Looking for a natural immune booster to fight off colds and flu? Keep a jar of honey infused garlic in your fridge. It’s cheap, easy to make and together honey and garlic make the perfect combination for helping you stay well. Both garlic and honey have thousands of years of history as medicinal remedies, and make a very potent combination together when consumed.
Why Should You Try Honey Infused Garlic?
Garlic benefits you the most as a raw food, not as a supplement. Even if you love garlic, it’s almost impossible to consume enough raw garlic. By combining the honey and garlic, the intensity of the garlic flavor mellows, making it more tolerable to eat raw garlic in high quantities. The honey is also loaded with health benefits and the two together can keep your immune system operating at its best.
Health Benefits of Honey Infused Garlic
The two ingredients together become a powerhouse to boost your immune system to fight off colds, allergies and flu. Here are health benefits of the honey and garlic. Combine the two ingredients and you’ve got a natural remedy to strengthen the immune system.
Why Honey:
Honey is an antioxidant that is antibacterial and antimicrobial. It’s loaded with vitamins and minerals and almost acts as a multivitamin itself. It can be used to help boost energy, boost the immune system, reduce allergies, soothe coughs, soothe sore throats, fight infections and prevent cancer. Learn more about honey.
Why Garlic:
Garlic is great for its anti-inflammatory benefits and it is antibacterial and antiviral. Garlic contains high amounts of manganese, calcium, phosphorus, selenium, vitamin B6 and vitamin C. Use garlic to decrease blood pressure, improve cardiovascular health, lower total cholesterol, prevent cancer and metabolize iron. Learn more about garlic.
Ingredients and Items You’ll Need:
-Mason Jar
–Garlic Peeler
-Honey
-Garlic
-Knife
Mason Jar:
Be sure the Mason jar is clean and sterilized, as you would if you were canning.
Honey: Raw Honey versus Pasteurized
Raw honey will have more health benefits. Raw honey is not processed and contains more nutrients than filtered honey. One piece of advice is to look for clean, local honey free from pesticides and from a source locally, if possible, to help with allergens in your area. The best bet is to find local, raw honey.
Garlic:
Fresh. If you don’t grow garlic, get the freshest you can buy. Do not buy garlic that’s already peeled. You need to peel it yourself, and depending how much you’re making this can take time. Use a garlic peeler if you want to speed the process. They’re very affordable, too.
How to Make Honey Garlic
1. Clean and sterilize the jar and lid.
Use a jar size appropriate for the amount you are processing. You’ll need the honey to completely cover the garlic, while leaving a little headroom in the jar.
2. Prepare the garlic.
Peel the fresh garlic. You can crush the garlic cloves or leave whole. With crushed garlic cloves (just smashed with a flat side of a knife, NOT minced), the honey will infuse the garlic more quickly. The whole garlic cloves remain a firm consistency after sitting in the honey for weeks. Trim the garlic ends, as needed.
You can add crushed garlic and whole garlic cloves to speed the process. Just use the smashed garlic cloves first.
3. Place cloves in jar and cover with honey.
Leave space in the top of the jar. If you are using raw honey, delicately raise the temperature of the honey to melt it. You can do this by placing in a warm water bath. Do not overheat, destroying its health benefits.
4. Secure the lid and let sit for a few days at room temperature.
5. Store in refrigerator.
You can use the garlic after a few days, but the flavor mellows after a week or two. The cloves will last in the honey for months. Some will replace cloves as they eat them.
You may notice the honey bubbling, and that’s part of the fermenting process. If you’re concerned about bacteria in the infusion, remember honey is a natural preservative and is antimicrobial. Just be sure to use clean jars.
How to Use Honey Garlic Infusion
Eat the garlic cloves!
While your body is feeling compromised, eat a clove every hour or two. You are trying to eat about 5 cloves a day. Once you feel you’ve boosted your immune system, reduce the amount of cloves. But, continue to eat for health maintenance.
Use the honey.
Use in cooking, tea, tonics or as a cough syrup.
Variations of Honey and Garlic Recipes
Try Pickled Garlic.
Preserve Berries in Honey: Try preserving cranberries or blueberries in honey. These berries work best with their firm outside peel. Also, use the honey as berry flavored syrup.
Want to learn more about the health benefits of honey infused garlic?
See these resources for more information:
Health Benefits of Honey by Michigan State University Extension
Honey Treats Coughs Better Than Drugs from ABC News
Health Benefits of Garlic
Health Benefits of Honey
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Thank you for the very beneficial topic
❤️ Good to hear!
Honey has many medicinal offers..sore throat, indigestion, arthritis and so on plus a great natural sweetener
Thank you for posting. Using Honey and Garlic is the best for human health..
have used this many times and it certainly has kept me flue and cold free.
