Honey is a wonderful natural sweetener that has as many uses as it has types. There is clover honey, white honey, whipped honey, comb honey, and creamed honey. Bees make this sweet stuff from plant nectar, which they collect from flowers and store in cells of a honey comb. Not only does honey taste great, it also contains trace amounts of minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants. Here are some ways to incorporate cooking with honey into your repertoire:

How To Cook With Honey

• Use it as a sugar replacement. Honey behaves differently in recipes than sugar, resulting in a different flavor, color, and moistness. Honey is slightly sweeter than sugar, so you can use slightly less than a one-to-one ratio when you bake with it. It will also retain more moisture, so it is often appropriate to reduce the amount of liquids in the recipe by 1/4 cup for every cup of honey. Finally, remember that honey has the tendency to brown faster than sugar, so reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees.
• Put it on your salad. Honey is a great complement to savory ingredients or acidic dressings on a salad. You can also easily make your own version of a honey vinaigrette. Simply combine 1/4 cup honey, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and one teaspoon of soy sauce. Whisk ingredients together until the honey has dissolved. This dressing is a great complement to salads with strong cheese, walnuts or pecans, and apples or other fruit.
• Have it with fish. Honey is particularly delicious with oily fish like salmon. Simply combine honey, balsamic vinegar, unrefined sugar and spoon over salmon. Plus, the omega oils in fish combine with honey’s vitamins and minerals, making this combination particularly heart healthy.