How to Clean a Wooden Cutting Board

Have you ever noticed how your cutting boards will smell like onions and garlic after a while? Sometimes the flavor will transfer to other foods….ewwwww. Wiping down the board is great for day to day cleaning but every so often you’ll need to give your surface a deep clean. Here’s how to clean a wooden cutting board.

It’s as simple as using half a lemon and some salt. You’ll find a bench knife to be helpful for scraping. Afterwards you’ll want to condition your board with some food grade mineral oil.

In general it’s advised to use separate boards for meat and vegetables, but stuff happens. We use bleach and water to clean up after cutting meat. You’ll also hear about people using olive oil to condition their boards. My mother-in-law used it on her butcher block counter for years, but I don’t care for it. While I haven’t noticed it going “rancid” I don’t think it does as good a job coating the board. Food grade mineral oil is widely available and since I started using it I haven’t been disappointed in the results. We use it on our wooden utensils, too.

After you’ve finished your everyday cutting boards and wooden utensils, don’t forget to clean and oil your decorative wooden trays, too. It will help to preserve the color and keep the wood from drying out in storage. It takes me about a half an hour every two months or so to take care of my lot. It’s mindless work, perfect for listening to an audiobook or music.

Once everything has been oiled I store the bottle and the rag in a zip top bag to keep them together and to keep everything else from getting oil on it.