Home made honeycomb

Home made honeycomb is a doddle. Just don't do it with bare arms, or sandals. You will need a sugar (jam) thermometer or a food grade temperature probe.

In a big, TALL, pot, on a large heat, add 400g sugar, 5 tablespoons of water and 75g clear honey

You also want 20g of bicarbonate of soda to hand. Make sure there are no lumps in it.

Heat the sugary mix gently until it all dissolves and then whack up the heat. When it's just approaching 150°C take it off the heat, drop in the bicarb and whisk like frenzy for a few seconds to integrate. The mix will expand and rise alarmingly. This is why I stipulated a tall pot. If you have oven gloves to wear while you do this part, I'd recommend doing so. I have sugar scars, man.

Carefully pour the foam (because it burns like napalm) onto something that doesn't stick: an oiled board, non-stick baking sheet like Silpat or baking parchment. Let it cool and trap all those air bubbles. This doesn't take long. It will look something like this.

You can also pour it into molds (apparently). This might be fun.Either use it immediately or wrap in baking paper and store in an airtight jar. It is important to do this soon afterwards. Honeycomb takes in water from the air (deliquesces) and will turn into toffee within a few hours.

You will probably notice many sweet, delicious but very pointy crumbs, on the surface, on the floor, upstairs in the bedroom, bizarrely. Pick these up or you'll be prowling tacky for weeks to come.

It's said that the ancient Britons stuck several very large honeycomb into the ground just outside Salisbury for reasons unknown, but someone kept sucking them in the night so they restored to big old stones instead.*

In Hawaii, surfboarding began when a family dog snatached a large honecomb and ran into the ocean with it. A small but brave boy waded out and rode the piece home. By the time he'd caught a wave and hanged ten (or whatever) the honeycomb had softened and collapsed and this is how Americans first made saltwater taffy, so popular now in country fairs.**

Now you can eat in in chunks or use it to make honeycomb ice cream.

*This isn't true.

** Nor is this.