A time tested home remedy that everyone should have in their medicine cabinet is fermented garlic honey. This simple homemade recipe turns two everyday ingredients into a powerhouse immune-boosting remedy.
What exactly is fermented garlic honey?
Simply put, fermented garlic honey is garlic cloves covered in honey and allowed to ferment for up to 10 days. Garlic has natural lactobacillus on its surface. Any alcohol produced by the yeast in the honey is converted to vinegar, similar to the process of making apple cider vinegar.
What are the benefits?
The whole fermentation process makes the mixture probiotic, on a deeper level, it makes nutrients more bio-available. Honey, in and of itself is already a natural home remedy. Have a sore throat? Seasonal allergies killing you? A spoon full of raw local honey helps to ease sore throats and combat seasonal allergies.
To my surprise garlic has quite the long list of medicinal benefits. I knew garlic was good for you, I just didn't realize that is helps with cancer prevention, cold and flu, cuts and scrapes, urinary tract infections, warts, and earaches! And that's just naming a few. Studies show that garlic can help reduce the duration of a common cold by more than 70%. Making garlic in general a regular part of your daily diet can reduce your chances of getting sick altogether. It's important to note that people taking blood thinning medication should steer clear of garlic unless you've been given the okay by your physician.
The combination of lactobacillus, yeast and acetic acid bacteria are totally safe. It's actually quite difficult to mess up a homemade ferment. With lacto-germentation the likelihood of creating something that will cause harm is virtually nonexistent due to the bacteria quickly outcompeting just about everything else and acidify the mixture to prevent spoilage. What can potentially be risky are the actual ingredients themselves.
The Herbal Academy actually discusses garlic honey in their intermediate herbal course, and they point out that,
“Honey and garlic can both harbor spores of Clostridium botulinum (the pathogen that causes botulism). The growth of C. botulinum spores is more likely to occur in a neutral pH, a moist environment, or an environment without oxygen. C. Botulinum spores are less likely to reproduce and the risk of botulism is lower in preparations with high acid (pH of below 4.6), high sugar, or high salt content. Honey is approximately 80% sugar, making it high in sugar. Honey is also acidic, with a pH of 3.9. Though many use this recipe as-is, because the honey is diluted by the garlic thus causing the sugar content to lower, some individuals choose to use a pH meter and add a splash of apple cider vinegar to keep the pH levels below 4.6.”
Because you are encouraging lactobacillus here, the pH should drop naturally on it's own the mixture ferments. Some have been known to also add in about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar (ACV) per pint jar. Adding the ACV actually makes the mixture a bit more like an herbal oxymel. What is an herbal oxymel you ask? Well it's pretty much just an herbal material (like garlic) infused with raw vinegar and honey. This creates a tangy syrup that soothes sore throats, eases coughs and colds, and many other illnesses, it just depends on the herbs you use. Generally the balance of honey to vinegar is commonly made with a 1:1:1 ratio of herb:honey; vinegar. The rations are quite flexible, find what works for you. If you like your mixture to be sweeter, then you will want to add more honey.
Note: Placing your fermented garlic and honey in the refrigerator can also help inhibit botulism. At 40 degrees F or below, botulism is inhibited, but lactobacillus and yeast still grow, just at a significantly lower rate. You can make your entire batch by keeping it in the fridge, it will just take anywhere from 2-3 weeks to be ready.
It's also important to note that honey should never be given to infants and children under the age of 2.
What's needed:
Ingredients
1 to 1 1/2 cups of garlic cloves
6 ounces of honey (raw and local is preferable)
Raw apple cider vinegar (this is optional)
How it's made:
Peel the garlic and gently smash it with the side of your knife. You can leave your cloves whole or slice them, depends on how you want them. Place them in a sterilized pint jar.
If you are choosing to use apple cider vinegar, here is where you will want to add 1 to 2 tablespoons to the jar. Add the cap and lid and give it a gentle shake, shake, shake. If you do not want to use ACV simply skip to step 3.
If you chose to adde ACV, you will want to open your jar back up and add in your 6 ounces of local raw honey. You want to make sure your honey is completely covered and fill the jar within 1 inch of the top (keep adding honey until it does). You will want to make sure a leave a 1 inch head space between the honey and the lid as the mixture will bubble as it ferments. Close your jar and give it a flip or two making sure to evenly distribute your honey.
If you have an air tight jar like I used, you will want to make sure and release the jar a couple of times a week, this releases any of the gasses that have built up during the fermentation process. If you are using a mason jar, or a jar with a screw on lid, you can simply loosen the cap. This will allow for the gasses to escape as well.
Depending on how cool your house is, the fermentation process can take up to 10 days. You can place your fermented garlic honey in the refrigerator after 5 days, this will slow the fermentation process.
You can enjoy your fermented garlic honey anytime after the first 48 hours. If you burp (flip upside down and back) your fermented garlic honey once a week to help keep the garlic coated in honey, it should last you many months and with ideal conditions, up to a year. The only risk of spoilage is if the garlic floats above the money surface too long and start to mold.
If you end up making some let me know how it turns out! Did you try it with apple cider vinegar? Could you taste a difference between the two? Let me know in the comments below.
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