Honey is quite popular, especially among people who try to watch what they eat. It is safe to eat and can serve as a healthy, natural alternative to sugar. Honeycomb, on the other hand, refers to the unfiltered honey inside the wax comb.
Honeycomb is the purest form of honey you can find out there. It is perfectly safe to eat and usually taken from a beehive. The honeycomb is created by bees for storage. They use it to store their larvae, pollen, and honey.
What does honeycomb taste like? Honeycomb is edible and is eaten by people all over the world. It has a sweet taste that is not overpowering and will taste different from every other honey you have bought from the stores. This is due to the fact that it has not been processed at all. It has a flaky texture that becomes chewy like chewing gum.
The taste of honeycomb differs from honey but, every honeycomb does not taste the same. This is because the constituents of honeycombs are not the same. The bees can fill it with different kinds of pollen from flowers, therefore changing the taste.
Nutritional Benefits of Honeycomb
Bees are very important to our existence as humans. Do you know that bees pollinate about 30 percent of the food that we eat? The honeycombs produced by bees also have great nutritional benefits for the human body. It has been known to take care of everyday illnesses like sore throat and other common throat problems.
Honeycomb is jammed up with a lot of nutrients, you have fructose, glucose, galactose, sucrose, carbohydrates, protein, ash, water, and minerals like zinc, copper, potassium, selenium, and calcium.
The antioxidants present in honeycomb can help to increase the overall health condition of the heart. Phenol is an antioxidant present in honeycomb and it has been linked to causing a reduction in the risk of heart diseases. Antioxidants also play a generally important role in the body. They help protect the cells in the body from damage by free radicals.
Aside from containing a healthy dose of antioxidants, honeycomb can improve liver function, benefit glucose metabolism and help improve the symptoms of fatty liver disease.
Honeycomb is a natural immune booster. It contains vitamins C, B12, B6, A, E, niacin, thiamine, and, D. All these vitamins can help to boost the immune system but, it also contains phytochemicals and plant polyphenols that are gotten from flower nectar. These vitamins could also help maintain the hair, skin, protect one from the aging effect of the sun and improve eyesight.
The micronutrients present in honeycomb makes it serve as a way to provide an energy boost for the body. The combination of pollen, vitamins, and minerals provides a balance of simple carbohydrates necessary for the production of energy in the body.
Culinary Uses of Honeycomb
There are a lot of ways you could use honeycomb in the kitchen. Whichever way you want to adopt, it is best if you use it raw. You can mix your honeycomb into a warm bowl of tapioca or oats, that way, you soak in all the goodness. It can be mixed into Greek Yogurt or enjoyed with sweet vanilla ice cream. Honeycomb doesn’t just go into liquids or fast foods, you can have it in an arugula salad with grilled chicken and goat cheese.
It can also go into a mix of spicy chili and sour cream. The honey flavor will serve to complement the heat of the chili and blend very nicely with other flavors present. It can also go into the popular traditional grilled ham and cheese. The sweetness of the honeycomb also goes well with black and it can be enjoyed with tea for breakfast.
When eating honeycombs, the question of whether to swallow the wax or not comes up. If eaten in very small quantities, the wax does no harm. In the stomach, the wax doesn’t dissolve instead it acts as a sorbent and helps to detoxify the body.
What is the History of Honeycomb? How to Procure It?
Honeycombs are hexagonal prismatic cells that are made with wax by honeybees. These cells are ordered, and they serve as a repository, where the bees can lay their eggs, raise their larvae, and food which is honey and bee bread.
Honeycomb has been around in many cultures, if you store it correctly, it could last very long. Remnants of honeycomb found in Egyptian tombs have been dated to be over 300 years old. The quality of honeycomb could degrade over time, but it would still be edible to eat if it is stored properly.
In some parts of the world, beekeeping is part of the culture. Beekeepers usually remove the honeycombs from the beehives to harvest honey from them. It is more profitable to return the wax to the hive after harvesting the honey because the structure of the honeycomb ensures that it is still intact even after the honey has been extracted from it.
Honeycombs are usually sold in round or square tubs in healthy food stores in different parts of the world. In countries where bee farming is not a norm, it could be quite hard and expensive to procure.
How Do You Store Honeycomb?
If you have bought a huge chunk of honeycomb that you cannot finish in one go, how do you store it? Storing it in the refrigerator is not a great idea because it will get exposed to moisture and will get ruined eventually.
Storing honeycomb is very simple. All you need to do is keep it in a cool and dry place. But if you have a lot of honeycombs that need to be kept edible for an uncertain period, just have it sealed in plastic wraps then freeze it.
Facts You Don’t Know About Honeycomb
- When harvesting just the honey from honeycombs, beekeepers use a honey extractor to harvest the honey so that the honeycomb can be returned to the hive undamaged. This way, it is easier and faster for the bees to resume the production of honey.
- Honeycomb is tasteless after you have had all of the honey extracted from it.