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Bee's wax
- Thread starter JCameron
- Start date
There is also a product being talked about lately called "Crisbee", which appears to be a combo of shortening and beeswax. I would guess that a beeswax method doesn't get a lot of attention as it requires a product not usually found in the average kitchen, unlike the more commonly used oils.
"In short, prepare your CI as you would for shortening type seasoning. Get it warm enough to melt the bee wax, getting a puddle. Soak this puddle up in a lint free cloth. Spread a coating of the wax all over the CI piece. Take a second lint free cloth and wipe the surfaces of the CI that you had coated.
"In the mean time, preheat your oven to 475minimum, 500 max.**
"When oven is up to temp, put piece on oven rack set at middle of oven. Bake CI for 1 hour plus. Then shut oven off and let it cool till you can handle it. Repeat the coating and wiping process, return to oven reheated to same temps. Again let it bake for an hour. Now you can repeat as many times as you like obviously the more times you do it the better the 'season coating.' When you finally let the CI get to room temp, note how black it is, and how hard and slick the surface feels.
"Now for fun and giggles give your piece a lite spray of non stick, heat it up, and fry an egg. When you go to pick it up and flip I'll bet you have a lot of trouble getting the egg on your spatula. You will chase it all around the pan.
"When you clean this piece now, use boiling water to cut residual oil, or grease. Wipe dry, heat it up to dry, and then you are ready to store unit. Bee wax will not turn rancid, it your pot does stink, it is because there is residual cooking grease in pot, or on lid.
"Note:
--Bee wax will be in a solid chunk, possibly even molded. Make sure you get 100% pure beeswax (food grade) and not the kind you buy in craft stores for candlemaking.
**Warning: if you get too much hotter than 500 deg. you will burn your seasoning off."
"In the mean time, preheat your oven to 475minimum, 500 max.**
"When oven is up to temp, put piece on oven rack set at middle of oven. Bake CI for 1 hour plus. Then shut oven off and let it cool till you can handle it. Repeat the coating and wiping process, return to oven reheated to same temps. Again let it bake for an hour. Now you can repeat as many times as you like obviously the more times you do it the better the 'season coating.' When you finally let the CI get to room temp, note how black it is, and how hard and slick the surface feels.
"Now for fun and giggles give your piece a lite spray of non stick, heat it up, and fry an egg. When you go to pick it up and flip I'll bet you have a lot of trouble getting the egg on your spatula. You will chase it all around the pan.
"When you clean this piece now, use boiling water to cut residual oil, or grease. Wipe dry, heat it up to dry, and then you are ready to store unit. Bee wax will not turn rancid, it your pot does stink, it is because there is residual cooking grease in pot, or on lid.
"Note:
--Bee wax will be in a solid chunk, possibly even molded. Make sure you get 100% pure beeswax (food grade) and not the kind you buy in craft stores for candlemaking.
**Warning: if you get too much hotter than 500 deg. you will burn your seasoning off."
Glenn Brown
Member
That's interesting, as I think beeswax and honey are God's miracles for us. Beeswax can be used in so many ways, and honey is surely the elixir of the gods. I buy raw honey in 4# gallon jugs a couple of times a year from a local apiary. (Bee place) Pooh Bear would really be jealous of me. I also use beeswax and have some on hand. I'll have to try this. Thank you for the post and info.
Bonnie Scott
Active member
Speaking from a nursing perspective I would advise against this method. Although beeswax does not contain harmful chemicals it is not digestible. In a person with a young healthy colon this would probably not cause a problem but as you get older it's just not that easy. I could easily see this aggravating or possibly even causing diverticulitis or an intestinal blockage. 
Speaking from a nursing perspective I would advise against this method. Although beeswax does not contain harmful chemicals it is not digestible. In a person with a young healthy colon this would probably not cause a problem but as you get older it's just not that easy. I could easily see this aggravating or possibly even causing diverticulitis or an intestinal blockage.
@475 degrees the wax is polymerized and any pollen or pathogens are destroyed.
Just like lard or oils are polymerized .
Diverticulitis is caused from not eating enough roughage not from honey or bee's !
Glenn Brown
Member
I tried this on 2 pieces and it appeared to work really well. Haven't used them to cook with, yet. The amount of beeswax still left in the pan after wiping cannot amount to much. I googled up ingesting beeswax and it appears to be harmless in small amounts. I get my wax from a local apiary and filter it. I use a large screen sieve (6 in dia.) like a tea strainer. I use a brand of paper towel, I'll have to find out the brand for you. It works quite well and gets out most of the sediment/foreign stuff. It's what the apiary uses to filter the wax. I use 2 cup size plastic containers as molds--get them at the Dollar Store. Each block weighs about a pound.
