The Rural Voice, 1990-07, Page 44RURAL LIVING
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As a gardener, I appreciate the
work of those tiny bees and take joy
in watching them go from blossom to
blossom competing with humming-
birds for a drop of nectar. That we
harvest their crop of honey is another
plus, and reason enough for being
careful not to disturb them with sprays
or poisons.
I remember attending a class on
nutrition some time ago and being
asked to classify various foods as to
their food group and nutritional value.
Quite confidently I put honey on my
"yes this is nutritious" list, but had a
bit of trouble with the food group. It
wasn't a bread, vegetable, dairy prod-
uct, or even a meat for that matter.
I was chastised, along with sever-
al others, for my belief that honey is
good for you. It doesn't rank under
any dietary requirement unless you are
a high consumer of calories or carbo-
hydrates. But before I get all the bee
owners a -buzzing I should add that
honey does have advantages over
sugar in that it has some mineral and
vitamin content.
Health and Welfare Canada has
analyzed the contents of honey,
among other foods, and docs rate it
somewhat higher than sugar. While
both are high-energy foods, honey has
calcium, iron, sodium, potassium (11
times that of sugar), riboflavin, niacin,
Vitamin C, and a trace of thiamine.
But honey should not be considered a
substitute for other foods far richer in
essential nutrients.
Like so many food products, the
closer honey is to the farm gate the
more nutrition it contains. Honey in
the comb is the purest and the richest
in nutrients. The vitamin content of
honey in the comb is higher by about
35 per cent than that of commercial
clarified honey, the reason being that
honey is clarified by filtering it
through charcoal, an excellent tech-
nique for removing vitamins. It makes
the honey clear enough that the label
on the bottle can be read from the
back, but the objective seems dubious.
We use honey as a flavouring and
A Honey of a Barbecue
sometimes a substitute for sugar.
If your recipe calls fora half cup of
sugar or less, you can substitute honey
measure for measure. If your recipe
calls for more than half a cup, sub-
stitute honey or molasses in an equal
amount, but decrease the liquid called
for in the recipe by a quarter cup and
lower the oven temperature 25
degrees.
Since summer barbecue weather
is upon us and every sunny evening
is reason to eat outside, we tested this
fine rib recipe. I enjoy Chinese cui-
sine and always wonder how some of
those delicious flavours are created.
With this recipe I got some answers.
The marinade of dry white wine com-
bined with the brown sugar, honey,
and soy sauce made for a piquant
flavour which even the kids relished.
Barbecued Spareribs
Chinese-style
4 pounds pork back or side rib
water
1 lemon (I used 1/3 cup lemon juice)
1 onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 1/2 cups dry white wine
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup wine vinegar
(I used white vinegar)
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Place ribs in saucepan. Cover with
water and juice of 1 lemon. Bring to
boil; simmer covered 25 minutes.
Make marinade: combine onion,
bay leaf, parsley, ginger, allspice,
garlic, and wine. I used green onions
for a more gentle flavour.
Drain ribs and place in a shallow
glass dish or in a heavy plastic bag.
Pour marinade over ribs. Cover and
refrigerate 12 hours or overnight.
Remove meat from marinade.
Reserve 1 cup of marinade. Lightly
season meat with salt and pepper.
Make the sauce: combine reserved
marinade with brown sugar, vinegar,
honey, and soy sauce. I heated the
sauce slowly until the honey was
blended. Barbecue meat over low to
medium heat, turning and brushing
frequently with sauce for 30 minutes
or until ribs are richly glazed. Makes
6 servings.
There are some things that truly
test my patience, and recipes with
ingredients left out rank high on my
list. I have been involved with the
print media for almost 15 years and
am fully aware of glitches and grem-
lins — no matter how hard you try,
one can always slip through. Last
month the glitch was in our pineapple
loaf recipe. My apologies to Lynn at
R. R. 4, Tara, who called in. She had
her pineapple loaf all mixed and,
noticing how stiff the batter was,
reviewed her ingredients and saw the
amount of milk was missing. I called
her back with the amount and hope
that her loaf turned out all right. It
was for a very special shower at her
church. So to you, Lynn, and to all of
you faithful readers and chefs, here is
the pineapple recipe again, with the
milk listed and with my apologies.
Pineapple Loaf
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup raisins
(golden make for a nice flavour)
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup cherries (optional)
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Cream shortening and sugar and
add the rest of the ingredients in order.
Grease pans and bake 15 minutes
at 350° F and then reduce temperature
to 325°F until golden.
40 THE RURAL VOICE