Suggestions for cuting board finish?

[Frank Boettcher]

Informed literature? I've been using walnut oil for years have never had a problem with it going rancid.

[dadiOH]

It also soaks in and will last as well as anything.

In reality, there is little point in using *anything* on a cutting board. Ever see a butcher's block? (A real butcher, not a supermarket one.) Those blocks have nothing on them but are scraped daily.

[Swingman]

"Frank Boettcher" wrote

Means you're obviously ill-informed literature wise, Frank.

:)

[mac davis]

I'm sort of leaning that way, Woody, after spending a couple of hours DAG..

Seems like mineral oil, mineral oil and beeswax and walnut oil are the favorites.. I have lots of mineral oil from a previous attempt to use it for wet sanding turnings, so that might be the fastest solution (no pun intended) and easiest to have the chef repeat often..

mac

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[mac davis]

Hmm... the wonder of this group.. I must have read 30 or 40 pages last night and BLO didn't come up... I guess the smell goes away in a few days, so that would work.. doesn't attract dust like mineral oil does, either..

mac

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[mac davis]

Must just be for use... I eat there a lot and have never seen it..

That was my thought.. might be safer and faster, too..

I hadn't even thought about planing.. have to see if it just needs sanding or if the planer would be a good idea first..

mac

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[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've used mineral oil on quite a few boards. It never attracted dust, dog hair, grass clippings, or any of the other negatives some mentioned. It is sold in stores as a cutting board oil, buy mine came from the drug store.

[mac davis]

Well, this IS Mexico... Hopefully it won't be getting any dog MEAT on it..

mac

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[mac davis]

Hmm... Being in Mexico, all the local authorities care about is getting their "taxes"... I doubt that there IS a sanitary code here..

I'm thinking more and more that no finish is best...

mac

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[NoOne N Particular]

I remember my stint in Coast Guard boot camp a few different lives ago. We had to have a week of duty in the kitchen (ok, mess halls), and I was in a station that had a very large butcher block. The end-of-day routine for it was to simply wash it down (plain water if I remember correctly), and then cover it with about 1/4 to 1/2 inch of salt. If a butcher block can take the abuse of hundreds of Coast Guard recruits preparing tens of thousands of meals, it should handle a restaurant too.

Wayne

[dadiOH]

Yes, as soon as it dries. In the interim, you can make it smell nicer by adding a bit of oil of wintergreen.

[SonomaProducts.com]

[Phisherman]

I've just completed a bread slicer, made from a couple pine scraps I had. I finished it using (pharmacy) mineral oil.

[Michael Faurot]

I haven't seen anyone else in this thread mention this, so here goes ...

I've made a number of cutting boards, for personal use and as gifts, and I've finished all of them with Watco Butcher Block Oil & Finish[1]. I've just followed the instructions on the can, especially where it concerns final dry time before being used for food preparation, and I've had good results.

I'm not sure where you could get Watco stuff locally in Mexico or on-line. I'm in Texas and get it locally from Lowe's.

[1]:

[nailshooter41]

This thread comes along every few months, and I always get a chuckle. Being ever the empiricist, I have observed the following:

I have made most of the turners, spoons, serving ware and utility utensils we use in our very busy kitchen. There is an assortment of woods, and each has been treated with different oils and oil/wax blends. No difference in smell, texture, wear or anything else has been noticed by myself or SO.

And then I think... If I am so scared of uncured oils penetrating my treenware, why do I use them on my wok? Why do I use them for frying and stirring? Surely turning a piece of fatty fish (salmon) fish quick seared at high heat would encompass the fears of some here, no?

Or turning burgers in a teflon skillet with my white oak wide body turner... wouldn't those fats work their way into the wood? One would think. But so far, no problems. Wash, dry, put in rack. With about

25 or so turners, spoons, stirrers and testing spoons I don't have ANY smells from anything on these utensils. They have been in use for years now.

And what about that cutting board. After reading these threads I think well... should I cut that damn brisket or dismantle those ribs on that wooden thing or not? Hot grease and meat juice would certainly penetrate the wood and not only smell to high heaven after it goes rancid, but it could make any or all of sick.

Thankfully, years and years of cutting up raw meats, sausages, cooked meats and vegetables of all types on wooden boards sealed with whatever I have on hand when I think they need a little quick moisture have resulted in no foul odors, no mildew, no sickness.

You should put whatever you want on your board, understanding that the oils offer little or no protection. What is important is that you clean them properly and allow them to dry thoroughly when changing preparations.

BTW, I learned from an amigo of mine that worked in a butcher shop for years that they NEVER clean the butcher block with any kind of soap, water, or detergent, nor do they put any finish on it.

After a hard day of hacking and chopping, they cleaned the block off as best they could with a towel, scraped it with a cabinet scraper, and scrubbed the daylights out of it with a lemon that was cut in half, then mashed into kosher salt for grit.

My personal obervation after sawing into a board with test oils on them is that while they make make the wood more attractive, they coatings don't do much on cutting boards or tools.

I do like the walnut oils on bowls, etc. that can have liquid collect in the bottom. Mike Mahoney makes a special curing walnut oil for bowls that is supposed to be great, and that should work as well as anything else for light wood protection.

As always....

Just my 0.02.

Robert

[Lew Hodgett]

chuckle.

I'm curious.

In this day and age of low cost, FDA approved, polypropolene cutting boards, why bother making a wooden one except as a display piece or a gift.

Lew

[nailshooter41]

Actually, some folks have run an entirely new battery of tests that indicate that the old woodies are safer for the kitchen than plastic due to the grooves left by a sharp knife. With a plastic board, the soft plastic simply rolls over on either side of the groove left when cutting. Examination of my own polyprop boards revealed this scratchy feeling surface. On a wood board, cutting raises the cut grain, and the raised/severed fibers are knocked, rubbed, flecked, or washed off, leaving the clean groove behind with nothing to hold the bacteria.

I willingly admit that in practical application the difference in the two may not amount to a fart in a tornado, but no one likes facts like this group.

I personally like the wooden cutting boards as their bulk an weight make them better suited to my cutting style, and while it may be my imagination, it seems my knives stay sharper longer on the wood boards.

Robert

[Frank Boettcher]

I remember reading some of those studies years ago. University of Wisconsin comes to mind, but memory may have faded.

Conclusion was that while all cutting boards can have bacteria after use, the manmade materials would continue to allow bacteria growth, while something about wood inhibits the growth and time would take care of any residual critters.

Frank

[Art Greenberg]

Here are two, with references to other articles:

[Mike Marlow]

Like Robert, I prefer wood but that's just "because". I am surprised at the results you quote above. I would have thought exactly the opposite to be true. In fact, I might even say "are you sure?..."