If these kill bacteria why don’t they kill off your body’s healthy bacteria, too?
And please don’t tell us that honey and garlic can tell the difference between good and harmful bacteria in the human body.
It does kill off the good bacteria. Best to also take a probiotic a few hours after a dose.
I liked your :”Please don’t tell us……”, However,Honey & Garlic are not :”Chemotheraphy” which kills indiscriminately. So,they know what to kill and what not to.
Normal flora, which is healthy naturally occurring bacteria, are not affected by garlic or honey like pathogenic bacteria or viruses. The chemical properties of most pathogenic bacteria are seriously affected by alkaline environments and foods which have processes that change that environment. Normal flora have resilience to this process. Just like certain antibiotics are geared towards certain bacteria, like cocci and bacilli. So in short, YES your body and the bacteria can tell the difference and garlic and honey affect them differently. This is not the case for all normal flora. But a majority is.
I was wondering the same thing .Honey does kill bacteria .Proven fact .That is why it has a indefinite shelf life .Now how it works inside your body .i don’t have a clue .I did hear the properties act with the sugar to kill viruses by drying them out .Same goes for bacteria .Some thing just work over the Centuries that silence can not explain
The healthy bacteria are “gram positive” and the unhealthy ones are “gram negative”. I am sure there is a mechanism where the garlic/honey target more of the gram negative ones. But in that process, a few of the gram positive ones could also be affected but in much smaller amounts. As long as you keep feeding your body with fermented foods, fiber, etc to feed the good ones, you won’t lose anything. At the end of the day, its the ratio of the “good guys vs the bad guys”. Garlic/honey/natural antibiotics help tilt the ratio massively in favor of the good guys.
Can one vacuum seal the jar to help the honey to infuse the garlic ?
The reaction off the garlic and honey releases gas, so you could seal the jar initially, but it won’t stay sealed.
Thank for accepting me. . . this is very beneficial to us Senior Citizen
Tried this but my garlic turned a blue green colour, is it still good to eat
I just read that is a natural process when you ferment garlic & honey
It means it came into contact with metal. You can eat it, but mine tasted weird so I tossed it. Next batch came out fine.
I hace read about This recipe there is a higo risk of undesirable fungus growing in this cocktail, be cause of the low acidity of garlic. Beware.
It is not fungus, get your facts straight please. There are very little traces of sulphur in garlic that react with copper found in honey which give off this blue/green color. It is safe to eat and it is not fungus.
I’m just concerned that no one will be able to come close to me with all that garlic. Any suggestions?
I wouldn’t want to be so unkind as to have someone come close after eating this. So give the ones you want close some too…
Are you supposed to eat the garlic raw from the honey after it’s been sitting for a couple of days? Or can you use it in cooking recipes?
HOW TO USE HONEY GARLIC INFUSION
Eat the garlic cloves!
While your body is feeling compromised, eat a clove every hour or two. You are trying to eat about 5 cloves a day. Once you feel you’ve boosted your immune system, reduce the amount of cloves. But, continue to eat for health maintenance.
Use the honey.
Use in cooking, tea, tonics or as a cough syrup.
I mixed garlic cloves and honey and blend after mixing the honey the following day it changed colour to green I was so scared that it has turn into poisson so I threw it away am happy that its natural and harmless its really a good receipy for human health makes you sleep well and feel no stress at all
I love this idea. Thanks for sharing . I always used garlic and Vinegar , but this sound good ! Thanks for sharing !
I started this honry and garlic and every morning after i take is i feel so sick. My stomach just wants to die! And i stink and all i taste and smell is garlic. I chop it mix with honey and swallow whole. I know it has great benefits but surviving to get those beneifts is hard.
Any tips?
Normally, (before this) i ate a good bit of garlic, we cook with it almost everyday and i love. I am not sure why my stomach is hurting. Pehaps be ause ot is raw and on an empty stomach?
Christine, it is hard to get the taste out of your mouth . But, it does get easier. My husband and I eat 2 garlic cloves raw every day. He just chews his up and swallows. I don’t do it that way. I always add mine to my baked potato, main meat, salad and for the most part it get hidden. Your body gets used to it very fast. You will not stink. I do feel really healthy. Chew it up with mixed nuts works well too. Ginger helps to cover too. Then just take a spoon of honey 🙂 as a pick me up . That’s what I do.
