The first time I saw extracted honey in a jar with no comb, I wondered why anyone would do that. Why would someone separate two things that belong together? Imagine eating a yolk without the white or a chocolate chip without the cookie. What’s the point? Where I grew up in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, honey came in a comb in a little wooden box. There was no alternative. This regional tradition apparently began in the “comb honey era.”
According to The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture, the comb honey era lasted from 1880 to 1915, and was a time when most beekeepers in America produced comb honey. Before the enactment of the pure food and drug laws, liquid honey was frequently “extended” with corn syrup, so consumers preferred honey that came straight from the bees with no human interference. When they ate a chunk of comb honey they knew it was pure, just as the bees had intended.
As time went on, several things happened. Laws came into being that assured better food handling and labeling, honey extraction equipment improved, and beeswax by itself became popular for industrial uses. Beekeepers could make more money by selling the honey and the wax separately. In addition, if a beekeeper re-used his wax combs year after year, he could get bigger crops of honey. It takes a lot of bee-power to make the comb, so providing ready-made comb allows the bees to store more honey.
Unfortunately, we lost a real treat when comb honey disappeared. Each batch of honey retains the floral essences of the plants from which it was made, but the flavor of wax comb also differs according to what the bees ate and adds a richness to the flavor that extracted honey doesn’t have. Add to this the aroma of the basswood section box in which the comb was built, and you have a combination of flavors, textures, and aromas you can’t find anywhere else on earth.
Today comb honey is experiencing a re-birth, but it is now considered a luxury item. I’ve seen it for sale for as much as $26.95 for a 12-ounce square—and it’s usually made in a plastic box. Plastic! Take away the basswood box and you’ve lost a major component of the comb honey experience. But this product is fast disappearing. As far as I know, there is only one manufacturer of basswood section boxes left in America.
So if you have the opportunity to try comb honey in a basswood box, go for it. For novice honeycomb eaters, I always recommend the following:
- Toast a piece of your favorite bread or an English muffin. While it is still very hot, spread it lightly with butter. With a knife, cut a chunk of comb honey and spread it over the toast. You may have to mash it a bit, but the heat will soften the comb so it flattens into the toast along with the honey. It doesn’t melt, but becomes soft and aromatic. It is also good on hot biscuits, French toast, or pancakes.
- The upscale restaurants often serve comb honey in the center of a plate surrounded by a selection of expensive cheeses and multi-grain crackers. The idea here is to cover the cracker with a piece of cheese and top it off with a small chunk of comb. This works great with cheddar or brie, but any cheese will work.
If anyone has other favorite ways to eat comb honey, let me know and I will post them on this site. In the meantime, enjoy!
Rusty
Comb honey ready to eat
Rusty,
I grew up helping my father produce comb honey in basswood boxes. This summer I purchased all of the equipment, including the carton shown above from Kelley Bees. My bees have filled the boxes in one super and I am ready to take the super off. I would like to sell the honey at my local farmers’ market, but have two questions that I can’t find answers to. First, what are people charging for this type of comb honey and secondly, are there any health department regulations that I should be aware of.
Thanks for any help you can provide me.
Karen Harris
Hi Karen,
I’m so glad you are producing comb honey in section boxes! Congratulations! I wish more people would do it.
The thing that really shocked me is that this year Kelley’s basswood sections went from about 30 cents apiece to about 80 cents a piece. The window cartons are another 45 cents each, and then you may use plastic liners and you may have purchased or printed labels. In any case you’ve spent about $2 per section before the bees have even seen it.
Quite frankly, I have trouble pricing because I don’t want to be ridiculous but I don’t want to give them away either. I tend to hover around $15/section. I have been selling them in bulk to some people for $10, but now I think that’s low. I’ve seen them in catalogs for $24 or $25, but I think that’s high.
If I were to sell them at our local farmer’s market, I think I would try for $15-18. You can also vary the price depending on the weight. Some of my sections are under a pound (14 or 15 ounces) and some are over (up to about 17 ounces.) So you could go a little higher for the bigger ones, less on the smaller ones. You could maybe have two prices, one for over a pound and one for less than a pound.
Even if you don’t vary the price by weight, you should label the weight because round sections and hogg sections are usually much lighter (around 12 ounces) so you want the consumer to know that. Also, I don’t know where you are but you can get higher prices in the city than in rural areas.
As far as I know there are no food handling laws for comb honey. At least, not here in Washington. It’s like selling a zucchini or peach from your garden. But once you extract you have “processed” the food and laws may come into effect, depending on where you live. I’d have to do some research, but it seems that there is some special exemption for comb honey that applies throughout the country.
I’d like to know how this works out for you and what you end up charging. In the meantime, I will try to go more in depth on the laws, just for curiosity.
Good luck and congratulations again. Producing section honey is an accomplishment.
That is too weird. Will it get you sick?
I hope it is fun. I ate a bee before.
Most humble apologies for the following dumb question:
Are you supposed to eat the wax or spit it out? Do you swallow it? I assume if it is all mixed in with corn meal mush or oat meal, then you’re not going to be bothering much with separating the wax from the food in your mouth. But I don’t presume to know that, either.
I just filtered all the wax out of my comb honey and rendered it because it seemed like the “thing to do.” Next time, I’ll set at least a little aside for “eating” or whatever you are supposed to do with it in your mouth.
