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Or can you scoop it out of the jar (like a bear) and just eat it? I have raw acacia honey, and it has a granular, crystallized texture. I was wondering if it needs to be heated or otherwise prepared before eating.

cocanut
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Some honey has more or less moisture than others. Less moisture will cause honey to more readily crystallize. It is perfectly fine to use it in a crystallized state. If you find that your honey has crystallized and do not like the texture, just place the jar in some warm water and stir it.

Kevin Nowaczyk
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Grew up with relatives who were bee-keepers. We would frequently eat honey (and honeycomb) straight out of the hive, so "No, raw honey does not need to be 'prepared' before consuming". Commercially Honey is frequent pasteurized in order to kill off latent yeast and slow crystallization. This is, however, unrelated to the situation you describe where you have honey which has crystallized, or has at least started to. Honey is often referred to as "natures perfect food".

Honey is the only food that never spoils. In fact, archeologists found Egyption tombs that were 5000 years old that had honey in them and it was still good.

If honey has crystallized you need only warm it up a bit to return it to it's natural state. This can be easily accomplished by setting the container (sealed) in warm water or, if your in a hurry, you can microwave it. (one of the few acceptable uses for a microwave ;) ...do remember to open the container before nuking it so as to avoid creating a honey bomb. This is unnecessary as the crystallized honey is edible and 'can be' eaten 'as is' but it might be more useful if returned to its original ooey-gooey sweet and sticky state.

Cos Callis
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