Honey smoked honey

February 18, 2015 9:21 PM

I've been gifted a small jar of this smoked honey, and I want to cook or bake or roast something with it. I need recipes that 1) really let the taste of honey shine, and 2) would specifically also benefit from a smoky taste. And I only have a four-ounce jar, so I guess I need recipes that 3) don't require a ton of honey.
posted by adiabat to Food & Drink (12 answers total)

Are you open to cocktail applications? Make a little bit of honey syrup (2:1 honey, water, boil, cool), Martin Miller's gin, lemon juice. The smoky honey would be amazing!
posted by janell at 9:40 PM on February 18, 2015

My favorite use of reeeeeally good honey is to put it on a cheese plate. Sharpest cheddar with honey is so good. Or anything made with goat's milk - chevre, goat manchego.

At best, I wouldn't heat it more than what it would take to finish a dish, because you'll probably lose a lot of the essence if you put it to heat for any length of time. Anything roasted, finished with a drizzle, would be good. A lemony fish drizzled right when it comes out. Drizzled over a handmade pizza right at the end.

Alternately, on very very good bread with soft high-end cultured butter and a couple flakes of Maldon salt.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:45 PM on February 18, 2015 [6 favorites]

Oooh on salmon! Marinate salmon with a tablespoon of honey, plus some soy sauce and a bit of dijon mustard. Then cook in the oven. Yum!
posted by CrazyLemonade at 9:55 PM on February 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

If you mix it in with the bulk of the other ingredients and then cook them all together, then you'll get less of the honey flavor and more of a general sweetness. Of course, you'll get some distinct honey flavor, but I think you'll get more if you just use it to finish a dish.

I've had spicy honey on bacon pizza. It was a great combination. I'd recommend something like that. Or, exactly that. Make a bacon pizza. A thin pizza with a modest amount of toppings, not a cheesy, greasy, doughy mess. Add some red pepper flakes and some of your honey. Since the honey has its own smokiness, maybe you do this with a ham pizza.

Maybe just some pork belly, if you're not into pizza for whatever reason. I think some spicy pepper would be a perfect compliment here, too. With a vinegar based sauce?
posted by stuart_s at 10:32 PM on February 18, 2015 [3 favorites]

Smoked honey sounds like a natural for an ingredient for home-made barbeque sauce.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:33 PM on February 18, 2015

Honey-glazed shrimp! I made this recipe about a year ago, apparently it's thousands of years old. Still good!

In your case I'd do a little less honey in the cooking process, and toss them with some uncooked honey at the very end when you add your herbs to maximize smokey flavor. I used Korean anchovy sauce instead of fish sauce because that's what I had on-hand and it worked out great, I'm sure whatever you have that's really salty will work, even Worcestershire. In fact, some people are pretty sure Worcestershire sauce is what fish sauce turned into (that, and ketchup, actually) in Europe, so it would even be fairly authentic. (Not that that matters. I just bet it'd taste good!)

I think this honey would also be great on a baked sweet potato with some roasted sesame seeds.
posted by Mizu at 11:43 PM on February 18, 2015 [1 favorite]

Good Eats has a recipe for a dessert sauce for fruit and cake that is just sour cream and honey. The added bit of smokiness could be a unique and unexpected twist.
posted by mmascolino at 6:05 AM on February 19, 2015

CHICKEN AND WAFFLES!!!
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:02 AM on February 19, 2015

This is not at all what you asked, but I recently ran across this recipe to make your own smoked honey.
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:26 AM on February 19, 2015

Since you have so little of it and cooking it a lot or diluting it to make a sauce would really decrease the flavor, I would make a fancy appetizer night and make some kind of cheese+cracker/crusty bread appetizer. You can either drizzle the honey on or spread it on the crackers.

Crostini + smoked honey + brie, popped in the oven for 5 minutes. Maybe topped with tiny-shredded sage?
Crackers + smoked honey + sharp white cheddar
Crostini + smoked honey + caramelized onions
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 9:46 AM on February 19, 2015

Roasted nuts with spices and honey, something like this Smitten Kitchen recipe except with honey instead of corn syrup. I also do one with rosemary as the main flavour.
posted by hydrobatidae at 1:55 PM on February 19, 2015

Drizzle it on a slab of extremely high quality haloumi. Like this. Amazing.
posted by flora at 7:58 PM on February 19, 2015