How to soften hard honey: Vintage vs. Modern

Much to my dismay this weekend, I found that my lovely jar of Croatian honey had crystallized!

I am ashamed to admit that in my earlier, pre-VSF days I had actually thrown out a half-used jar of honey because it went hard.  (I know, I know, I’m cringing now too).

But now that I’m enlightened and eco-conscious (or at least thrifty), I decided to try two ways of softening this jar of honey to see which is best.

1) Vintage Technique: Sit honey in a bowl of hot water until it softens

Result: After one hour of sitting in the water, the honey was only somewhat softened.  OK, maybe I should have used a bigger bowl. Or better yet, I should have put it in a pan of boiling water, so the water would remain hot.  This method will work, but it’s slow-going.  Here’s the semi-softened honey:

2. Modern Method: Microwave!

Admittedly, this worked really well.  I put it in the microwave on medium for about 1 minute, and voila, liquid honey!

Verdict:

In this case, the modern method won, hands-down.  Softening the honey in the microwave was really quick, and it is still liquid the next morning.  I would continue to use this method, assuming my honey was in a glass jar.  If it was a plastic bottle of honey you might want to stick with the hot-water method, since people debate the safety of microwaving plastics.

Now that you’ve got some honey, looking for something to do with it?  How about using it as a beauty treatment?  Or making a tasty hot drink?