Honey in Japanese cooking

[helenjp]

When I first came to Japan, honey seemed to be regarded as a medicine more than any thing else. Apparently that old idea has been reinforced by the popularity of royal jelly; but considering that honey has been part of the imperial court culture since at least the 7th century, why do we see so little evidence of it in Japanese cooking? I think I know more traditional recipes for wasp larvae than I do for honey!

All I see are western or western-influenced dishes, and the addition of honey to home-cure type drinks or occasionally preserves such as umeboshi (maybe coincidental that ume made it to Japan in the 7th century too??).

So...what uses of honey can you think of - including western-influenced foods too, for the moment!

Honey and rakkyou preserves...honey and ginger...honey and garlic....honey and ume...

Honey castella sponge cake...

...and??

[torakris]

Good question!

I use quite a bit of honey (though I didn't grow up eating it) but I can't think of what I use it in.... I am sure I have used it in some Japanese recipes though.

I tried searching for recipes using honey and I ran across this:

Honey "marinated" daikon with natto and umeboshi

[helenjp]

Heh heh, I think even that has its origin in medicine! I've made daikon steeped in honey as a home-cure for coughs and colds - the juice is quite nice!

I did some more research...it seems that Japanese people rarely use honey bees to pollinate orchards (something I'd wondered about) for various reasons, instead using a non-honey-producing bee which is efficient and easy to move. The current "honey" regions of Nagano etc. use western honeybees which were introduced (presumably from the Kanto region) during the Meiji period, and which produce more honey per bee than native bees anyway (though I wonder if that isn't partly because native bees are more likely to be gathering pollen from trees and grain crops???).

Anyway, wouldn't you know it, there's a website out there which claims that only honey from native Japanese honeybees suits the unique Japanese digestive system...

The Japanese honeybee is probably not native, though long isolated from the Chinese strains it probably comes from - 7th century records say that an Empress released 4 swarms at Mt. Miwa in the Kii peninsula, but that they "didn't breed" - however, apparently the Japanese honeybee is more inclined to do a bunk than to swarm and remain in the same area, so maybe the swarms simply dispersed. In any case, Japanese honeybees certainly are/were centered on the Kii peninsula and parts of Shikoku, apparently.

I wonder if honeybees entered Japan from China earlier than that - maybe at the same time as silk cocoons, since tradition has it that honey and silk both come from China???? Maybe that's why the idea of eating the larva rather than the honey became popular - aren't silkworm larvae sometimes eaten??? (Wracks brain fruitlessly for reliable information on the topic...).

[Hiroyuki]

aren't silkworm larvae sometimes eaten??? (Wracks brain fruitlessly for reliable information on the topic...).

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Not me, but Shinshu people, including my father, do eat silkworm larvae.

[easternsun]

So...what uses of honey can you think of - including western-influenced foods too, for the moment!

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What about Japanese curry with apples and honey. (I call it baa-chan curry). We use honey a lot to sweeten tea / coffee or drizzle on yoghurt/cereal. I have been buying it from this lovely couple who come to Osaka once a month from Hyogo-Ken. They have an apiary and take their honey making really seriously. The stuff is magic.

[Evan]

I once saw a japanese tv show where they were testing how to make the best looking and tasting steamed rice. One of the method was to use a couple of teaspoons of honey in with the rice before cooking and found that it gave more tsuya(glistening) on the rice. But the winner (chosen by how many people liked a sample) was rice steamed with initial ice cold water and the honey version was a close second.

[Hiroyuki]

One of the method was to use a couple of teaspoons of honey in with the rice before cooking and found that it gave more tsuya(glistening) on the rice.

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I know this tip. I tried it years ago, when we had a poor rice crop and we had to have foul-smelling ko mai (old rice), but the rice was so bad that the tip was not very effective.

I think that in general, the uses of honey in Japan are limited to tenderizing meat and deodorizing ko mai and fish. Considering that mirin and sake can have the same effects, however, I think we can do without honey. No?