The Great Dr. Seuss once said “So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.”   Take this into any context and it will prove you right every time. Today, we’ve it taken into the culinary world and will learn about the balancing act of pairing cheeses with Grampa’s Honey.

Balance is focused mainly on two ideas:

• Pairing two similar flavors that will enhance and provide depth to one another; OR
• Pairing two very distinct flavors that because of their differences, achieve harmony

Slice of Honey and Cheese Pairing

Clover Honey

Subtle and mildly sweet, Grampa’s Clover Honey is sourced of course from Sweet and Yellow Clover flowers in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. Described as it “… will remind you of a summer wind cooling off a hot afternoon”, this  honey is versatile enough to use in a variety of dishes that call for honey. Unlike the usual clover honeys you know, this honey has a layered depth to it that brings out various cheeses, as well as not overpowering it.

Semi-hard cheeses such as Muenster or Gouda will balance Clover Honey due to the mild fruitiness of traditional Gouda. This honey will also evolve a nutty flavor on your palate and the finish will let the cheese shine. Tasted with the Muenster and you will find a sweet milk flavor, almost sugary but nor overpowering. We also tried pairing it with a hard cheese such as Parmegianno Regianno and discovered that Clover Honey had a tendency to bring out the saltiness of the cheese that went nicely with the sweet honey.

Chamiso Honey

Also sourced from the San Luis Valley in Colorado, this time from Chamiso “Rabbit Brush” flowers and known to the Native Americans as a plant highly regarded for its medicinal powers. As you taste this honey, aromas of citrus peels will develop and a finish of nuttiness (particularly Hazelnut) will bring it all together.

Pairing citrus with cheeses can be complicated, but sticking with a hard, cured cheese will bring you great results. Pecorino Toscano, due to the nuttiness of this cheese (similar to the nuttiness of the honey) create a harmonious balance when paired.

Dessert Wildflower Honey

A slight reddish tint in this flower will provide you will a look into what flowers it is sourced from: Ocotillo, Cactus, Broom Weed, Burro Weed, Desert Buckwheat, Desert Bird, Mimosa, and Mesquite.

Although a bit of smokiness comes off this honey, when paired with a soft cheese like Brie or Camembert, the smokiness combines to develop an earthiness flavored pairing. This honey is also layered with tropical fruit nuances such as oranges and starfruit and when whipped into creamy, soft cheeses elevate them to a completely different level of enjoyment.

White Honey

Also known as Creamed Honey, this is Clover Honey that has been crystallized under controls conditions, making it perfect for spreading on toasted baguette slices, scones and grilled banana bread. Although the same honey as Clover, the texture allows for a different flavor sensation to develop.

Grab a slice of ripened goat cheese (not creamy) and spread it on! The tanginess of the cheese, paired with the texture and sweet creaminess of the honey will be a great pairing!

Tamarisk Honey

The darkest of all of Grampa’s Honey, sourced from Tamarisk tree flowers near Socorro, New Mexico, along the Rio Grande River. This honey is reminiscent of molasses, dark beers, hickory, pine and the always welcomed flavor of umami (soy sauce nuances). When pairing, save this honey for last, as you would wines.

Ideally paired with blue cheese or chevre goat cheese, Tamarisk Honey is the pairing when two strong flavors combine to balance each other. If paired with a light flavored cheese, the honey will be overpowering, so sticking to stronger cheeses will be the best idea.

Tamarisk Honey drizzled over Blue Cheese

Stay tuned for Part Two of this Honey and Cheese Love Story…

In the meantime, check out the following shops for honey, cheese and more:

You may have heard the talk around town lately. People dropping quips and phrases about “granularized,” “crystallized,” or “set” honey. Or, at least that’s the type of talk that happens around our booth at the farmers market (come visit us if you’re around Denver! Cherry Creek on Saturdays and City Park and Stapleton on Sundays). But even if your not the busy bee in the honey circle, we bet that if you’ve ever bought raw honey you’ve seen your honey in a “set” state (see below left).

Tamarisk Honey

So what is granulalized honey?

Raw honey will solidify overtime. The texture becomes grainy and thick when the natural sugars found in honey crystalize. And depending on the flower source, honey will have different proportions of glucose which will cause the honey to set faster. For example, we have noticed that mesquite honey tends to granulate much faster than our other honeys.

What does this mean for honey eaters?

One. We exploit this property of honey to make a wonderful creamy, whipped or spun honey (ie our White Honey, and look out for a post on our White Honey).

Two. You can gently re-heat the honey so that it returns to its liquid state. Use caution here. Avoid microwaving or boiling the honey. Hot temperatures will destroy the raw honey’s natural nutritional punch. We recommend heating a pan of water on the stove top, bringing it to a boil, removing it from the burner, and letting it sit a few minutes. After the water has cooled some, then put your jar of honey into the warm water. You may have to do this a few times to get the honey back to its liquid state. Be patient, it’s worth it! Remember honey does not go bad.

Three. Embrace the change in texture and enjoy it! Now you can eat the same honey but with a completely different texture. Once honey becomes solid, some of us cut it with a knife and eat it like candy.

Whatever you decide, we hope you enjoy the honeys. Let us know what your favorite types of honey are, and if you have any “set” honey stories to share.

This is the first official entry into the Project: Taste the Honey.

A backyard Denver beekeeper responded to me by Twitter about a month ago after I had asked if anyone knew a local wine sommelier who could be interested in tasting honey like it was wine. Not only did she (her name is Holly) know someone in the wine world (and we’ll be doing a proper honey tasting with them next month…) but she also stopped our booth at the farmer’s market to do a honey swap. Holly makes amazing Linden honey, which much lighter in color than even our lightest Clover – and tastes totally different from anything that Grampa’s Gourmet makes.

Below is a re-post (with permission) from her blog:

“An Organoleptic Tasting”

Grampa’s Gourmet White Honey is a blue ribbon cuvée of mesquite and clover honeys. Like a new bag of sugar, it has a faint aroma of feet to it. (Seriously, when you open a 50lb. bag of sugar, it smells like feet.) ANyway, made in part using the Dyce method, then whipped, it is a sublime textural experience. Reminiscent of freshly made marshmallows, it is softly sweet and would be delightful on strawberries, but alas those are out of season now. In lieu, I recommend it on a bar of dark chocolate.

Their Seasonal Honey is a vintage 2009 Chamiso, pulled from the honeyteca reserve. (Yes, I made up a word there.) Driving around Colorado, you’ll see its floral source, Rabbitbrush, blooming singly or in drifts across the Plains. It seems to be the only plant that can shine in this heat and drought. Similarly, chamisa honey glows golden in the Mile High sun. It has a hint of burnt caramel on the nose but it’s not in the least bitter. Mildly sweet with a medium body, it’s equally comfortable in a cup of tea or with a hearty dark bread. The perfect garnish would be a local charcutier’s version of lardo di Ardo.

The Tamarisk Honey is the darkest and most complex of the trio we selected. With notes of molasses on the nose, the flavor is assertive yet not overwhelmingly so. The earthiness, and slight grittiness, of this one makes it good for savory applications. We found it happily married with Maytag Bleu Cheese, even sans pears.

The chunk honey we traded in was from our 2010 Summer Harvest. Extremely pale amber and almost as clear as water, it has a woodsy aroma and a smooth, mellow start with a distinctively minty finish – the giveaway that the informing floral source was Linden. I take it in my daily coffee or tea, and despite the heat, the apitherapeutic effects are noticeable. A lot less sneezing than in years past.