Thanks JCameron for the tip! This stuff is amazing! Two coats of beeswax looks nicer than 8 coats of flaxseed *shudder*
For anyone doing this, I'd say to be careful who you buy from. I found a lot of information about different qualities of beeswax and about people selling bad or impure beeswax with other additives (like paraffin wax) that may not be good for our purposes. Or maybe paraffin will be the next big thing.
Anyway, I found ivory beeswax at the local apiary supply store (couldn't get to any actual apiaries, but the family running the place has kept bees for generations). This beeswax has such a wonderful smell, especially as it melts onto the pan. It's a little more difficult to use than Crisco due to it's higher melting point - it's harder to maneuver the hotter pan and I had to reheat my #15 three times to get the whole thing coated. But I'd say the little bit of trouble seems to be worth it so far, at least in terms of looks. The resulting costing is darker and somehow appears to be thicker than both flaxseed (which is garbage IMO) and Crisco.
I'm going to do one more coat tomorrow then I'll post pics. But the true test will be when I make another deep dish pizza..
For anyone doing this, I'd say to be careful who you buy from. I found a lot of information about different qualities of beeswax and about people selling bad or impure beeswax with other additives (like paraffin wax) that may not be good for our purposes. Or maybe paraffin will be the next big thing.
Anyway, I found ivory beeswax at the local apiary supply store (couldn't get to any actual apiaries, but the family running the place has kept bees for generations). This beeswax has such a wonderful smell, especially as it melts onto the pan. It's a little more difficult to use than Crisco due to it's higher melting point - it's harder to maneuver the hotter pan and I had to reheat my #15 three times to get the whole thing coated. But I'd say the little bit of trouble seems to be worth it so far, at least in terms of looks. The resulting costing is darker and somehow appears to be thicker than both flaxseed (which is garbage IMO) and Crisco.
I'm going to do one more coat tomorrow then I'll post pics. But the true test will be when I make another deep dish pizza..
Try a fried egg or crepes in it .
The other day we had company and I asked who all wants an omelet. Well everyone did and I started making up the first one and my friend John came over and said " with that pan you will be making scrambled eggs, you need a Teflon pan" I smiled and said " oh really" and poured my eggs in my unknown gatemarked no smoke ring , pitted , fancy handle. I rocked the pan around coating the bottom with egg and set it down on the burner. After a few min " John" says you think you can flip that? Man it looks stuck! ". I then took the spatula and gave the one side a fling and over it goes . At which John lets out a very audible " Whoa " And I said to him " If you think that is cool watch this " and I rolled the pan back and forth and the half folded omelet just slid around in the pan like it is on ball bearings.
The other day we had company and I asked who all wants an omelet. Well everyone did and I started making up the first one and my friend John came over and said " with that pan you will be making scrambled eggs, you need a Teflon pan" I smiled and said " oh really" and poured my eggs in my unknown gatemarked no smoke ring , pitted , fancy handle. I rocked the pan around coating the bottom with egg and set it down on the burner. After a few min " John" says you think you can flip that? Man it looks stuck! ". I then took the spatula and gave the one side a fling and over it goes . At which John lets out a very audible " Whoa " And I said to him " If you think that is cool watch this " and I rolled the pan back and forth and the half folded omelet just slid around in the pan like it is on ball bearings.
lol good story. I was definitely impressed when I fried an egg in cast iron for the first time. Unfortunately this pan is WAY too big for any burner on my stove, so I can't really fry an egg on it!
Two layers (dry / after baking):
The two layers didn't look as good as I thought. Even worse, I left it in the oven without adding a wet layer of wax, and it rusted through the seasoning somehow! It's been super humid lately, which probably didn't help.
Luckily, the rust wiped right off. Here's how it looks with two more baked layers + fifth wet layer... I'll probably stop at 6 baked layers. Unfortunately the rust/bluing color patches still show through a bit.
The final test will be the pizza test this weekend or on monday!
Oh yeah, I finally went with Doug's tip (in the seasoning article) of setting the hot pan on cardboard. I wish I had done it this way all along! First I used an aluminum baking sheet which left silver scratches on my pans. Then I lined it with paper towels and wasted paper towels. Once I did it on the stove and got the stove waxy. The cardboard is the perfect surface!
Two layers (dry / after baking):
The two layers didn't look as good as I thought. Even worse, I left it in the oven without adding a wet layer of wax, and it rusted through the seasoning somehow! It's been super humid lately, which probably didn't help.
