disintegrate the fruit, it can actually be a gentle process. The product was imported, sold in a store in nyc, so I would dig in and put them in my yogurt tomorrow for breakfast. They are not safe because they are in honey, theyre most likely safe because they were scientifically processed.

I did not add the raspberries. In this case rather than argue, lets say a cook knows more than scientists in this case. Focus the anger at the company that is making and marketing the product - they are the ones potentially putting lives at stake, food safety wise.

I've long noticed that Hotline questions related to food safety are Hotbutton as well as Hotline. That's why, when the editors recently asked what we'd like for regular features, I said we could use one on food safety.

On a separate note, don't we need an indent (or something) to show when people are replying to early posts? I just tried to review the whole thread and got stuck in the honeycomb of answers.

ChezHenry, there are a lot of us who can & jam on Food52. I understand your caution, but many of us are knowledgeable on the topic. I'm interested to see if Mrs.Wheelbarrow chimes in here.
I personally think that the raspberries in honey were cold packed, honey poured on top, and then probably flash pasteurized. I work in a shared kitchen that has a small-scale glass bottle/jar pasteurizer. It seems likely to me that a product like that would receive similar treatment.

Chez Henry, in light of the Rhubarb Cordial wildcard winner today, I'm curious whether the fact that it's in vodka changes everything? thx

I'll have to try the Blue Chair raspberry jam recipe--sounds incredible. I do appreciate your vigilance, ChezHenry. You're right--when it comes to canning, better safe than sorry.

I'm curious too petitblue. Would love to hear what you find out.

Petitblue-The reason I do get worked up over these types of posts is that the answers here are not just for your benefit, nor the benefit of all of the members of Food52. Do a Google search on the subject, and now you will be directed to this thread! Billions of people can read this, and look to this site as a potential source of expert information and opinion. That's why its critical that food safety science be left to the scientist, and not speculation or home grown research. Remember all, your posts on any issues where there are critical health and safety issues, should be conservative and limited to scientific fact.
As for your question about raspberries retaining their shape, I recently made a Raspberry Jam from the Blue Chair Jam Cookbook that called for a portion of the raspberries to be cooked down with the sugar, and when at the proper jelling stage, removed from the heat, with whole fresh raspberries gently folded in. These raspberries kept their shape beautifully, and of course, for food safety, were canned in a hot water bath.

Thanks everyone! No need to get worked up--I'm not the type to hastily try new preserving procedures. Greenstuff, I think I may try water bath canning some raspberries in honey and see what happens. It sounds like a good lead anyway. More than anything, I just wanted to solve the mystery of these beautiful raspberries. I definitely plan to look further into the matter.

It's a myth that honey is unspoilable and that it's some sort of super food. Nutritionally it's not much different from table sugar and, as it comes from the hive, it often carries botulism spores (the reason you don't feed it to infants) and sugar-fermenting yeasts. If you've ever kept a bottle for a long time you will likely have noticed that soon begins to darken in color and takes on an off flavor (as it can do when cooked).

That said, honey is relatively stable and doesn't require refrigeration for safety. But the minute you combine it with something that raises its moisture content or pH, trouble can ensue. Raspberries are acidic relative to honey but they're about 90% water which would raise the water activity level in short order. Remember the first rule of food preservation -- always use a tested recipe!

And by "try first," I didn't mean to play fast and loose with safety measures. That's just where my research would start.

I don't think it's the honey that's the problem, bigpan, it's the berries. I'm guess that if the berries were cold-packed and the honey and berries were water-processed, the berries might look pretty good, even like they hadn't been heated at all. At least that's what I'd try first.

As I said, if bacteria free. Here is a quote from the honey website. (perhaps they and I are incorrect ?)

Quote:

Because of its extremely low moisture content, honey will keep indefinitely. In fact, still edible honey has been found in the burial chambers of Pharaohs in the Pyramids of Egypt!

The secret of honey's preservative power is that it contains less moisture than yeasts and bacteria do. It literally sucks the moisture out of bacteria, killing it in the process. A few types of bacteria have a casing around them that protects their moisture from honey, but they can only survive in honey. To multiply and thrive they must break through the protective casing, and that requires a higher moisture level than honey provides.

It's important to protect honey's low moisture levels to keep it from spoiling. Since it's so dry, honey acts as a moisture magnet. It will absorb humidity from the air, and can become moist enough to ferment in humid conditions. For this reason it's important to keep your honey in tightly sealed containers.

End quote.

Do your own research and decide yourself.

Honey by itself may preserve for a very long time, but the minute you add something to it, it can ferment and yes spoil. The product you have was most definitely canned in a hot water bath. I implore everyone who posts here to be careful regarding food safety and canning, and refer to the Ball guides to canning for proper safety measures. You should not put up items in Honey without following proper methods.

Honey is the one food that never spoils. Ever.
Providing the fruit in the jar was clean and without any foreign bacteria, all should be fine (although super sweet).