When you hear about The Land of Milk & Honey, it means a promised land, a metaphor for plenty and all good things. It just so happens that actual milk and honey are a delicious combination.
For me, plain yogurt with honey and some raw almonds is an enormously satisfying flavor and texture combination. Texture-wise you have the creaminess and the crunch. Flavor-wise, you have a lovely combination of tart and sweet. It’s the ideal quick breakfast, and sometimes I’ll even have it at night if I’m craving something sweet but am trying to avoid the guilt of an ice cream binge (which is of course what I really want).
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Read the transcript or listen in to the latest edition of “The Taste of Things,” HGS Home Chef and Hilllsdale General Store owner Matthew White’s public-radio series from Robin Hood Radio.
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Growing up I always heard that warm milk helps one sleep. The idea never appealed to me, and in fact sounded kinda gross, but I was doing some reading and a classic night-cap to help sleep is spiced milk sweetened with honey. Now THAT is something I can get behind. Apparently it has ancient roots, most likely middle eastern. Basically you heat the milk with a vanilla bean (cut open), and cinnamon stick. Once the milk is about to boil you set aside the covered pot for about ten minutes, leaving the spices to infuse, almost like making a tea with the spice. Then before drinking, while it’s still quite warm you stir in a bit of honey. Some recipes add other spices such as cloves or cardamom. All these spices should be in their whole form.
I’ve been a bit stressed of late and I must say this is a very calming thing, both in the making of it, and in the consuming. The aroma is heavenly, and the spices bring about a kind of calmness. But it’s that touch of honey sweetening the milk that brings all the flavors together in the most lovely way.
A totally different use of milk and honey was one I learned at the breakfast table as a young child on Sunday mornings, when mom would make biscuits. After the biscuits were golden brown she would transfer them from a baking sheet into a tea-towel-lined basket, so they’d stay warm throughout the meal. After grace, it wouldn’t be long before the entire table would shake. I mean really shake.
At that moment we’d all look toward our Dad who was creating the small earthquake-like tremors. What he was doing was whipping his own honey-butter. He’d cut a nice square cube from the stick of butter, put it on his plate and dowse it with a considerable amount of honey. Then with the back of his fork he’d cut the honey into the butter with tiny, but firm and fast repeated movements that would cause the entire breakfast table to vibrate. This enthusiastic act would transform the cold butter and honey from two distinct properties into a glossy, creamy, thick nectar that was nearly opalescent. Only then would Daddy reach into the basket of hot biscuits, cut one in half and slather it with the creamy concoction.
Then he would recount to us how our Great Grandfather Sanders (a man with notoriously bad table manners, I must add) would do this anytime biscuits were served, which I think (given my great grandmother’s skills in the kitchen) was daily.
Personally, I’m kind of a stickler for good table manners, but when it comes to honey butter, they fly out the window. And once you try this, I think you will agree. All you need are sweet butter, local honey, and the dexterity to whip those two ingredients to sublime smoothness with the back of your fork, holding down your plate as you do, to keep it from flying across the room.
Many of my favorite recipes have two ingredients, and now that I have explained how to make honey butter, let me provide a serving suggestion. Don’t be stingy. Slather it in drowning waves upon the warm insides of that gorgeous biscuit. There’s really not much better in the world, and it just may just convince you that you’ve entered The Land of Milk & Honey.–Matthew White