Sweet for a New Year

• In an article titled "A Sweet New Year," Epicurious.com excerpts Rita Milos Brownstein's book, "Jewish Holiday Style," in which she explains that honey is considered a kosher food for the Jewish New Year holiday Rosh Hashanah even though it comes from a non-kosher animal, the bee. That's because bees concentrate flower nectar into honey to feed the bee community; they don't produce it from their bodies. So humans actually steal food from the bees when they gather honey (no wonder bees sting).

Two Kinds of Sugar in Honey

• Cultural issues aside, science explains why honey turns hard. Writing on Indiana Public Media's website, "A Moment of Science," Don Ulin says that honey consists mostly of two kinds of sugar: glucose and fructose. When honey has more glucose than fructose, it's more likely to turn hard, or crystallize. Glucose forms around some kind of a "seed," such as a bit of pollen, or even another particle of glucose that has already crystallized.

How to Handle Honey

• Most commercial supermarket honey has been filtered and heated to remove as many seeds as possible. This process slows down crystallization, but it also robs honey of some of its distinctive flavor. At home, honey should be stored out of direct sunlight at a temperature that's neither too hot nor too cold, says Brownstein.

Honey Can Also Ferment

• The tendency to turn hard isn't the only concern about storing honey, either. Bownstein cautions users to keep honey neither too hot nor too cold to protect its flavor and consistency. In an article on the nature of honey, Fine Cooking.com notes it's a substance that’s "hygroscopic," meaning that it attracts moisture. Honey will quickly absorb moisture from the air and its glucose will ferment if not kept in an airtight container. Vintners and brewers for centuries have employed this chemical reaction to create wine and beer using fermented honey.

Warm It Up if Honey Turns Hard

• If honey turns hard, place the container in warm (not boiling) water until the crystals melt, agree both Ulin and Fine Cooking.com's "Honey Primer." In addition, both Brownstein and Ulin say that honey can be melted on low temperature for a short period in a microwave oven. Unfortunately, Ulin adds, heating honey also will cause it to recrystallize more rapidly, in part because once the container is opened, specks of dust and other potential "seeds" can enter, making it possible for glucose to crystallize once more. Given these realities, there's really only one way for honey lovers to avoid the cumbersome, frustrating process of melting a crystallized confection: Store it properly, and eat it before the honey turns hard.