Are they worth the hype, or not worth the buzz?
If you’re looking at greening up your kitchen routine, you’ve almost certainly looked at ways to store food without plastic. Silicone bags and containers, glass jars, stainless steel containers, or stretchy non-plastic lids. But the silicone comes in set sizes, and they’re expensive. Glass jars break, and stainless steel everything gets not only heavy, but LOUD. And the stretchy lids? Those break too. You love plastic wrap for its versatility, and ease, there has to be a way to use something similar. Lucky you, there is, and you’ve probably seen it. Beeswax reusable food wraps. They’re reusable, come in multiple sizes, and if you’re of a DIY bent, you can actually make your own.
The Good
Straight off the bat, let’s answer the question you’re here for. Are beeswax reusable food wraps any good for preserving food? Yes, they are. You can use them for preserving fruits, vegetables, cakes or leftovers. You can use them to cover dishes, wrap around a sandwich or just wrap half an onion. Using them for a replacement for storing food in the short term, is perfect in our opinion. The fabric will eventually wear out, but this means that they can be used in your garden or as a fire starter, so you’re still keeping waste out of landfills.
Now, those of you paying close attention might notice that we stressed only using these for short-term storage. In researching, we found that the wraps did best at preserving foods between 1-3 days. Our favorite maker, Abeego, claims that their wraps keep food fresh for up to a week. So if you’re taking a dish for lunch, or you’re going to use the rest of that avocado in dinner a few days from now, they’re ideal.
The Bad
However, if you’re looking for storing something for longer than a week, we suggest looking for something else. They do have a few other drawbacks, but this is the biggest. As to what those other drawbacks are, they all have to do with the construction of the wraps. Thanks to the wax coating, you will get a light coat of wax and oil on your hands or dishes when using them. This is inevitable since it’s your body heat that makes the wraps pliable for use. Fortunately, this is food-safe wax and easily washes off. As we just mentioned, your body heat melts the wax. You need that in order for it to be shaped and to seal to itself. However, this also means that you don’t want to leave the wraps near your stove or exposed in your car, or somewhere else where it will be very warm.
Now that you know what they’re good at and what they’re not, some of you have hopefully decided still to purchase them. That’s great! We’ll show you how to take care of them.
How To Care For Them
For cleaning them, you can either brush them off or wash them. Brushing them off works when you’re dealing with a dry food like cake, or bread. Something that’s going to be just crumbs. When washing them you need to use cold water, soap and a soft sponge. Wash carefully and then lay it out to dry. For storage, you can either roll your wraps onto roll similar to plastic wrap, or you can fold them. Taken care of properly, a good wrap will last roughly a year before the wax ‘gives out.’ Now, provided the weave of the fabric is still solid at the end of that year, you can ‘revive’ your wraps. The Art of Doing Stuff shows you how over at their blog. This means that you can continue to use your wraps even longer, saving your wallet.
How To Get Them
A quick note before we ‘wrap’ things up. You don’t have to purchase beeswax wraps. If you want to, you can make your own, following the guide of Mountain Rose Herbs. They walk you through both their failures and their successes before they give you the recipe and steps you’ll need. This offers the benefit of being able to size them just how you want or need to best fit your life. On the other hand if you’re thinking “who has the time,” we get it. In that case, a good quality wrap is going to cost you between $6 - $9 for a single one, with the best coming from Abeego.
After looking all of that over, we think we’re willing to give beeswax wraps a chance in our own kitchens. They seem like a great way to stop fighting with cling wrap, and keep a little more plastic out of the landfill. What about you? Are you looking at getting some or making some of your own? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page. If you’re willing, we’d even love to see some pictures of the process!
Now, if you landed here not because you’re looking to remove plastic from your kitchen, but because plastic melted in your dishwasher, we can still help. Or if you’re having any other issues with your major appliances, from your fridge to your ice maker, your dryer to your oven. At Appliance Rescue Service, we aim to be the best in the Colony, and that means taking the best care possible of YOU our clients. You can get hold of us here on our website or via phone at ((214) 599-0055). We hope to see you next week.