Constantly hand-wash your wood cutting board. Never ever put a wood board or other wood products (like salad bowls and spoons) in the dishwashing machine or immerse them in a sink filled with water since they’ll warp and/or fracture.
If you can’t clean your board right after preparing food, simply leave it on your counter up until you can get to it. In some scenarios, you might not even require to clean it. If you have actually just sliced up bread, simply brush away the crumbs or clean the surface area tidy with a wet fabric or paper towel.
If your board does require cleansing, very first carefully eliminate any stuck-on littles food utilizing a bench scraper or metal spatula. If there are any persistent discolorations, you can produce a slurry of baking soda and water and carefully rub the mix onto the board utilizing a Scotch-Brite sponge.
Carefully scrub your board with a sponge and hot, soapy water (we suggest utilizing a moderate odorless meal soap, such as Seventh Generation Free & & Clear Meal Liquid). It is essential to clean both sides of the board (even if you sliced on just one side) to avoid it from drying unevenly, which might trigger the board to warp.
Wash the board and dry it completely with a tidy meal towel or paper towels. Stand it upright on your counter to avoid any recurring water from pooling, and let it air-dry entirely prior to you keep it.
Eliminating undesirable smells
If your board gets any smells from powerful foods like garlic and onions, there are a number of methods to ventilate it. In the Wirecutter test cooking area, we like to utilize a mix of lemon juice and kosher salt to ventilate boards, and the majority of the woodworking pros I consulted with stated this was not most likely to hurt the wood. Nevertheless, you might wish to evaluate this very first by scrubbing a little location of your board, given that particular kinds of wood or surfaces might respond in a different way to any cleansing service.
Sprinkle the board with a generous quantity of kosher salt. Squeeze lemon juice over the salt, and utilize the cut side of the lemon to rub the mix over the board (if your lemon isn’t really juicy, you can likewise include a little water to the board to produce a thick paste).
Permit the paste to dry on the board entirely, and after that carefully scrape it off utilizing a bench scraper or metal spatula. Wash and dry the board.
Additionally, to assist remove smells, you can spritz the surface area of a board with a service of 25% distilled white vinegar and 75% water. Simply make certain to stand the board upright after spraying to let it air-dry entirely prior to saving it. And know that this might briefly leave a vinegar taste behind on your board.
Handling mildew
If your board establishes mildew (generally this appears like clusters of little black areas), it’s most likely time to say goodbye to it. Mildew generally arises from insufficient drying prior to saving. According to Allison Samuels, creator of Two Trees Studios, “mildew tends to gather on the really border of the board, which is where you have actually been standing it as much as dry.” If you actually wish to restore your board, the pros suggest getting in touch with an expert woodworker for recommendations or, if you’re up for a job, sanding off the mildew. Nevertheless, Samuels warned that you wish to make certain you’re sanding down enough of the wood to eliminate all of the mildew, otherwise it might return.
What about sterilizing your board?
Most of the times, soap and warm water suffice for cleaning your board. You do not require to decontaminate it unless you’re utilizing it to prepare raw meat. However we ‘d suggest that you utilize a different plastic board for meat, poultry, or seafood, and a wood board for whatever else. Plastic boards can be quickly sterilized with a chlorine bleach service or cleaned in the dishwashing machine without harming them. Utilizing a different board likewise assists remove the danger of cross-contamination.
The USDA does recommend utilizing a water down service of chlorine bleach and water to sterilize boards. Nevertheless, this approach dried and blemished the wood boards in our tests, so we do not suggest it.
You might likewise have actually checked out cleaning your board utilizing distilled white vinegar. It’s not signed up as a disinfectant with the Epa, however, so vinegar will just eliminate dirt and particles, however it will not sterilize the surface area (that is, eliminate microbes). A vinegar service can, nevertheless, assistance eliminate strong smells from your board, as pointed out above.
