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How to Maintain Wooden Cooking Tools for Generations to Come

www.eater.com How to Maintain Wooden Cooking Tools for Generations to Come

A little extra TLC can turn your wooden cutting board into a family heirloom

Off to purchase some coconut oil!

24 comments

I would 100% avoid coconut oil or any organic oil for wood. It can go rancid and ruin your tools.

You can buy food grade mineral oil from your local pharmacy. Just rub some on with a cloth, and keep applying as long as the wood will soak it.

Reapply when the wood lightens.

Source: I make cutting boards and such as a hobby.
- Same. This stuff is excellent and I've used it for years on cutting boards and butcher blocks I've made. It's all natural, obviously food safe, super easy to apply with a paper towel or cloth, and the bottle lasts forever.
  
  Mineral oil is a petroleum distillate, a byproduct of fossil fuel production. I'm not saying it's necessarily unsafe or unethical to use, but calling it "all natural" is a bit of a reach.
  
  You can (if you like) buy food grade beeswax and use a double boiler to melt the wax and oil together.
  
  For fun more than anything else.
- The credited response!
A little extra TLC can turn your wooden cutting board into a family heirloom

The reason I have a cutting board in the first place is because it is expendable and, unlike, say, a table or countertop, it doesn't matter if a knife cuts into it and damages it. Like, it's literally the expendable surface between the knife and the thing I don't want to suffer wear and tear.
- For sure. I think trying to preserve these tools is a bit of a waste of time. But extending their lifespan is always a win in my book
  
  not oiling your woods and stainless kitchenware is abuse!
  
  with that being said i would use food grade mineral oil, why are you suing coconut?
I’m curious about the bacterial growth factor that can occur with wood. Saying these things can last a lifetime without even mentioning the bacteria they can absorb and harbor makes this read more like an ad at some points.
- I don't have a better source, so feel free to be critical to this but wood actually is antibacterial as it dries according to for example this https://www.hawkmade.com/the-science-behind-the-antibacterial-properties-of-wood
- You probably don't want to use plastics if you're concerned about bacteria.
  
  Right I’m of the mind that silicone and metal are for me since those tools can be chucked into the dishwasher.
  
  Plastics can be put in the dishwasher. But then you also have to deal with microplastics.
- They don't really harbor bacteria well. Most of the woods uses are anti-bacterial, they actually kill off a whole host of pathogens.
  
  But, if you're taking care of the cutting board, you can sanitize easily anyway. A mild vinegar or bleach solution, an inexpensive cloth towel, and you just wipe down between things. If you're really paranoid, you can wash a smaller board in a sink, but it isn't really necessary.
  
  If you keep the board oiled and waxed, nothing is going to soak in at all.
  
  Now, I'm not saying you can just chop up a bunch of dripping chicken and leave it sitting there for hours. But you can safely wipe down after meats, and have no fear of contamination, or cross-contamination. It just isn't a good place for bacteria to thrive at all, and good cleaning takes care of the rest. Hell, I'd trust that over a plastic board that's run through a dishwasher, which is pretty much as clean as things get.
  
  No bullshit, there's been testing done on wood cutting boards. They don't absorb much of anything, and don't harbor bacteria. Even if you leave something wet on them, it won't soak in much at all, and will dry completely given time. That's not the kind of environment pathogens like.
- Wood tends to be antibacterial.
- Just pour boiling water on them when you clean the kitchen
- Where are you getting this information from?

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