Beeswax

Cire d’abeille

What it is

A colony eats something like six to eight kilos of honey to secrete a single kilo of wax, which makes comb the most expensive material in the hive. Kitchens came to it late, for a prosaic reason: beeswax melts at 62-65C, which happens to be poaching temperature.

In the kitchen

Hold the bath at 65-70C and slide in fish or root vegetables for eight to ten minutes; above 85C the wax darkens and is spent. Strain it back into a jar and reuse it - a single drop of water ruins the batch.

Goes with

Honey Butter Carrot Scallop Cream Apricot

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