Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1895 — Honey as Food. [ARTICLE]

Honey as Food.

Honey has been known from the earliest times. The Scripture makes mention of it, and pagan writers celebrate its virtues. It was called “the milk ot the aged,’* and was thought to prolong life. Honey was also used in the embalming of the body after death. This food, as useful as it is delicious, was esteemed most highly by the Greeks, who celebrated its virtues alike in prose and verse, so that the fame of Attic honey has been transmitted utrtrnpaired to our own day. Used in all kinds of pastry, cake and ragouts, it was also esteemed as a sauce. Pythagoras, in the latter portion of his life, was a vegetarian, and lived wholly on bread and honey, a diet which he recommended to his disciples. And this gentle philosopher reached the ripe old age of 00 years before he departed from life. The true source from which honey is derived was only discovered in later years. Virgil supposed that its delicious sweetness fell from heaven upon flowers in the shape of gentle, invisible dew, a belief which he shared with Pliny and even Galen. It was left to modern observers to study with enthusiasm plant life and bee life, and learn from them some of the most wonderful lessons of nature. Honey was often served by the ancients at the beginning of a banquet in order that the uncloyed palate might enjoy to the full its exquisite flavor. It took the place that sugar occupied after the discoveries of the properties of the sugar cane, so that all conserves, cakes and beverages were dependent on honey for their sweetness. Aplcius prepared It for seasoning purposes in this manner: Boil eight pounds of honey with one pint of wine, skim, add pepper, spikenard, saffron and dried dates. This mixture was kept in jars to use as occasion required.