My brother and I nearly stopped my grandmother's (z'l) funeral. The rabbi was delivering his eulogy and it quickly became apparent he knew nothing at all about her. "Honey was always on her lips," he intoned solemnly. HA! My brother and I stared wide-eyed at each other with the "you-do-it" dare face. All of us grandkids most certainly knew that whenever she had started a sentence with "Honey..." it meant it was time to duck and run for cover! The rest was not going to be pleasant, not in the leastest bit.

Nevertheless, as the holidays come near and we're thinking about our holiday tables, honey comes to mind. It is one of the foods essential to the Jewish experience... we put a drop of it on the lips of newborns to ensure a sweet life... we greet visiting friends and family during the chagim with a plate of apple slices to dip in honey for a sweet year...and doing so also reminds us of of the ages-old yearning for the "land of milk and honey."

Honey is such an agreeable guest in the kitchen. It helps the host/hostess prepare all dishes from soup to nuts, stopping by for visits in salad dressings, side dishes, main dishes, and of course, the traditional Rosh Hashana honey cakes! Honey will take on distinctive flavors from the nectars the bees gather, and Orange Clover is the most widely found. If other kinds of herbal honeys can be obtained, try them for glazing meats on the BBQ. We like you, Honey. You're the bee's knees!

A little digression into pedantry here. I'm looking at the dessert featured in this piece and thinking about its origins. Most sources I've read credit its development to Lithuania or Poland, since those communities like their foods on the sweet side. To my mind, though, I'm a bit troubled by this.

I can't think of any other foods in those areas that are actually dipped in/glazed with honey (other than honey cakes, but as an integral ingredient) and the style of a pastry dipped in a spiced honey syrup feels much more Greek to me. I'd tend to surmise this was at its very inception of Bulgarian origin.

The combination of a spiced honey syrup AND the geographic proximity of Thrace/Macedonia/Greece AND the orgin of the Bulgarian community (exiles directly from the Spanish Expulsion, bringing their fried pastries with them) speaks quite loudly to my mind's ear.

Anyway, here's some of our Foodie Favorites (The "TNT" means "tried'n'true," this means the poster has actually made this dish and not just cut it out from a web page or cookbook) featuring honey from the Jewish Food Mailing List:

Honey Chicken III (M, TNT)
Source: Unknown
Serves: 8
6 pounds frying chicken, cut into pieces
2 cups flour
1/2 cup bread crumbs
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1-1/2 cups margarine
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup lemon juice

Roll chicken in mixture of flour, bread crumbs, salt, pepper and paprika.

Put 1 cup margarine in a 9"x13"x2" baking dish. Place in a hot oven, 400 F, for a few minutes to melt margarine. Do not let it brown.

Remove from oven; arrange chicken in a single layer in the pan, turning to coat with the melted margarine. Bake for 30 minutes, skin side down. Turn chicken. [Note: I believe for those on lowered-fat diets, a light oil spray on the crumbed chicken should be enough to oven-brown it B]

Mix remaining 1/2 cup margarine, melted honey and lemon juice.

Pour over chicken.

Bake for 30 minutes longer or until fork tender, basting frequently with the honey sauce.

Posted by Nancy L. Berry

Carrots, Sweet and Sour (D/P, KLP, TNT)
Source: Self
Serves: 4
1-1/2 to 2 lbs. carrots, cleaned and cut into 1/2" slices
1/2 cup raisins
Water to cover
1 cup lemon juice
3/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon butter or pareve margarine
salt and pepper to taste

Put carrots into a pot with water to cover. Bring to a boil, and simmer about five minutes, or until just tender.

Remove from heat, add raisins, and allow them to plump in the cooking water about five minutes more. Drain, leaving about a tablespoon of water in the bottom of the pot, and return carrots and raisins to pot.

Add lemon juice and honey, stir well, and bring to a low simmer. Allow to simmer five to ten minutes, then remove from heat and add butter or margarine and mix in.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve hot.

Poster's Notes: My husband sometimes adds a little soy sauce instead of salt and honey and adds artificial sweetener to taste to accommodate my father's diabetes but I find that kind of unpleasant. (Mixing soy sauce and honey takes a delicate touch that I don't have...). My mother sometimes decorates this with some chopped mint. (She also, btw, leaves out the honey. My sister throws in a splash of port or Marsala wine. My nephew adds cinnamon and other sweet spices to this for his 7-year-old to enjoy. This is decidedly a family favorite.

Posted by: Gypsy/Phyllis Wilson

Tayglach (P, TNT)
Source: Unknown
Yield: 100
6 eggs
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoons baking powder
3-1/2 cups unbleached flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
a pinch of salt
1 pound honey
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
OPTIONAL: 1 cup broken walnut pieces
1 cup almonds
1 cup candied cherries

Place the honey, water, lemon juice and sugar in a very large, heavy pot, about 6 quarts. Heat to boiling and continue to simmer gently.

While the honey syrup is heating, mix the eggs, oil, spices and salt together. Sift the baking powder and flour and add to the liquid. Mix together until the mixture forms a sticky dough.

Dust with flour and roll out into 8 or 9 ropes about 3/4" thick, cut into pieces about 3/4" long. Drop the pieces of dough into the boiling syrup and simmer slowly for about an hour. Stir every 10 minutes and add more boiling water as needed, about 1/3 cup at a time.

While the tayglach is cooking, place aluminum foil on a cookie sheet and grease the foil. Set aside.

Ten minutes before the hour is up, add the nuts and cherries. Stir well and add more water if needed. The tayglach is done when it is a deep mahogany color, a rich, golden brown.

Spoon the tayglach on the greased cookie sheet and spread out. Let cool and form the tayglach into small groups of a few tayglach and some nuts and cherries. Let cool and put into a bowl. Cover lightly.

VARIATION: When placing the tayglach onto the greased cookie sheet, reserve as much of the syrup in the pot as possible. Add some sesame seeds, about 1/4-1/2 cup, to the syrup and mix well. Pour the syrup onto another greased cookie sheet and let cool slightly. Cut the syrup into squares and roll each square onto a small ball. Let cool. Makes a delicious candy treat.

Posted by Sam M. Rasheed

For these and other recipes, go to The Jewish Food Maiiling List Archive located at www.jewishfood-list.com.

To ask questions about these recipes, send e-mail to jewishfood-list@ujc.org.