Cutting Board Care?

[MomMom]

Hey Mama's! How do you care for your wood cutting boards? I did a search and came up with mineral oil and bleach! One of mine is looking a little moldy. I tried soaking it in vinegar with no luck. Also what are your "rules"? Fore example,we eat meat. Does the meat cutting board have to be separate from veggies with different care? I am also finding it harder to get stains from the meat out of them. It is like they all called it quits this week!Thanks for the help!

[phunkymama]

I don't know what to tell ya, as I chucked all my wooden cutting boards and went to plastic. Not as enviro, but at least they can go thru the dishwasher, and I'm not afraid of getting sick.

When we had wood, we did have one board dedicated to meat. If they're moldy looking, I do think the only way to stop that would be bleach, and then maybe a sanding once they'd dried? We did the vinegar soaks for a while, but it lost it's effectiveness. I never did mineral oil on mine, we bought a bottle of block oil, which I think was lemon oil?

[BunnyMcFluff]

Alton says to sand and then rub with mineral oil to seal--unfortunately, you can't use vegetable based oils, because they'll go rancid very quickly.

[phunkymama]

Originally posted by BunnyMcFluff
Alton says to sand and then rub with mineral oil to seal--unfortunately, you can't use vegetable based oils, because they'll go rancid very quickly.

Should have known he'd have the answer! I Good Eats!

You made me scrounge under the kitchen sink for the bottle of block oil. Ingredients are refined bean oil, lemon oil, vitamin e, carotene. Claims it never goes rancid.

[Ariadne Umbrell]

oy. Never, ever, ever share cutting boards. Meat should ahve one, fish another, and vegetables a third.

Ideally, for sanitation ( I've read) you should get plastic, and then discard it when stains hold, or at one year ( depending). The gouges harbor bacteria.

Bleach. Vinegar can't kill germs, esp nasty germs. It can retard their growth, but not kill them.

There are studies that the natural tannins in wood boards have antibacterial action.

[ElDucko]

I'm not sure of the "rules" but we have one glass one for meat and a plastic one for veggies.

[BlueRoseMama]

I have one plastic one for meat because you can put it in the dishwasher. I also have another plastic one for garlic and onions etc. My wooden ones (I have two butcher block wood ones that a friend made for our wedding) I use for bread, and other dry things... occ to roll out dough, cutting veggies, etc. But never for anything too acidic and never for meats.

The best thing you could do is to start fresh. If you can't do that, you may actually have to bleach it once to kill the bacteria in the board and start fresh that way. My friend has all wooden counter tops, and he has to bleach because he owns a cooking co and it is a health code. But when I asked him, he said that cutting boards have to be seasoned just like cast iron. He said if it is for personal use, he would bleach it once to kill it all, then use veggie oil on it and rub it in really good. After that he said to do that each time it becomes dry and starts to get that 'dry wood color'. He also says becareful about scrubbing it. That can take the seasoning off and you will have to do the whole process again.

I have been doing this for 5 years and the oils have not gone rancid. They may in a different climate. I know not to use Olive Oil because of oxygenation though.

Love Val

[phunkymama]

Originally posted by Mamax4

Plastic cutting boards go against nature. lol They make a horrible sound when the knife hits and ruins perfectly excellent knives.

Do you mean glass here? I would never use my good knives on a glass cutting board! I always use plastic ones, I think they're about $5 at Ikea for 2 standard size ones plus a mini one. I've never had problems with the plastic boards dulling my knives.