I quite like candles. Something about the small flame makes me feel warm and calm. I used to buy 4 per month from a store in town. Any scent that wasn’t food was fair game. However, during my research into environmental allergens, I discovered that paraffin wax is actually hard on the immune system when heated (like commercial seed oils and chlorine). With a sigh, I stopped burning candles in the house. Natural soy and beeswax candles are rather expensive and in the current personal recession, I stopped buying them completely. The good news is I might be able to have candles again!
After receiving some “dirty wax” from one of Mr. MDP’s friends at work (shout out to nicksbeehaven.com!), I thought I would try my hand at making beeswax candles during the days when it is too cold to be outside. The wax was still full of honey and insect bodies, hence the name dirty wax. Mr. MDP melted out the honey and rolled the remaining wax into balls and threw them in the freezer until such time as I found a use for them.
Does this look like haggis to anyone else?
Accidentally made whipped honey. Can we recreate the process?
During our after-Christmas blizzard, I rendered the wax in the crockpot. It smelled amazing! (Note: do not use anything for the wax that you want to use for food. The wax is VERY difficult to remove.) Once cooled, I had a beeswax disk that I stored in the refrigerator. It was still pretty dirty so I strained it one more time before using it.
Cleaned -ish beeswax. First try.
Wax in the crock again. Yes, that is a stocking.
Once I was satisfied with the wax, I pulled the tallow that I rendered last spring out of the freezer.
