THE HONEY TRIP

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Finally, honey is slightly acid so I add a little soda (usually 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoonful per cup of sweetening) to most batters and doughs. Not to yeast breads, though, because the leavening thrives in the mildly acid environment.

SUBSTITUTION

Honey is a natural food, not a standardized, "purified" product. Accordingly, there's some variation in its sugar content and in the proportions of the sugars present. Tupelo honey, for instance, has more levulose and less dextrose than other types and can be identified by chemical examination for those substances. Also, honey has taste and the flavor varies depending upon a number of factors such as the weather and what flowers the bees have visited.

These "problems" of flavor and lack of standardization make honey less predictable than sugar and probably cause most of the difficulties people experience when they look for THE RATIO to use in substituting one for the other.

Well, I haven't found THE RATIO either. There is no one proportion that will always "work" that is, always produce exactly the same effect. This lack of an exact, reliable equivalent hasn't bothered me much because I like to consider cooking more as art than science, and the variability of honey is part of what makes each batch an individual achievement.

I have found, however, that light honey is easier to substitute than dark because it's more predictable in flavor and less likely to overwhelm other tastes. (The dark varieties, on the other hand, have a robust quality that's often a welcome change.) I'm told that the bees' output is "safer " taste wise to use if it's aged at least a year, but I can't speak from experience.

At any rate, the sugar in a recipe can generally be replaced with an equal weight of light honey a rule that works out to about two thirds of a cup of liquid sweetening to one of dry. And, of course, you must remember to deduct about three tablespoons of other liquid for each cup of honey you use.

HONEY SYRUP

Using honey to flavor cold beverages (iced tea, fruit ades, etc.) caused a minor problem for us: The golden liquid, introduced into a chilled drink, immediately stiffens. We found that we could overcome this difficulty by mixing one part of water room temperature or a little warmer with three parts of sweetening. Now a bottle of "honey syrup" appears on our table for use with cold foods, or in place of other syrups for pancakes, ice cream, etc. One drawback: Our mixture doesn't keep well and will start to ferment in about a week if unrefrigerated. Which, of course, leads to.

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