Warming Salve

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Warming Salve

Filed under: Salves — Henriette @ 9:00 am

This warming salve is very good for cold days and nights.

http://www.henriettesherbal.com/blog/?p=43

 

I made a warming salve last week. Here's the how-to:

Pour 1.3 l oil (I used cold-pressed safflower oil) into the top bit

of a waterbath, add 100 g powdered ginger (I zapped mine with the

blender), add 100 g powdered cayenne, add 50 g powdered mustard,

leave on heat for 1.5 hours, let cool.

 

Pic: Some small ginger pieces float in the cayenne-red oil in the

waterbath.

 

Put a sieve onto a bowl, put an industrial-sized coffee filter into

the sieve, pour as much of your oil'n'herb mess into the sieve as

will fit, let drip overnight. If you top up the mess in the sieve

with what's left in your waterbath bowl you can finish your salve

the next day; if you didn't you'll just have to wait until your oil

has dripped through the coffee filter, which possibly takes another

night.

 

Pic: Leftovers after 2 days of dripping.

 

Then measure your oil (I got 1 liter), add beeswax (1:8, that is,

125 g), melt on full heat, and pour into jars. Let cool, add lids,

label.

 

I got the original warming oil recipe from the UK herb society

pages, back when Rene Burrough ran the site and Chris Hedley and Non

Shaw were regular contributors. When I first saw it I just shook my

head: is anybody crazy enough to actually make this? But hey, this

was Chris Hedley, one of the best herbalists I know, so I gave it a

try with a small test batch. It was very nice: put some oil (or

salve) on your skin, and wonder 15 minutes later why just that spot

is so warm.

 

The original proportions for Non's hot oil, as given on the Jan 1998

herbmonger page, were:

25 g (1 oz) cayenne pepper

30 ml (2 T) mustard powder, Sinapis alba

15 ml (1 T) ginger powder, Zingiber officinale

10 ml (2 tsp) ground black pepper, Piper nigrum

300 ml (10 fl oz) vegetable oil

 

Pic: Cayenne powder and cut'n'sifted ginger.

 

They said to double infuse for a stronger oil - I haven't found that

necessary, my recipe is hot enough for me. And I really dislike

recipes where you mix grams with tablespoons, 'cos then you can't

tell the proportions of different ingredients at a glance.

 

Salves are less messy, and you can use less of them for the same

zing, so I made this into a salve. Which I've made every winter --

it's a very popular xmas gift.

 

One caution: wash your hands after applying the warming salve (to

cold feet, to the chest and back if you have a cough, or just to

warm your bones). If you don't, and you rub your eyes or touch other

sensitive mucous membranes, it's going to hurt. For quite a long

time.