cutting board maintenance

[Zahid Naqvi]

A few weeks back I made my first cutting board (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=35777&highlight=cutting+board). On advice from some of the more experience creekers I applied a couple of (liberal) coats of mineral oil and put it to duty. But as we continue to use it the top dries off, although I admit that we wash it with soap and water after every use. How else is one expected to keep it sanitary after cutting, for example, chicken on it.
Should I continue to douse it with mineral oil frequently, or are we doing somehting wrong here? The cutting board in our kitchen sees a lot of use, from vegetables to onions to meats and bread. So it has to have a hygienic cleanup method as well as durability.

[Mark Rios]

When I ws making a bunch of boards a couple of years ago I seem to remember being told a rule of thumb about this. IIRC, it was (after the initial liberal first coatings):

Once every day for a week, then once every week for a month, then as needed.

I'm sure that some of the more knowledgebale folks here will have better info on this.

There have been a couple of articles written about tests performed on cutting boards made of different types of materials. Wood turned out to be very good at NOT retaining and growing bacteria because of the natural tannins in the wood. This killed off (along with cleaning the board appropriately, of course) the bad ol' yucky bacteria like salmanella and such. The plastic boards just had alot of nooks and crannies for the germs to grow in WITHOUT any natural germ killers.

Sorry, that"s all I remember.

[Vaughn McMillan]

Zahid, you're not doing anything wrong IMO. When it starts looking a bit dry, just oil it back up. The ash and walnut are relatively porous, so your board will likely drink up quite a bit, especially with the washings. (And I agree with you on washing with hot soapy water. I do it quickly, then dry the board immediately with a towel.)

I believe I've heard of the "once a day for a week, once a week for a month..." procedure recommended for paste wax, but I don't see any problem with following it for oiling a cutting board, too.

Most of my boards get an initial soak for 24 to 48 hours in mineral oil. I can really see a difference in the amount of oil different wood species will soak up. After they seem to not be absorbing any more oil, I wipe them "dry" with paper towels, then wrap them in cotton towels for another day or two, to let some of the excess oil bleed out. My point in mentioning this is that I doubt you can over-oil the wood. (One time I forgot about a couple boards I had soaking, and they were in the oil for about 5 days. Didn't seem to hurt anything, although the wood darkened somewhat.)

HTH -

- Vaughn

[Mark Rios]

Thanks for the clarification Vaughn. I think you're right, It may just have been paste wax. Thanks for not letting me lead someone else astray and doing something wrong.


:eek: :D

[john whittaker]

Zahid,
We use 3 boards....

One end grain board for veggies which just gets wiped off after each use...and occasionally washed and dried immediately.
One board w juice groove for cooked meats which gets washed and dried immediately.
One store bought plastic board used for raw meats which gets washed in the dishwasher.

Many folks will not prepare veggies on the same board that the meat touches. All my boards are oiled (mineral) as needed. When they start looking dry...out comes the oil.

By the way...nice looking board.

[Jim Becker]

I never use soap on our wood cutting board--only hot water, but it's only used for veggies. Meats are cut on plastic boards that can go in the dishwasher. I've actually been quite remiss in re-oiling our board...it's way over-due!

[Howard Acheson]

Most professional cutting boards and commercial chopping blocks are treated with a mixture of mineral oil and paraffin. The paraffin will add to the longevity of the treatment.

Heat the mineral oil in a double boiler. Shave in the paraffin. The ratio is about 5-6 parts mineral oil to one part paraffin. Precision is not required. Apply the mixture heavily and let it set overnight. Do it again the next day. The next day lightly scrap off any residue and buff with a rag.

This treatment will last longer but re-treatment will be required whenever the board begins to look dry.

The "once a day for a week" etc. is for a drying oil finish using linseed oil. It's not a treatment for a chopping block.

[Frank Fusco]

Mark is correct. There have been a lot of studies showing wood cutting boards to be far more sanitary than synthetics. However, many people have trouble accepting this as is 'seems' contrary to logic. Don't take our word, do searches. Our cutting board is never washed with soap, just wiped off with damp paper towel between uses. For lubrication we use olive oil.

[Art Mulder]

Every now and then I see these posts, both here and on other boards, asking about cutting boards. I must confess, I am always bemused by them.

