# honey powder?



## bigsmoken (Sep 13, 2013)

I have a question about using honey powder in rubs. Has anyone actually used it and how much does it differ than sugar. Also honey naturally pulls moisture from the atmosphere when dried out and will stick together. If you have used it in a rub does it make the rub clumpy or does the other spices keep it from clumping. I was thinking of using it instead of sugar to make a little deeper of a flavor. Should I even worry about it?


----------



## forluvofsmoke (Sep 13, 2013)

I haven't used honey powder for dry rubs (yet), although I grind dried fruits for the base-flavors in dry rubs quite often (and probably for longer than I care to remember...LOL!!!) Some of what I grind still has quite a bit of natural moisture and can get pasty, such as tart cherries, while blueberries turn into a thick liquid glue of sorts. I learned a good trick to avert this problem by mixing all the dry rub ingredients into a bowl, then grind a Tbsp or so at a time and dump into a separate bowl. I try to only mix/grind as much as I'll use, on demand, that way it's fresh. If you have leftover, you can re-grind with just a few quick pulses to loosen it up if it does clump. Some of my blends settle in fairly tight within just a few minutes of grinding, so I use a little more dry ingredients which are somewhat neutral (such as onion) to absorb a bit more of the moisture which causes this issue. For the most part though, actual clumping after it's been setting around a week or two hasn't been anything that's not quickly corrected. A bitter knife or spoon will beak it down enough to regrind easily enough.

For the powdered honey, you may want to measure everything into a bowl like I do with fruits, then grind it up to get a good blend as your spices are ground...easy and uniform blend. Then use a shaker or old bulk spice container with a shaker lid to apply the rub. It seems that when using ingredients which tend to clump, they don't even like to be tumbled to blend it up, or they begin to clump immediately, so is you blend with the grinder, then just shake it on, should give an easier application.

Here's an example of how I grind/blend one of my more recent dry rubs:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/blueberry-cherry-dry-rub-for-pork



Eric


----------



## bigsmoken (Sep 13, 2013)

Thanks for the advice. I started to make some by puting the honey in the oven to dehydrate. Once it dries I'll try your method and see how it works. Hopefully it does. The honey is from my own beehives so it would be something special to us. The wife would be so happy if it worked. Sometimes ingredients mean more than we realize sometimes I guess.


----------



## forluvofsmoke (Sep 14, 2013)

You're most welcome!

Oh, that would be a nice way to make use of your own honey harvest. If you get the drying to work out, the rest will be a snap. I've never dried honey...would be interesting to see/read how that works out. If it turns to crystalline form, you could still break it down a little and pulse it in a blade-type grinder to make your powder. This does sound interesting!

Let me know how it goes!

Eric


----------



## bigsmoken (Sep 14, 2013)

I will let you know this is actually the first time I'm drying honey but they say to do it in the oven. I'm hoping to not mess it up. lol Id hate to think that my girls put in so much work for me to mess it up. fingers crossed


----------



## bigsmoken (Sep 14, 2013)

So the honey ended up burning in the oven and still didnt get hard.....total bust but I'm wondering if I cant make it into a hard candy and then powder it.....I'll let ya'll know how it comes out


----------



## bigsmoken (Sep 16, 2013)

still didn't work. dang well I'll keep looking on how to get it done as the honey powder on the market is crazy expensive


----------



## millerk0486 (Sep 16, 2013)

Please let us know if you succeed! I've been curious to try honey powder too, but don't feel like paying the market price either.


----------



## anglerman (Jul 6, 2016)

Old post yes yes... Has either of you purchased or made any honey powder yet?


----------



## forluvofsmoke (Jul 8, 2016)

Anglerman,

bigsmoken hasn't been logged-in here for a couple years. I haven't ventured into honey powder yet...probably due to my heavy use of ground red bell pepper when I want a sweeter profile in my rubs...sometimes, old habits are hard to break, especially when they work well for you.

The only way I've read of creating honey powder reliably is to mix it with Maltodextrin, IIRC...it is used to absorb moisture/fats when making powders from semi-liquid foods. It's a common food additive that is actually an artificial sugar classified as a polysaccharide. There two types: one is resistant to digestion, adds no calories to the food due to the human body's inability to break-down this form with enzymes, and, acts similarly to dietary fiber when consumed. It comes from the same source, but is further processed. The other is digestible due to being a simple carbohydrate, and thereby does contain calories. There are differing opinions on health effects, depending on the type and quantity consumed. My opinion is to keep my ingredients as natural as possible, within reason. I currently do not have the desire to use these type of processed ingredient cock-tails...just me.

Other forms of commercially made honey powder convert liquid honey to powder with a drum/roller or spray-drying process (honey sprayed from a nozzle into a heated chamber). Advanced technologies such as microwave vacuum/freeze drying are also used. None of it sounds easy to do at home without the ability to fabricate or acquire some specialized equipment, but if one felt inclined to accept the challenge, it would keep you busy for a bit while you designed a system to handle the task.

I doubt that a fruit-roll tray in a dehydrator would be a quick method, but, it might be worth a shot to eventually get it dried enough to grind it into powder. If I tried it, I'd keep temps at a reasonably low (135-145*F) range for a trial run. Bump the temp up if the resulting drying effect is excessively slow. And don't forget to exercise your patience...as it may take an eternity to remove the moisture from liquid honey with heat and low-volume air flow only. Hmm, someone on here may have attempted this method, recently...I'll post a link or more info if I figure out who it was...might have been passed on to me via PM.

Eric


----------

