Sure, honey’s great in tea€”but it’s even better drizzled on pancakes or slathered on pork belly.

Honey is hot right now. We’ve enlisted Julie van Rosendaal to help us figure out how to use it, be it in a Honeyed Banana Dutch Baby, Roasted Cauliflower With Curried Honey Butter, Sticky Slow Roasted Belly with Chili Honey or Buckwheat Honey Ice Cream. But before you dig in, a short glossary:Raw Honey that’s been spun out of the honeycomb and bottled with any wax bits or pollen (or bees’ legs) that might get swept up in the process. A fave of health nuts.Filtered Raw honey that’s been heated gently and run through a filter to remove any non-honey bits and pieces. Still healthy, but a little less. . .chewy.Pasteurized Filtered honey that’s heated to a high temperature to kill any latent yeast cells, which have a very small chance of fermenting—pasteurization can also slow down the process of crystallization, which means the jars of honey will look nicer on the shelf for longer. In the process, though, this heat can destroy some of the nutritional qualities of the honey.Honeycomb Cut straight out of the hive, wax and all. (While beeswax is chewy, it’s totally edible and safe to swallow—you could eat a beeswax candle, if you were so inclined.) As natural as it gets, and a great addition to a cheeseboard.

COOKING WITH HONEY

 

Stacey McLachlan

Stacey McLachlan

Stacey is a senior editor at Western Living magazine, as well as editor-in-chief of sister publication Vancouver magazine. She loves window shopping on the job: send your home accessories and furniture recommendations over to [email protected]