Uses for honey

<h3 >As a food and in cooking</h3>

The main uses of honey are in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooking" title="Cooking" >cooking</a>, baking, as a spread on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread" title="Bread" >bread</a>, and as an addition to various beverages, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea" title="Tea" >tea</a>, and as a sweetener in some commercial beverages. According to the The National Honey Board (a USDA-overseen organization), "honey stipulates a pure product that does not allow for the addition of any other substance...this includes, but is not limited to, water or other <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_substitute" title="Sugar substitute" >sweeteners</a>".<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey#cite_note-39" >[40]</a>

Honey barbecue and honey mustard are common and popular sauce flavors.

Honey is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverage <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead" title="Mead" >mead</a>, which is also known as "honey wine" or "honey beer". Historically, the ferment for mead was honey's naturally occurring yeast. Honey is also used as an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjuncts" title="Adjuncts" >adjunct</a> in some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer" title="Beer" >beers</a>.

Honey wine, or mead, is typically (modern era) made with a honey and water mixture with a pack of yeast added for fermentation. Primary fermentation usually takes 40 days, after which the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must" title="Must" >must</a> needs to be racked into a secondary fermentation vessel and left to sit about 35–40 more days. If done properly, fermentation will be finished by this point (though if a sparkling mead is desired, fermentation can be restarted after bottling by the addition of a small amount of sugar), but most meads require aging for 6–9 months or more in order to be palatable.