Here below, is a cutting board of mine that is at least 20 years old, and probably over 25. I think that it is maple, but I'm not 100% sure. It used to belong to my parents, but they gave it to me when I moved out of the house. At one point about 14-16 years ago I dropped it, and a glue joint failed. I never bothered fixing it, as we actually liked it better in the two smaller pieces. (at 12x20x1.5" the original was quite heavy). It is a side-grain board, not end grain, so lots of cuts show up over the years. Oh well, it is a tool, not a piece of artwork.

In all those 20 plus years we have never, ever, put any finish on it to "renew" it.

We cut meat, vegetables and sometimes breads on it. I rinse it when done and let it drip. Sometimes I scrub with the soapy dish brush, and run water over it. I never let it soak in water, and never (of course) put it into a dishwasher.

So, my philosophy of cutting boards? Here it is: You don't need to put anything on a working cutting board. If you want to, for reasons of aesthetics, that is another matter.

best,
...art

ps: Jim, I agree with Frank. I've heard the same results. You might want do some Googling and check on your own. My recollection was that a wood cutting board was much safer than plastic. Even doing nothing, the bacteria die on a wood cutting board within a few minutes.

[glenn bradley]

Mark, Not that it really matters but I think you are remembering correctly about the once a day, once a month deal. I was inspired by some of Vaughn's boards and went on a mission to learn about them. I found an article that described the week / month procedure using refined mineral oil or 'cutting board conditioner' which is the same thing with a price bump for the fancy name. ;-)

[Zahid Naqvi]

lots of good advice guys, looks like I need to make a few more of these for various applications;)

[Jesse Cloud]

In cooking school, not woodworking school, I was taught to use the broad edge of a large knife or cleaver to scrape off a thin layer of wood, freshening the board. I never put oil on mine, but I'm probably a better cook than a woodworker :D .

[Steven Wilson]

Zahid, I just melt some parafin into mineral oil and apply it hot and thick. After it soakes in and dries, I do it again, and again. Finally I use a blunt card scraper (one with no hook turned) to scrape off the excess and then just buff it out. After doing that every 3-6 months for the first two years the board will be fairly well saturated and then you won't have to do it as often.

[Rodney Randal]

I have tried the mineral oil/paraffin on my cutting boards and have found it to be rather short lived and uhhh.... "oily" :(. I found this http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=5223
at Woodcraft, and have been very impressed with it :). It lasts much longer than the mineral oil/paraffin and it seems to actually "dry" to a very protective coating.

Rodney

[Matthew Poeller]

http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infcuttingboard.shtm
http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Cutboard.html

I find it intersting that there are all sorts of things that you can come up with on these things. The first article is from a Phd that did some research on wood versus plastic. The second is from a Phd that did some work on what to wipe down the cutting board with and below is some clarification from some of Cliver's (the first article) work. HOPE THIS HELPS. I THINK THAT I AM JUST MORE CONFUSED;)

From and artivle on sciencenews.com:
When Dean O. Cliver of the University of California-Davis began testing that common-sense wisdom as it pertains to cutting boards, 4 years ago, he too found that it didn’t seem to hold up. Microbiologically, at least, wood outperformed plastic, because he could extract plenty of live bacteria from the surfaces of plastic boards but virtually none from wood boards that had initially been tainted with the same number of bugs (SN: 2/6/93, p. 84).

In follow-up tests, he’s witnessed the same trend. Even after slathering bacteria onto wood cutting boards, he finds it next to impossible to retrieve them because they are quickly drawn beneath the surface into the initial 1 millimeter of wood (see Sponges and sinks and rags, oh my!).

Though many bacteria die during this process, some can remain alive for hours. However, even they can’t contaminate food unless the boards are cut open, he’s found. "And from that standpoint," he told Science News Online, "our results are reassuring."

Yet even he wouldn’t trust his wood cutting boards to fully decontaminate themselves. He washes them thoroughly -- and, when in doubt, microwaves them for a deep steam cleaning. His team published its experimental findings on how procedures for using a microwave to clean hardwood boards last year in the Journal of Food Protection, and equivalent data for dishrags or sponges, this year, in a journal serving the commercial food-service industry.

[Alan DuBoff]

I also use mineral oil, and put it on whenever I see the wood looking dry. I prefer to use mineral oil as I have always felt that vegetable oil has additives in it that can potentially mold. But I have used vegetable oil on cutting boards, and in fact my parents have one that I made for them over 30 years ago, and it was rubbed with vegetable oil and has held up fine.