Luckily, the rust wiped right off. Here's how it looks with two more baked layers + fifth wet layer... I'll probably stop at 6 baked layers. Unfortunately the rust/bluing color patches still show through a bit.
The final test will be the pizza test this weekend or on monday!
Oh yeah, I finally went with Doug's tip (in the seasoning article) of setting the hot pan on cardboard. I wish I had done it this way all along! First I used an aluminum baking sheet which left silver scratches on my pans. Then I lined it with paper towels and wasted paper towels. Once I did it on the stove and got the stove waxy. The cardboard is the perfect surface!
W. Hilditch
Active member
Let’s think about this. From the mid 1800’s to the mid 1900’s, cast iron’s heyday, did your ancestors use beeswax to create seasoning? Of course not. Animal fats created the seasoning and they worked wonderfully with normal cooking. The CI skillet lived on the stove, was used at least two times a day and never saw beeswax.
If a piece of cast iron was to be stored for an extended period of time, due to lack of usage or a long trip through hot and humid conditions then beeswax was applied as the perfect protector. Much better than fuel oil when it was time to cook in it again, and no rust.
I have found that CI cooks that camp and use fire or charcoal to cook, as well as beeswax, talk about reseasoning way too much. Not so from those that cook with animal or vegetable fats.
This may have been a victim of information being passed along too many generations without the correct details, and those who now believe work to justify the concept.
Hilditch
If a piece of cast iron was to be stored for an extended period of time, due to lack of usage or a long trip through hot and humid conditions then beeswax was applied as the perfect protector. Much better than fuel oil when it was time to cook in it again, and no rust.
I have found that CI cooks that camp and use fire or charcoal to cook, as well as beeswax, talk about reseasoning way too much. Not so from those that cook with animal or vegetable fats.
This may have been a victim of information being passed along too many generations without the correct details, and those who now believe work to justify the concept.
Hilditch
Oh wow where to start?
This is called " Florida seasoning" they have bee's in Florida even as far back as the 1850's where this is documented as being the favored method to season cast iron in the hot tropical sun due to the fats going rancid in the seasoned pan.
Have you ever taken the lid of a dutch oven to get knocked over by the foul smell of cast gone rancid ?
It doesn't come off can't be washed out and will make food cooked in it taste terrible.
The only way to get rid of it is to strip the seasoning and re apply.
I am guessing you think every time you use the pan you add bees wax to it.
You do not.
You season the pan once or twice with bees wax then animal fats are used to cook with and applied after cooking.
The bees wax seasoning is used to close the pores and provide protection against rust and rancid fat getting into the pan
I am not a victim of anything.
EdgarLopez
Member
What people don't understand why ci smells funny and taste funy, they have all kinds of issues, ci was designed to use it every day.not to store it or use it as display, :whip2:
I decided to research this a little further on my own. The only references I can find on the web, in 15 pages of Google results, to "florida seasoning", that refer to cast iron and not a food seasoning blend, are this thread and one other, which can be found here: http://www.campinnforum.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=19865#Post19865 (I also see that at least one other poster here is familiar with that forum.)
While the thread in question is indeed talking about the use of beeswax on cast iron, to me the post referenced reads that what the poster calls "a Florida seasoning" describes basically something that might be done to apply any seasoning oil or fat (or beeswax) without actually cooking food, and is not speaking specifically of beeswax. Coupled with not having ever encountered the term elsewhere in all my years of researching and reading about cast iron, it is difficult for me to accept this as confirming the existence of any widely known, long-established beeswax-based methodology.
While the thread in question is indeed talking about the use of beeswax on cast iron, to me the post referenced reads that what the poster calls "a Florida seasoning" describes basically something that might be done to apply any seasoning oil or fat (or beeswax) without actually cooking food, and is not speaking specifically of beeswax. Coupled with not having ever encountered the term elsewhere in all my years of researching and reading about cast iron, it is difficult for me to accept this as confirming the existence of any widely known, long-established beeswax-based methodology.
I'm curious as well. I have a local beekeeper that makes 100% unfiltered organic honey without any chemicals. Now I trust him in that I know him personally, however he said when the bees fly around, they sometimes land on plant that do have pesticides and those pesticides can make it into the beeswax. I do live in a small town and rural area but it's hard to say if ranchers in the surrounding area use pesticides. While I'm a big proponent of experimenting with beeswax, I'm also a little leery of risking having pesticides as part of my seasoning. Etsy shops also make and sell beeswax and it must be food grade, but it seams as though if one is to season with beeswax, one must buy from a trusted source. Straight beeswax is usually very cheap and I hope that I can use it as an alternative to plant and animal oils.