Monday, September 19, 2005

One of our many honeybees

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Hillbilly PBH

This is an experiment inspired by inquiring minds of other beekeepers, and to satisfy my own curiosity of a phenomenon I had never bothered to ponder.

This is the honey on bread project, Code Name:  Hillbilly PBH("Hillbilly" brand, whole wheat Peanut Butter & Honey)

I normally assemble my sandwich right away, first spreading the PB on one half then honey on the other half and jam the two slices together, but don't like the honey dripping down my hand, so I had an idea to apply the honey first, allowing it time to soak in as I spread the PB on the other half.  It looked to have soaked into the slice of bread as I had finished slathering the other half with the PB, problem solved, no more honey dripping.  

As I consumed my masterpiece, I noticed a crunchy type texture to my sandwich, of which consisted of creamy PB, Great Lakes Honey, and "Hillbilly" whole wheat bread.  I didn't think much of it at the time, then as I browsed my Honeybee forum at Beesource.com, I stumbled upon a thread that was inquiring as to why honey on bread gets crunchy, hence, I will have to endure the grueling task of performing the experiment. Unfortunately, this will consist of forcing me to consume yet another few sandwiches consisting of this god-awful concoction, purely for the sake of science of course.

The experiment:

Step One:  The control subject of the experiment.

I took two slices of fresh "Hillbilly" bread as in my previous endeavors, applied creamy PB to the first half of the first sandwich, applied my Great Lakes Honey to the other half, assembled and consumed. I also had a full glass of milk next to me to clean my pallet and make sure there was no cross contamination or taste interference from the previous bite, also used as a safety feature in case I had to rinse down some peanut butter that may get stuck in my throat.  

Result:
Taste: was tastefully sweet and wonderfully pleasing to the pallet
Aroma: was sweet as a field in full bloom, with a soft accent of legume and a field of wheat
Texture: was moist, smooth and creamy, yet a bit gooey.  As a matter of fact, so gooey I had to follow each bite with a swig of milk.  
Overall: A little disappointing as it was not very filling.

Step Two:  The test subject.

I took two more slices of fresh "Hillbilly" bread as I had done in the control experiment, this time however; I applied my Great Lakes Honey first.  Then I slathered the other half of the subject with the PB, being meticulous about getting the PB right to the edges of the slice as I always do.  I then inspected the slice that had my Great Lakes Honey applied to, not more than a minute prior.  The honey appeared to have soaked into the slice of bread, leaving a slight film on the surface.  After closer inspection, this film left on the surface had a hard glaze to it.  The slice of bread was still flexible, yet the honey left on the surface was firm, no longer liquid.  I still had to dredge on and continue the experiment, so I assembled the two slices and consumed as before.

Result:

Taste: was still as pleasantly sweet and wonderfully pleasing to the pallet
Aroma: was sweet as a field in full bloom, with a soft accent of legume and a field of wheat
Texture: was moist, smooth and creamy, and a slight bit gritty.  Yet, not so gritty that I had to follow each bite with a swig of milk in order to rinse the crystals of what seemed to be sugar out of my mouth, but I did take a swig after each bite to rinse the creamy film left behind by the PB. Only to continue in the same manner as I had in the control experiment, and have a nice clean pallet for full evaluation of the next bite without any contamination from the previous.  
Overall:  Surprisingly enough this sandwich was much more filling than the first, for the sake of science I'm glad I had not consumed this experiment first, because I would not have had enough room for the first experiment and the two glasses of milk needed to conduct this test properly.

My conclusion is inconclusive at best, and will need further research, which will have to be reserved for a later time, as I have to wait for the crowded lab to evacuate.
One valuable lesson I will take from this experiment: I will never consume that second sandwich first, as the reaction that occurred between the bread and caused the honey to glaze over and become stiff, also created a much heavier subject to be consumed.