How to clean beeswax from your kitchen utensils
If there is a beekeeper in your life, chances are you have had some of your good kitchen utensils used for melting beeswax. You may even think those utensils are ruined forever. I assure you, they are not.
If you happen to melt wax in your good double boiler or like me, ‘ruin’ something (a spoon) by dipping it in melted beeswax, it is salvageable. With hot water, paper towels, vegetable oil and dish detergent, you can clean those “ruined” items right up.
This is how I cleaned the spoon.
- Fill a pot with enough water to cover item being cleaned
- Bring water to a boil
- Place item in the boiling water
- Boil until the beeswax melts
- BE CAREFUL! WATER AND ITEM WILL BE HOT!
- Remove it from the water and immediately wipe off with a paper towel
- If it still feels waxy wipe down with a small amount of vegetable oil
- Then wash with hot, soapy water
This is how to clean the pot.
- Pour the water out
- **When discarding the waxy water, DO NOT pour it down the sink drain or down the toilet. Dispose of this water outside. The wax can stop up the drains.**
- Fill the pot up with water and bring it to a boil again
- Pour boiling water out (outside)
- Immediately wipe out with paper towels (careful, it will be hot)
- Coat it with a small amount of vegetable oil
- Wipe the oil out with paper towels
- Wash in hot, soapy water
Beeswax is a messy product to work with and all precautions should be taken to avoid using your good kitchen equipment; try to locate your wax melting equipment at your local second hand store and keep them separate from your good items. But if your good things do get used, you can clean them up good as new again.
11 Comments
What does the vegetable oil do?
The vegetable oil combines with the wax making it easier to wipe out.
Try a drop of lemon oil (essential oil, not lemon juice) on a paper towel and the wax will usually come off very easily by just wiping the item.
Beeswax is a very big problem which I think everyone is facing with their utensils. I hope these tips will help people to clean beeswax easily from their kitchen utensils.
Why does the beeswax reform after a while when I use it to make cannabis salve with coconut oil and hemp seed oil.
Thanks for the info. Trying to remove wax from moustache brush and comb. I soak in dish soap then put in dishwasher. Works, sometimes.
Dryer sheets work very well to remove wax from the stove, the floor, utensils, and any hard surface. They leave no residue behind. I pick through the trash at my local laundromat for them.
I’ve done exactly what this article says and it works every time.
I made a salve with beeswax, cocoa butter, coconut oil and red palm oil earlier today, I was feeling kinda lazy lol so I put all of the ingredients in a small ball jar and melted it on my coffee burner (drip coffee pot)
It did take a while for the beeswax to fully melt using my lazy girl method but it worked and I only had one spoon to clean.
Total time was roughly three hours, I checked it frequently, and it turned out just as well as using the more traditional method.
This post explain how to clean beeswax from your kitchen utensils. Beeswax issue of kitchen utensils very important issue. This post solve the problem by this tips. Thank you for the tips.
Hello and thank you for your information! Did wash wax items in my sink without really thinking about the repercussions. No issues right now, but what can I do to clear out the drain in order to be proactive? Thanks
I bought a jar of honey with a honey comb inside it. Every articles out there says it is eatable. But the wax sticks to the utensils and hard to remove. I can’t help myself to ask again if it is really eatable? It taste good!