View Full Version : dandelion honey.
this is an idea i got from a volunteer at my work who comes from the Czech republic. Given their abundance right now, its great to have something to use them for other than just salad.
* 200 large dandelion heads (or 300 smaller ones)
* 1 liter / 2.1 pints distilled water
* 4 cups sugar
* 1 whole lemon
METHOD
It's important that these are not dandelions that grow on the side of the road or whatnot or they will be contaminated.
Rinse them and then soak in boiling distilled water and let stand for a minimum of 12 hours. Using a cheesecloth or sieve, reserve the water and make sure to squeeze all the dandelion heads to get all the soaked up water. Throw away the flowers.
Add sugar to the water and lemon. On a low heat, slowly bring mixture to boil stirring gently from time to time with a wooden spoon. Apparently, the wooden spoon thing is important. When the spoon starts "pulling strings" and the mixture gets slightly tacky, take pot off of burner. Transfer to glass jars and voila... you now have dandelion honey.
chickenofthewoods
29-04-2008, 21:51
There's a similar thing made in Alaska from 'Fireweed' (willowherb) flowers.
John Fenna
30-04-2008, 09:20
I will have a try of this and let you know my results - sounds realy good!
Sounds interesting! I'll give this a try I reckon!
cattyman
30-04-2008, 17:27
this is an idea i got from a volunteer at my work who comes from the Czech republic. Given their abundance right now, its great to have something to use them for other than just salad.
* 200 large dandelion heads (or 300 smaller ones)
* 1 liter / 2.1 pints distilled water
* 4 cups sugar
* 1 whole lemon
METHOD
It's important that these are not dandelions that grow on the side of the road or whatnot or they will be contaminated.
Rinse them and then soak in boiling distilled water and let stand for a minimum of 12 hours. Using a cheesecloth or sieve, reserve the water and make sure to squeeze all the dandelion heads to get all the soaked up water. Throw away the flowers.
Add sugar to the water and lemon. On a low heat, slowly bring mixture to boil stirring gently from time to time with a wooden spoon. Apparently, the wooden spoon thing is important. When the spoon starts "pulling strings" and the mixture gets slightly tacky, take pot off of burner. Transfer to glass jars and voila... you now have dandelion honey.
do you add the whole lemon or just the juice???
you chop the lemon up and bung it in at the start.
John Fenna
02-05-2008, 21:04
OK - I have followed the recipe so far...
It has given me about 3/4 pound of amber jelly that tastes predominantly of lemon....not much Dandelion flavour there at all. Nice enough though!
It only took me about half an hour in the fields to pick the flowers and it was a nice day so no loss there...I steeped the flowers for about 36 hours and cooked as directed which from start to finish took about 2 hours of a night when there was nothing worth watching on the box - so no loss there either!
The real test comes when I find out what this "honey" tastes like on my breakfast toast, and what effect it has on a middle aged man's bladder - does the Dandelion lose it's dieuretic effect in the cooking?...!:umbrella: :o
chickenofthewoods
02-05-2008, 22:13
I suspect you're about to find out. :D
John Fenna
03-05-2008, 10:07
Well - it tastes fine for breakfast...now I wait and see.....:o
maybe the dandelion just gives it a bit of colour...
mick miller
03-05-2008, 15:50
Fairplay for giving it a go John, given that there's no discernible dandelion taste and that your results produce something resembling jelly, could the dandelions be providing a natural source of gelatin-like material rather than taste I wonder?
John Fenna
03-05-2008, 16:10
More like fruit jelly as in seedless jam... I think that the lemon is there to help it set - a kind of pectin source
There is a flavour there, behind the lemon flavour but it is subtle.
Perhaps my lemon was too big.
I will enjoy the eating of the Dandelion Honey, but I do not think I will bother with making much more.
From what I gather its a bit of a peasant food from the eastern block communist era (or at least it was fairly common there and then). i think its a good example of hard up folk making the most of whats around.
