Clear Vs Cloudy Honey

Asked by Bob Hollahands. Answered on 20th August 2014

Full question

Hello Nigella's team. Firstly, I absolutely adore the online recipes; great for all occasions from dinner parties to intimate meals for two. I recently had a bit of a dilemma. We have taken to art of apiculture and have been enjoying our own honey produce in a number of Nigella's recipes; we find the dishes are so much more fulfilling using our own stock of honey. The problem is our honey is cloudy! Can we use it in a recipe where specifically states to use "clear" honey. Should we invest in a filter to execute the dish or try using our homely cloudy honey? Thanks so much for your help.

Our answer

Honey usually comes in two commercial forms - a clear pourable honey (sometimes called runny honey) and a firmer, cloudy type of honey (sometimes called set or creamed honey). Often the runny type of honey is specified as it is more liquid and tends to blend more easily into sauces and liquid recipes.

You can use set honey instead but usually you have to warm it first to make it liquid and this may not be practical for some recipes if it requires cold or room temperature ingredients. However we suspect that your home-produced honey may be an unfiltered honey that is still slightly runny. If this is the case then you can certainly use it in a recipe, but just bear in mind that sauces that may look clear when using commercial runny honey could appear slightly cloudy with your own honey. We suspect that this minor visual difference will not be too much of a concern given the satisfaction drawn from using your own honey.