Fermented Honey Garlic has numerous health benefits, is easy to make and a great home remedy to have ready during cold and flu season to boost your immune system! It’s a wonderful natural remedy for a cough and sore throat among many other things!
Fermented Honey Garlic
It happened, the first cold of the season and I wasn’t ready! It still felt very much like summer so I hadn’t yet started fermenting honey and garlic but it’s the first thing I do when sickness strikes, while also bringing out the teas, straining the kefir and starting a pot of our favorite chicken soup!
When I’m in a hurry for the garlic to ferment, I chop it small and make a little jar of it while I get the rest going in larger chunks in another jar. I’ll start using the smaller jar right away while it’s fermenting just to get it in our systems but beware, the garlic is much more pungent this way. It will mellow significantly as it ferments and is much more enjoyable after it’s fermented, especially for children! *Please note honey is not recommended for children under the age of 1 year.
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Ingredients You’ll Need
- fresh garlic
- raw honey
Helpful Equipment
A pint-sized mason jar is all that you really need for this recipe although I do really like these little wood stirring spoons for stirring up the honey and keeping the garlic submerged during the fermentation process. (It is not recommended to ever use metal of any kind in fermented foods.)
How To Make Fermented Honey Garlic
Start by sterilizing your glass jars. One of the ways you can do this is by filling a clean jar with boiling water and allowing the hot water to sit in the jar for at least 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, pour out the water and allow the jar to cool completely. If water remains, dry the jar before starting your ferment.
Add your peeled garlic cloves to your glass mason jar. (You can choose to keep the cloves larger or chop to any desired size).
Pour raw honey over the garlic until it is completely submerged in honey. Stir with a non-metal utensil to ensure the honey has coated all the garlic and you have released any pockets of air that may have gotten trapped.
Using a new coffee filter or paper towel and a metal mason jar ring, cover the jar with the breathable paper and secure with the mason jar ring. (This metal ring makes no contact with the ferment and therefore poses no issue.)
Please the covered jar in a dark place and allow to ferment for about a month.
During that month, check on the jar every day or two and make sure the garlic is submerged under the honey, stir to coat if needed. Within a couple days you will start to see little bubbles of fermentation happening at the top of the jar – this is good! As fermentation takes place the flavor of the garlic will mellow significantly and the honey will become just runnier.
You can begin eating the honey garlic even before the fermentation finishes or anytime after. Store the jar in a cool dark place and enjoy for up to a year or longer. Once the fermentation process is complete you can store the jar with a solid lid. I like these lids.
Fermented Garlic Honey Benefits
On their own, honey and garlic each offer immense health and nutrition benefits but when combining them and fermenting, honey garlic becomes a true powerhouse of natural remedy! The health benefits of fermented honey garlic include:
- Bolstering the immune system – Garlic contains allicin, which is a potent immune-stimulating compounds activated when garlic is crushed. Studies have shown that allicin helps to increase circulation in the body and white blood cell counts. It is also anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-protozoal and has anti-viral properties! This means fermented garlic honey can help your body better prevent and fight off a variety of infections, colds, and flu germs.
- Antimicrobial Stimulation – Honey is a natural and effective way to sooth a sore throat and suppress a cough. Honey, like garlic, is also highly antimicrobial and can help fight off internal pathogens when ingested.
- Balancing the Gut Mirobiome – Honey garlic is both high in prebiotics and probiotics. Fermented honey garlic can help soothe an upset stomach, improve digestion and overall gastrointestinal health, this helps to balance your gut’s microbiome. When fermented, those prebiotics also work with the wild yeasts and beneficial bacteria found on garlic resulting in gut-friendly probiotics.
- Promoting Overall Good Health – Garlic and honey both contain high levels of antioxidants that can help reduce inflammation, cancer, oxidative stress, and other chronic health conditions.
*Honey garlic should not be given to babies under one year of age.
Should I Be Concerned About Botulism
Botulism can be a concern in a ferment without the proper acidity levels. However, both honey and garlic are within the acceptable acidity range and therefore pose little risk of botulism.
Below are some helpful notes to consider while making your fermented honey garlic.
- It is possible for the garlic cloves turn a blue or a greenish color during the fermentation process. This doesn’t happen often but it can happen. This can seem concerning however it is not harmful and the honey garlic can still be used.
- If you are concerned about botulism, you can use a pH test strip. Botulism spores can’t reproduce with a pH of less than 4.6. Honey is usually around 3.9, but that can vary from honey to honey.
- If the pH is too high, add a small amount of raw apple cider vinegar to increase acidity and retest. This is typically not needed, but is helpful to know.
How To Enjoy Fermented Garlic And Honey
While I make this recipe primarily for use when sickness hits, it’s really delicious on buttered bread and toast, as well as with cream cheese and crackers, as a topping to pizza (after cooking the pizza), and the list goes on! There are so many ways you could enjoy this recipe other than by spoon, although that works great too. However you choose to consume it, try to do so in a method that doesn’t heat it up too much so that all the benefits stay intact.
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Fermented Honey Garlic
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 pint 1x
- Category: Homemade Basics
- Method: Pour and Stir
- Cuisine: American
Description
Fermented Honey Garlic has numerous health benefits, is easy to make and a great home remedy to have ready during cold and flu season to boost your immune system! It’s a wonderful natural remedy for a cough and sore throat among many other things!
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw whole garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed (for maximum potency, buy whole heads of garlic and peel yourself as opposed to pre-peeled cloves)
- 1 cup raw honey (more may be needed in order to completely cover the garlic)
Instructions
- Start by sterilizing your glass jars. One of the ways you can do this is by filling a clean jar with boiling water and allowing the hot water to sit in the jar for at least 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes, pour out the water and allow the jar to cool completely. If water remains, dry the jar before starting your ferment.
- Add your peeled garlic cloves to your glass mason jar. (You can choose to keep the cloves larger or chop to any desired size).
- Pour raw honey over the garlic until it is completely submerged in honey. Stir with a non-metal utensil to ensure the honey has coated all the garlic and you have released any pockets of air that may have gotten trapped.
- Using a new coffee filter or paper towel and a metal mason jar ring, cover the jar with the breathable paper and secure with the mason jar ring. (This metal ring makes no contact with the ferment and therefore poses no issue.)
- Please the covered jar in a dark place and allow to ferment for about a month.
- During that month, check on the jar every day or two and make sure the garlic is submerged under the honey, stir to coat if needed. Within a couple days you will start to see little bubbles of fermentation happening at the top of the jar – this is good! As fermentation takes place the flavor of the garlic will mellow significantly and the honey will become just runnier.
- You can begin eating the honey garlic even before the fermentation finishes or anytime after. Store the jar in a cool dark place and enjoy for up to a year or longer. Once the fermentation process is complete you can store the jar with a solid lid.
Notes
- It is possible for the garlic cloves turn a blue or a greenish color during the fermentation process. This doesn’t happen often but it can happen. This can seem concerning however it is not harmful and the honey garlic can still be used.
- If you are concerned about botulism, you can use a pH test strip. Botulism spores can’t reproduce with a pH of less than 4.6. Honey is usually around 3.9, but that can vary from honey to honey.
- If the pH is too high, add a small amount of raw apple cider vinegar to increase acidity and retest. This is typically not needed, but is helpful to know.
- Honey garlic should not be given to babies under one year of age.
Keywords: fermented honey garlic, natural remedies, immune system booster,
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