I haven't tried it myself yet. I'm waiting for said Czech volunteer to bring some in thats made by her Gran's recipe.
John Fenna
03-05-2008, 17:03
Sounds like a plan Locum!
Heck, my kids have picked over 3000 dandelions over the last couple of weeks, could have put them to use :rolleyes: (the dandelions that is, the kids are very useful :D )
Celt_Ginger
09-05-2008, 20:31
Must give it a go. I know the leaves are quite bitter to my taste, and the flowers are just about ok. Now the roots, they are actually quite nice.
fred gordon
09-05-2008, 21:01
From what I gather its a bit of a peasant food from the eastern block communist era (or at least it was fairly common there and then). i think its a good example of hard up folk making the most of whats around.
I haven't tried it myself yet. I'm waiting for said Czech volunteer to bring some in thats made by her Gran's recipe.
I would grab a look at this recipe book if I were you. Looks as if there might be quite a few good recipes in there for all of us.:rolleyes:
Globetrotter.uk
10-05-2008, 09:58
distilled water is that safe? I have heard that drinking to much can affect the bodies own minerals. would the honey work using bottled water?
chickenofthewoods
10-05-2008, 11:06
Distilled water does seem a bit excessive. I'dve thought plain old tap water would do as well.
Judging by my researches into the very similar Alaskan recipe for fireweed honey I'd say your observation about a lack of resources & making do with whatever is to hand is spot on. Peasant food, famine food - call it what you will - probably something rustled up to seem more exotic and special when people had very little. That said, sugar would have been a very precious and pricy commodity.
Distilled water isn't good for you in the long term. A little here and there isn't a problem, but drinking it exclusively will promote leaching of minerals and salts from your body. I have no doubt that your Czech peasants didn't use distilled water in their traditional recipe, and neither do you need to.
How do you like that grammar? :D
I expect that this is a language issue, i've read a few recipes over the years from old books that say that clean water should be used, I've always presumed it meant the water should be filtered or boiled, I expect that in this instance tap water would be ok (especially to experiment with) and bottled water would be fine.
I nearly made some on Sat, I had 300 good sized heads on the garden table, then I went off and did a few other things, came back and they were frazzled :lmao: It was a warm day! I'll try again.
I wonder how many plants can be used like this...
tony, i think you're right about the water thing and the words used are down to interpretation, there is a lot of boiling anyway and of syrup at that. the temperature is going to get above 200 degrees and that'll kill everything. so you could use any water you liked.
maybe you'd want it distilled if you lived somewhere with a poor water supply though.
I have had a go. I picked lots of dandelions and put them in a bowl then covered it with boiling water. I left it for 24hours. Then I added in the juice of a small lemon and 4 cups of sugar and then waited for it to cook. I stirred it every 10 mins and it took about 1 1/2Hour to go to an amber colour (as above) I could not get "strings" but it went very viscous on a cold plate. It tastes only of dandelion and sugar and I am very impressed thanks for the recipe :You_Rock_. I am just learning bushcraft and have only just discovered the dandelion and with so many uses for it i cant see why people call it a weed. I am so happy with it i am going to go and pick some more when my mother is out and i am still on study leave.
I could not taste the lemon so i think you added in to much. Just a suggestion.
Excellent, well done for giving it a go and it's great that you like it, this sort of thread is fantastic for helping others, John talks about it being to lemony and you change it slightly to compensate :D
The other thing that's great is that in doing this it's easier to create different things for ourselves, we know it works with dandelion so what next :D
If the lemon adds to the texture because of pectin then could crab apples be used as well? although maybe the lemon adds to the flavour because of the juice as well as pectin because the skin is in the pot as well, they used to use lemon peel for just that.
I'm just wondering if it's possible to make something of this with more forageable ingredients...
i cant see why people call it a weed.
becasue it produces humdreds of seeds and grows EVERYWHERE. however when a volunteer offers to pick all the dandelions in the garden to make honey, things take on a different perspective. :)