Do not eat it right away. I say you crush each clove, let the air hit these crushed cloves for 5-10 min. Then put them in a small mason jar. Fill that jar with enough honey to cover all the crushed cloves. Then place that jar in a dark cool place (not your fridge, this breaks down some of the medicinal properties.) Wait 2-4 days to let some of those flavanoids evaporate. This method will reduce the aggressive affect on your stomach, while minimizing the pungent taste and order without compromising the medicinal properties you are doing all this for.. Good Luck…
This is nice, but guess I had always applied an alternative method to bypass the odor.
I do pound with a little mortar, pour into my jar, and pour the honey over it. I allowed it for a day or two before enjoying it.
That way I don’t have to chew it, so it hardly stick to my breath.
HAD ALWAYS WORKED FOR ME THIS WAY, BUT I HOPE AM NOT LOOSING ANYTHING SPECIAL FROM THE GARLIC?
You’re actually supposed to chew the garlic in order to get the benefit of the allicin. This is what I’m told. Believe me, I’d much rather NOT have to chew it. My wife and coworkers don’t wanna come anywhere near me… BUT I’M HEALTHY DAMMIT!!
You can pre-crush them and let the environmental air hit the cloves to release the allicin. Plus allowing it to marinate in the honey also reduces the pudginess of the flavor and strength of the taste and aftertaste as well…
I chopped my garlic up and add honey in when I chop. Put it in a jar and put in the fridge. Keeps for months. And it is best NOT to take it on a empty stomach. Will make you nauseated. Just took some this morning. Great stuff!!
I mince couple of cloves of fresh garlic every night. Put it in a spoon and fill it with honey.
Then I take it . I take it an hour after dinner. My intestinal pain is gone and sleep thru the
night . Urination is less frequent. My stool is soft like a baby’s poo in the morning after
breakfast. Gurgling with good mouthwash helps prevent bad breath. I just started taking
it a month ago.
I saw another recipe that said to chop the garlic so I did. Is this ok or should I start over?
That is perfectly fine… Just let them sit in the airy room for 5-10 min before adding honey or ingesting. This releases the allicin.
Thank you.
Is it necessary to refrigerate the glass jar of honey-garlic ? I have one made by friend but have left it in cupboard 2 weeks. Thx for reply.
what if i minced the garlic? because my friend told me to minced it,then i search for it and i saw it should be chrushed
Can I put the garlic in a food processor and make it like a slush, let it get air for 10 minutes and then add a sufficient amount of honey? This combo would be certain to give you the best of both worlds.
Please is it possible I blend garlic and add water to the blended garlic and mixed with lemon water(juice) and add honey,then placed in the fridge???
So, just so we are clear – I CAN use pasteurized honey in this recipe and it will work BUT it won’t give the full health benefits of using raw honey right? Thanks.
Do you have to jar the honey and garlic? Can I just add the two as I take it?
I want to do this commercially, but am afraid that when i package it will continue producing gases and might blow up in the shelfs at the store…Please advice
I have a fecal impaction and taking laxatives but they don’t seem to be working I was told that taking garlic and honey would improve it greatly what would be your comments on this as I am in a lot of pain and need to get it sorted . Any advice would be great thx
This honey and garlic combination is much mellower after many weeks and even months. The jar I have is a year old and the garlic is easy to chew and not objectionable at all. At the first sign of a cold I chew a garlic clove with some of the honey. I do feel it often staves off more cold symptoms.
Must it be refrigerated?
I say no. Ferments are shelf stable for years. Plus you shouldn’t refrigerate honey.
I am taking these recepi since last 2 months. I take 1 clove every night after dinner. next morning i feel complete fresh, more energetic, lessen my body pain, loose stools. I am happy. It is having wounderful effects on your total body. I also started it giving 1 table spoon every alternate day to my 4 year son and 2 year doughter. .
Can I bake the garlic before I put it in honey
II would say No you will kill the good stuff in the garlic. Use raw honey too. It’s winderful.
I have staph and am told to grind freshly garlic ginger lemon and honey together and extract it juice is it good mixure give health benefit
Im using garlic and honey right now and its helping immensly with my stomach ulcer. Its actually healing the pain went away. Awaiting to see if the small amount in my stool goes away. Im less bloated. It feels like my stomach is getting stronger to digest. My tiredness and my lethargia has subsided. This stuff actually works no joke.
Very interesting. Can this be consumed at night?
Thank you
how long will honey and garlic last? I prepared some in July but I have done what I read in some of the comments .I just have it on the counter top in the kitchen once in awhile I remove the lid to let the gasses out. I stirred it today. Is it still good for use?
I have made 5 big square sealed bottles of garlic and honey and 2 bottles also have a small amount of ginger . I waited 1 month before I ate any , can you tell me how long does it take to get into the body system . I read of people taking 1 to 3 cloves of garlic and honey , can you tell me if one can have too much in one time ?