Interactive lesson

Nuts and fruit in honey, step by step

Interactive lesson: from dry walnuts to a gift jar — water in honey, choosing the honey, drying and preparing nuts, filling the jar, storage, fruit in honey and the label.

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The whole lesson as text

1. Why honey preserves

Honey keeps only what is dry.

Honey up to 18 % water — In that much sugar the water is "taken". The yeasts in honey are just waiting for more water somewhere.
Water moves into honey — Prunes and dried figs have 18–25 % water and slowly dilute the honey. Fresh fruit has 80–90 % and turns honey into sweet juice.
Dry nuts do no harm — Dry nuts have 3–5 % water and change nothing in honey. The jar keeps in a dark larder for 6–12 months.
Not for babies — Honey can carry Clostridium botulinum spores, so babies under 12 months don't eat it, not even in a cake. Whole walnuts and hazelnuts aren't given to children under 5.

Why: Honey is roughly 80 % sugar and 17–18 % water, so germs and moulds have nothing to live on. Once honey somewhere gets above 19–20 % water, yeasts start working and the honey ferments.

Everything you put into honey brings its own water, and the water moves from the fruit into the honey until it evens out.
Dried herbs, cinnamon and vanilla have below 10 % water and change nothing.

2. Honey for jars

Choose a honey that stays liquid for a long time and doesn't have too strong a flavour.

Acacia is best — Acacia honey stays liquid for a year or more, it is mild and you can see the nuts in it. Wildflower honey crystallises in 1–4 months.
Measure the water — Measure honey for jars with a refractometer: best 17–18 % water, never above 18.5 %.
Melt in a water bath — Melt crystallised honey in a water bath at no more than 40 °C (104 °F), once. Cool it to room temperature before filling.
Crystals aren't spoilage — The honey turns white and firm, and the nuts are trapped in it. If you want a liquid jar, use acacia honey.

Why: Warm honey darkens faster and loses its aroma and enzymes, and nuts in warm honey go rancid faster. So honey for jars isn't heated to make it run faster.

Half acacia and half wildflower honey stays liquid for several months, and the flavour is fuller.
Oilseed rape and sunflower honey crystallise within a few weeks and set hard around the nuts.