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Homemade Plastic Free Reusable Beeswax Food Wrap Recipe

What is wrong with cling film? Cling film is one of the most common single-use plastic, and it is estimated that every year we use 1.2 billion metres of cling film in Britain. That is 40 million rolls (of 30-metre cling film rolls), and enough to wrap the Earth at the Equator 30 times (the circumference of the Earth being about 40,000 kilometres). The problem with cling film is that it is hard to recycle, so most of it ends in landfill, and even biodegradable cling film just breaks down into smaller plastic particles, which we now know wreaks as much havoc on the environment and sea life as plastic does. Just like plastic bags, when cling film ends up in the sea it is easily confused for food (by jellyfish for example) and chokes the marine creatures that feed on it. Beeswax wraps are a plastic-free, reusable, fully compostable and marine-life friendly alternative way of wrapping sandwiches, leftovers, cakes, herbs and salads to keep them fresh.

Customer Rating:
5.0 (3 votes)

Posted by: michael
On:

Cuisine

Other

Time

< 15 mins

Skill Level

Newbie

Serves

1

Courses etc.

Beauty and Remedies

You will need

IngredientAdd
You will need :
Varying sizes of natural fibre fabric, such as cotton, linen or hemp
Pinking shears
1 ounce bar of beeswax

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Baking parchment

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A baking tray, or an iron, and ironing board and an ironing cloth or thin tea towel
a brush (optional)

Need help converting measurements? View our recipe measurement conversion tables here.

Method

  • All you have to do is :
  • Preheat your oven to low, that is Gas mark 3, 90C or 200F.
  • Using pinking shears to cut the fabric so it doesn't fray, cut your fabric into desired shapes and sizes. The only restriction is you have to make sure that your pieces of fabric will still be smaller than your baking tray.
  • Cover your baking tray with baking parchment, and place one piece of fabric down, it doesn't matter which side up. Sprinkle the fabric with grated beeswax, covering the fabric as evenly as you can. There is no hard fast rule here, but you will need about half of an ounce wax for a 20cm x 20cm (8" x 8") square. Also, you can always add more wax if you didn't initially put enough.
  • Transfer to the oven and allow to melt for just under 10 minutes. Check that all the wax and melted, and potentially use the brush to help sweep the wax to make sure that it is evenly distributed all the way to the edges and corners. Areas of fabric that are saturated with wax will appear a darker colour than when you started, so look for light patches, and if needed, add more wax over these light patches and return to the oven to melt for about 5 minutes, then check again.
  • Peel the wax coated piece of fabric off he baking parchment, and air it for a few minutes using a clothes peg, or by hanging it over a hanger or the back of a chair, to allow the wax to harden.
  • There you have it : your wax coated reusable food wrap is ready to use. The heat of your hands softens the wax enough to bend and fold the fabric in to any desired shape, to allow you to wrap pieces of fruit, sandwiches and snacks, to use as a lid for bowls and casserole dishes, etc. As beeswax wrap is breathable, you can even use it to keep vegetables fresh longer, especially cut herbs and salads.
  • To clean, simply wash in cool water with a little eco-friendly washing up liquid and hang up to dry.
  • Cracks and folds will appear with repeated use, To refresh your wrap, say after a year's use, simple re-coat it with beeswax.

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