Heritage Hints From Mama: Uses For Waxed Paper
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I’m excited to have my Mama with us today! She has a lot of wisdom to share. Be sure and click on some of her other posts at the bottom after you read this one 🙂
Gratefully,
Christy
Hello Everyone!
My name is Janice, better known as Mama. You are welcome to adopt me as your go to Mama and I’ll attempt to answer any of your questions. I will be here to pass on my years of learning by trial and error. Today I thought I would pass on some of the many uses for wax paper.
Now some of you young people may not have a roll of wax paper in your kitchen but I am from a different generation who used it to wrap sandwiches. You see we did not have all sizes of zipper bags: snack size, sandwich size and now even large sizes for storing bedspreads and the like. We used wax paper primarily to wrap sandwiches for our lunches. Over the years, I have found a few different uses for wax paper.
One of my favorite uses is to put it under batters to catch the drips. I use a batter bowl to mix up pancake batter. The bowl has a lip on it so that you can pour the batter into the pan. After you pour the batter, there is always a little that drips from the lip onto the counter. If you wait to wipe it up, it becomes similar to concrete and takes a lot of scrubbing to get it up. Just put a small piece of wax paper on the counter underneath the bowl and you don’t have to worry about the drips. Just wad it up and throw it away when you clean up.
I also slice tomatoes and potatoes over a piece of wax paper and then just gather it up with the peelings still on it and throw it away. It saves having to mess up a bowl or messing up the counter with the peelings (Those thin plastic grocery store bags are good for this as well).
If you are icing a cake, cut three small pieces and slide them underneath the edges. After you finish icing the cake, slowly pull them out and the cake plate will be clean as a whistle. (By the way, who knows how clean a whistle is? I’ve always wondered about that!)
I have another wonderful use of wax paper that saves having to get up on a stool or ladder to clean the tops of your cabinets. If your cabinets do not go all the way to the ceiling, cut a long piece of wax paper to lay on the top of the cabinets. My cabinets are a little narrower than the wax paper. I just cut the length and then fold about an inch under and lay it on top of the cabinets. If you want to display things on top of the cabinets, just set them on top of the wax paper. When you get ready to clean the top of your cabinets, just roll the wax paper up, throw it away and cut another piece to fit. It sure cuts down the time that you would usually spend cleaning the greasy cabinet tops! Ideally, you should probably change the wax paper every three months or so but I promise I will not drop in to see if you want to do it once a year. No one will know but you.
Now, in closing, I’ll leave you with a tip that most of you probably know. I just discovered it last year and it has made a real difference! Most rolls of wax paper, aluminum foil and plastic wrap have a tab on each end of the box that you can push in. It keeps the roll from falling out of the box when you are rolling the product out to cut it. I guess if I had time to read the boxes, I would have known this sooner. Oh well, at least I found out about it before I turned seventy! You see there is a bright side to everything!
Let me know if you have other uses for wax paper or if you discover a time saver for the home. We’re all here to learn together. I’m sure everyone would love a few timesavers and shortcuts.
In the meantime, I need your help. Is there anything in particular you’d like me to write about? I enjoy visiting with y’all but I want to share useful information that you’ll enjoy so your ideas are welcome! Please share them in the comments along with any other great ideas for waxed paper uses. We’d love to hear them!
Take care and remember Mama loves you!
~Mama
You can some read other Heritage Hints From Mama By visiting the links below:
Since I moved too far south for fall foliage, Mama sends leaves which I preserve by ironing them between sheets of wax paper.
It is also great for lining the large cake pans (big party or wedding size). You certainly don’t want those cakes to break!
I use wax paper to cover things in the microwave and sometimes under the container to make spills easy to clean.
I think you are my new best friend… I can never seem to keep the tops of my cabinets clean, and this will certainly do the trick!! Thanks for sharing!!!
Thanks for sharing! When I worked in retail we used wax paper to “shine” the racks. It cleaned up the hanger grease on the racks. It now does the trick at home to clean the bar that holds the shower curtain.
I buy the large package of hamburger meat and make patties. We use wax paper in between the patties and freeze 5 in a package. I can toss them in the microwave to defrost right before dinner.
We use wax paper all the time in our microwave. Poke a few quick holes in a wet baking potato (to let the steam escape), wrap it in a piece of wax paper (just twist the ends — nothing fancy needed), and zap it for a few minutes, depending on the size of the potato. Rinse off a fresh corn cob (the water makes the microwave cook better — I’ve forgotten why), wrap it in wax paper, and you’re good to go with that, too. We also put a piece on top of containers when we’re microwaving other things to cut down on the spatters. Beyond the microwave, homemade fudge wouldn’t taste the same if we didn’t have to unwrap the wax paper it always seemed to come in, and we northern kids used to go out every autumn to hunt for the prettiest leaves to press between sheets of wax paper so they’d last; either forever or until our moms threw them out. (Be sure to put the waxed side in towards the leaves, and not on the side of the iron!) I’m always shocked when people see our roll and say they haven’t thought of wax paper in years. What’s a kitchen without wax paper? The memories alone earn its place in our cupboard!
I also recommend using it to line the “work surface” when your kids are playing with playdough!!
My Momma put her divinity on waxed paper and used it to wrap sandwiches and put it in her cake pans ! Have you ever tried using the waxed paper that is in in cereal ? I haven’t done that in a long time but remember that it worked well. I pulled it apart to a rectangle and wiped away the crumbs. Free waxed paper ! I miss my Momma.
Thank you Mama. I remember my Mama using waxed paper for all those things. Our sandwiches were always wrapped in it. We had a slide made of metal and she would wipe the slide part with waxed paper and we would go hurtling down that slide at a rapid rate. It was wonderful.