Honeycomb, as the name suggests, is honey in the wax comb.
It’s a natural product created by honey bees that use it to store pollen, honey, and their larvae.
It’s the rawest form of honey you can find anywhere, and it’s different from regular honey because it isn’t filtered or pasteurized.
In this blog post, we’ll learn a thing or two about honeycomb, whether it’s edible or not, and how you can serve and store it at home.
Can You Eat Honeycomb?
Honeycomb is the purest form of raw honey you can find. It’s taken from a beehive, cut of the bee frame, and it’s perfectly safe to consume.
You can eat it by itself or pair it with a variety of foods.
People all across the globe have been enjoying honeycomb for thousands of years now. Both the honey and the comb are safe to eat, and they’re known to taste quite fresh.
What Does Honeycomb Taste Like?
Since honeycomb is the purest, most raw form of honey, it tastes so much better than regular varieties of honey you may have tried before.
The honey you buy from your local grocery store isn’t the same because it’s processed and boiled, and the flavor is altered with additional sweeteners as well.
You may find that honey near the inside of your honeycomb may be crystallized a little bit, which is why it can taste a little bit sweeter than regular honey.
The comb, on the other hand, has a crunchy texture, and it’s a lot like eating a wax-bottle candy that has honey inside instead of juice.
How to Eat Honeycomb
Honeycomb usually comes packaged in round or square tubs. It’s waxy and sticky, just like you’d expect, and the simplest way to extract it is by using a spoon or fork.
You can also use your hands if you don’t mind getting them sticky.
You can take a bite of honeycomb and chew it just like you’d chew a piece of bubble gum.
Once you’ve chewed out all the honey, you can spit it out the leftover beeswax.
How to Serve Honeycomb
The best way to enjoy the flavor of honeycomb is to eat it all on its own.
But if that’s too simple for you, here are some delicious combinations you need to try at home.
- Add about a chunk of honeycomb in your bowl of warm oatmeal. You can place it on top of waffles, pancakes, rice pudding, or warm tapioca as well.
- List Chop some honeycomb and stir it into plain Greek yogurt. If that isn’t your cup of tea, you can try mixing into soft vanilla ice cream too.
- Make an arugula salad with some grilled chicken and slices of almonds and top it with tiny chunks of honeycomb and crumbled goat cheese.
- Slather some melted brie cheese on a baguette and then top it with little chunks of honeycomb.
- Prepare some spicy chili, add it into bowls, and serve them with a blob of sour cream and a chunk of honeycomb in the center. The sweet honey flavor will complement the heat perfectly as it slowly melts into the chili and sour cream.
- Add some chopped honeycomb into your traditional grilled ham and cheese sandwich.
How Long Does It Stay Good for?
You may be surprised to find that edible honey has been found in Egyptian tombs that are over 3000 years old.
Honey and honeycomb don’t ever expire unless you’ve stored it the wrong way and somehow exposed it to moisture.
Since it stays good forever, it’s even used as a preservative.
If your honeycomb comes with the best buy date, then that’s probably referring to the degradation of quality, which may happen over time.
Check out these articles:
- How to De-Crystallize Honey (3 Easy Methods)
- 6 Honey Substitutes That Can Create Mouthwatering Desserts
- How to Make Easy and Delicious Honey-Roasted Figs
- How to Make a Hot Toddy: 3 Variations You Need to Try
Tips on Storing Honeycomb
Storing honeycomb is incredibly easy because it’s nothing more than honey and beeswax.
You can store it just the way you’d store raw honey because the same rules apply here, and it doesn’t spoil.
Keep the following tips in mind while storing your honeycomb:
- Carefully place the honeycomb inside an airtight container and make sure you’re keeping it at room temperature for the best flavor. Your kitchen counter can be the perfect place for storage.
- The most important thing you need to remember is that you must protect your honeycomb from moisture. Moisture that’s absorbed by the honey can lead to spoilage.
- Storing it in an airtight container or jar is necessary because that will also protect it from ants and various insects.
- If you store opened honeycomb inside your refrigerator, you’ll increase the rate of crystallization, and you’ll end up with a gritty product that you’ll have to de-crystallize first to be able to enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with eating crystallized honey, but you may not love the texture as much.
Can You Freeze Honeycomb?
Freezing honeycomb is a perfectly safe storage method if you’ve run out of pantry space, or you plan to use your honeycomb for years.
Final Thoughts
If you love eating honey, you should definitely try honeycomb as it’s more traditional to enjoy it in the purest form, and it’s known to have a more textured consistency.
It does cost a little bit more than regular honey, but the taste is worth every penny.