[Avodah] Honey spoils?

[Ken Bloom]

On Thursday 01 February 2007 16:04, Daniel Eidensohn wrote:
> Just saw in Rashi Bava Metzia(38a) that honey sours and spoils. A
> quickcheck on the internet indicates that honey does not spoil. Any
> explanations?
>
>
>
> רש"י בבא מציעא דף לח/א
> והדביש - יצא טעם דובשנו, והחמיץ, אשמלי"ר בלעז (כדאתמר) (איוב לא) ובכל
> תבואתי תשרש תעקר שרשיה, וכמו עד לא ירתק חבל הכסף (קהלת יב) יפתחו
> רתוקות עבותיה:
>
>
> רש"י סנהדרין דף קא/א
> מדביש - מתקלקל ונעשה צלול מחמת חמימות:

Grapes ferment and become wine through the action of yeast. The 
acetobacter bacteria converts the alcohol in wine to acetic acid thus 
making vinegar.

Honey (with water added) ferments and becomes mead, through the action 
of yeast. I imagine that acetobacter can make mead turn into vinegar 
too.

--Ken

-- 
Ken Bloom. PhD candidate. Linguistic Cognition Laboratory.
Department of Computer Science. Illinois Institute of Technology.
http://www.iit.edu/~kbloom1/
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