Paul,
There is no such thing as a dumb question, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t funny . . . lots of entertainment value in the way you worded your question.
Okay. You eat it, you swallow it. For all practical purposes, it is gone from the face of the earth.
Here’s the thing. If you spread it (honey and comb) on something you chew–such as bread, toast or crackers–you won’t even notice the wax. Believe me on this. It will be down the hatch and you won’t notice anything but the enhanced flavor of honey in the comb.
This is hard to imagine because if you eat it alone–just a chunk of comb–you are left with this big wad of wax in your mouth which, quite frankly, is awful. Yuck. So while I love eating comb honey, I never eat it unless it is on something I’m going to chew. Like toast.
You absolutely must try this before making a judgement on it. Some of my classmates in graduate school called me the “Johnny Appleseed of comb honey” because I was always giving it away in return for a promise they would at least try eating it on something. I don’t know a single one who was disappointed. (Well, one guy put it in his tea and ended up with a film of floating wax which he didn’t like. But I figure this doesn’t count because I told him to eat it, not drink it.)
Warm food such as English muffins are really good because the heat from the food causes the wax to melt down into the interstices. All the better. I had it for breakfast this morning. I also like peanut butter and comb honey sandwiches. Yum.
Promise me you will try this, okay? And report back whenever. And you can write entertaining comments whenever you want.
I had no idea that’s how you’re supposed to eat comb honey… I’ve only had awful experiences eating it plain, with wads of not-quite-one-bit-lump wax in my mouth (and teeth). Thanks for explaining it… and making it sound so delicious. You know what? I promise you the next time I see it at a farmer’s market or fair, I’ll buy it, and try it on toast.
Be sure to report back. As much as I love comb honey, I don’t like it plain because of that reason.
I noticed that if I put comb honey in my oatmeal, it breaks it down and makes it runny. Must be those active enzymes. To avoid having soupy oatmeal, I overcook ’til it’s thick enough to hold a spoon up on end. The heat from the oatmeal probably destroys the enzymes, but the honeyed oatmeal sure is delicious.
Forgot to mention, I don’t cook the comb honey with the oatmeal. It’s just a garnish, placed on top at service.
I put some cut comb honey on a cracker with some blue cheese yesterday and holy jumpin’ Moses was it ever good. I did not expect that combination to work, but it was crazy with flavour, like nothing I’ve tasted before. For a split second it tasted like grape soda but then took off into something else I can’t describe. I did the same thing with a cheese called Red Leicester, a cheese that’s similar to Old Cheddar but more crumbly. That was good too. I also had some chipotle smoked goat cheese and cut comb on a garlic baguette and that was incredible.
It was just me, my special lady friend and another couple getting together for some simple food and a game of Catan, nothing fancy, and that blue cheese and honey was the highlight of the night. I can understand how upscale restaurants go for that kind of thing and can charge premium for it. It was certainly a new experience for me.
I recommend it to anyone who hasn’t tried it yet.
(Some of this comment was copied and pasted from a comment I left on another website. I just want to spread the word. Blue cheese and honey — what a killer combination.)
Hi. In New Zealand where I live we always ate our manuka honey from the comb. It came in wooden boxes of about 1 kg in weight and we used to eat it on its own and spread on hot ham slices for dinner. Whenever we were sick as kids we were given a shot glass of heated whiskey, honeycomb and squeezed lemon juice to help with sleep and I still do it for my children now, we really believe in it and would much rather give something natural that works than some over the counter remedy full of chemicals.
I would love to taste your American honeycomb sometime to see how different it tastes.
As a kids we just chew honeycomb and leftover wax functions as a bubble-gum substitute. Honeycomb honey was considered to be a “proper” honey. It was in Soviet Union (and we did not have a bubble-gum). Here in US, my American girlfriend introduced me to this “honeycomb spread” on the hot toast. I have to admit that I did not try yet because eating melted wax was sounded strange to me, but I will try, promise!
My mom brought a wood box of comb honey from Australia to southern California for me where I live. It was the best honey I ever had. I ate it straight from the box. Now I want to have my own hives and make it in this way, with the basswood boxes. I am having a hard time finding info on the web. If anyone knows some sites that have info and/or equipment please let me know. Thanks
Chris,
Here’s a confession. You are the first person I’ve told the whole story. I started this website so I could teach people how to raise bees in such a way that they will fill basswood sections boxes with honey. It’s an art more than a science. It’s my favorite thing about beekeeping. And, to me, it’s the only way to eat honey. After I started the site, though, I realized most people aren’t interested in it, which is why you can hardly ever find it for sale even if you’re willing to pay a small fortune.
If I thought people were interested, I might still write a serious on it. The thing that’s tricky is that bees don’t want to store honey in squares and the only way to coax them into doing it is by keeping them on the verge of swarming . . . always just a breath away from leaving. It’s lots of work, but worth it. I produce comb honey in section boxes every year and I don’t intend to stop. I just don’t write too much about it.
Anyway, for now, you can buy equipment at Walter T. Kelley Company (way too expensive) and you should read Honey in the Comb by Eugene E. Killion. I don’t agree with everything in the book, but it’s close enough to get you started.