Oils To Use On Cutting Boards? Which?

[artfulasian]

Besides using mineral oil, what other oils are food compatable oils that can be used on cutting boards.

Mineral oil just doesn't seem to have any staying power.

Thanx in advance.

[George]

Nothing.

Walnut oil will cure, but it's really not super durable either. Will shed water, though, along with bacteria and food drips.

[Leon]

Natural oils from foods.

[dadiOH]

Any once cured....linseed, tung, etc.

[Bill D]

Good old common Linseed oil (from the flax plant) has never killed anyone. A google will tell you all about its properties.

Cheers Bill D

[Edwin Pawlowski]

That has been my choice also. I have 30 year old boards that still look OK (worn a bit of course) and still work.

[Larry Jaques]

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 11:00:16 +1200, the blithe spirit "Bill D" clearly indicated:

Now warn him to avoid the boiled linseed oils which comprise 95% of the shelf stock here (dunno 'bout NZ.) They can contain toxic heavy metal driers.

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[Robatoy]

but NOT peanut oil.... that shit can kill people. Rare, but it can happen.

[justme]

Mix the mineral oil with paraffin wax. You may have to melt it a little with a hot water bath, but it lasts a lot longer.

[Andy]

Anything, once cured, should be non-toxic. However, anything that cures can be cut through, chipped, etc. The whole point of using mineral oil is that it does not cure, so you can't cut through it or crack it or chip it - it just soaks into the wood and stays soft. I haven't tried mixing mineral oil with paraffin, but it sounds good - if thie mixture is thin enough (maybe applied warm?) for the wax to soak into the wood, it should stay soft enough to avoid any cuts or chips. But then again maple (or any good cutting-board wood) has small enough pores that it shouldn't soak in very far anyway... Andy

[Leon]

What I meant to say was let the oil from the foods you cut up naturally soak in to the block.

[George]

Uh, Andy. What special property of mineral oil makes it flow any farther into the wood than any other oil? What oil in your knowledge makes a film that "chips?"

The words are lovely, but the ideas seem a bit out of line with reality.

An oil which has not cured is easily emulsified by use of detergent, BTW.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Any food oil can putrify. Food oils also feed bacteria. The idea behind mineral oil is to get into the pores before water or food oilds can do so.

[Dave W]

Actually, it is not that rare, about one percent of the population has the peanut allergy. I am one of them. Fortunately, the allergen goes away in the process of making peanut oil. Cold pressed oilwhich is not processed beyond squeezing the peanuts, is highly toxic to people like me; it is usually just found in health food stores.

[George]

HUH? This is really interesting. What you want to do is lyse them or flush the bacteria away. That's why you use detergent. Your theory would have him oiling the board after every washing to displace other oils? Of course, cell walls love oil, hate water as a rule, so you're giving them a good place to keep from drying out in the mineral oil.

Try this experiment. Take your food oil, rub on all sides of a board, then place it on a flat surface to protect the oil on one edge, leaving the rest open to the air. After a week, use your nose to discover that oil in the presence of ample oxygen does not go rancid. Oil with a lack of oxygen does.

[Robatoy]

I thought that's what you meant, Leon. I just can't help myself when it comes to tossing in the Peanut allergy warning. A kid in my daughter's class had that allergy. Nasty. His parent held an info meeting on the topic. I grew up eating meat from a butcher who did it all on a huge block of whatever wood. This guy made everything by hand. It is his fault I love sausages so much. I'm pretty sure that's what the old-time butchers relied on. That and a splash of bleach. That was, of course in the pre-bandsaw days when they had to bust a joint with a cleaver... hard work.

[randall emberg]

100 % Tung oil is also a food safe treatment and recommended for cutting boards

[Bill D]

Excellent point Larry, I don't usually use oil with any additives so I guess you could say I wasn't considering all alternatives of my advice. Thanks.

My wife actually takes linseed oil for health purposes (purchased from health shop) so that also narrowed my thinking.

Best advice - no matter what the product, read the label carefully.

Cheers Bill D

[Australopithecus scobis]

You really don't want that to happen. Saturated fats will go rancid. Yuck. Better to stuff the pores with something inert.

[George]

Butcher blocks when I had to use them were salted nightly. "Stuffing the pores" with a liquid seems a bit far-fetched. Solid, like cured oil, maybe.