Some of our favorite recipes include sticky ingredients like honey and maple syrup, but you know what’s not one of our favorite things? Measuring them!
If you’ve ever baked or cooked with them – or even just tried to add some to your tea or yogurt – you know what we mean. It seems like most of the time, half of the called-for amount stays behind in the measuring cup or on the spatula we use to try to get it all out.
Thank goodness, Howcast has come along with a simple hack that makes sure we get all of the stickiest ingredients in the easiest way possible. We don’t know why we didn’t think of it before, but it did get us thinking about the best honey hacks and information we’ve collected over the years to answer some pesky questions!
Is This Honey Really Honey?
It’s a bigger problem than you might think! While most of the stuff you buy in stores is technically still honey, a lot of it has been through a process called “ultra-filtration” that strips away everything that makes honey healing and nutritious.
So how do you know if the honey you already have is the pure stuff you really want? Perform some tests! You can:
- Pour it into water. Pure honey will clump and sink; impure will dissolve.
- Light it on fire. Put a bit on a piece of paper and see how it reacts to flame. Pure will light; impure won’t.
- Put it on your finger.
Pure will stick and stay put; impure will roll right off.
How Do I Remove Those Pesky Crystals?
Pure honey has pretty much infinite shelf life— as long as it’s stored properly! Anybody who’s ever kept a jar in her pantry knows, however, has easy it is to make a mistake. One imperfect twist of that sticky lid or errant swipe of a wet spoon, and the exposure to moisture has those annoying crystals forming all over it.
If yours is like that, never fear! Not only does it not mean it’s “gone bad,” you can totally make those crystals disappear. Just put your properly-closed jar into a bowl as deep as the jar is tall, and fill the bowl with hot tap water up to the line of the honey jar’s lid. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, and your honey should be back to normal!
But How Do I Avoid a Sticky Lid in the First Place?
Considering that honey can finicky on the shelf, you’d think it’d help us out a little in the storing department. Alas, its delicious stickiness can mean opening and closing that lid is a little tricky.
The easy trick to help? Plastic wrap, of course! Just lay a small piece over the mouth of the jar before putting the lid back on, and both your honey and your hand will be safe in the future.
How Do I Measure It Properly?
And now we’ve come back to where we started! Now that you’ve got pure, crystal-less honey in a jar you can easily open, how do we measure it without leaving it behind on the spoon? With this super easy idea from Howcast. Check it out below in the quick video, and you’ll find yourself slapping your head at how simple it is!
How easy and smart is THAT? Did any of you know this trick before? And if you did, ah, why didn’t you share?! Are there any other honey hacks or tricks you can share with us? Please do!