Which oil for chopping board?

[MaiDong]

I have some brown coloured oil, not crude colour, but more like honey colour, I think I bought it to oil my desk years back but I'm not sure it's suitable for oiling a cutting board, any ideas what a suitable oil in Thailand is called, in Thai language?

Thanks in advance! MD

[MaiDong]

My 9 year old just told me น้ำมันแร่ would that be about right?

[Seligne2]

If it's น้ำมันแร่ (mineral oil), then you are good to go. Mineral oil is the oil of choice for butcher's blocks, cutting boards, knife handles, etc. Anything that comes into contact with food. Many oils get sticky, mineral oil does not. But 2 observations: 1. mineral oil is colourless and has no discernable scent. If yours is brown, I would wonder about it. 2. I have searched Thailand high and low for mineral oil and have never found it. I even asked a Thai pharmacist friend and he says it is unavailable here. If I were you, and was uncertain about the type of oil it is, I would not use it. I have started using coconut oil as an alternative for all kitchen utensils. BTW, mineral oil does not harden, so not a good choice for furniture.

[2fishin2]

No Oil anything you put on it will transfer to food. Simple wash and dry after every use is best. If it gets too ugly and cut up and you feel you need to make it pretty, just take a hand sander and sand it down.

[Seligne2]

One can eat mineral and coconut oil. The oil soaks into the wood and you wipe off the excess. There is no oil that gets on food. Water is wood's worst enemy.

[xen]

i have an ebony cutting board and i just oil it occasionally with a cooking oil .

[MaiDong]

Is this Ebony? Looks like it to me, with those wavy rings;

[MaiDong]

Mrs Maidong has just informed me that it's actually tamarind wood, I wonder what oil I could get away with on that?

[Seligne2]

Wood is wood. It does not matter what kind of wood your kitchen utensils are. You just need to use and oil that: 1) is non-toxic, 2) does not get sticky over time (as do cooking oils). I guarantee you that mineral oil (used as a laxative in Western countries) is best for this purpose, but not easy to find in Thailand. I have had some luck with coconut oil. Its main drawback is its price.

[MaiDong]

So the coconut oil will soak in, and then should I wipe the surface? Will that prevent the coconut oil from coming off onto the food we prepare?

[slipperylobster]

I would think some Lemon...makes the most sense.

"one of the easiest tricks is to cut a lemon in half and run it across the entire surface. The ascorbic acid in the lemon both reacts with and oxidizes organic material (bacteria) that is the cause of smells and stains. The natural lemon oil also forces any soluble materials to be removed as well."

http://www.cuttingboard.com/blog/what-type-of-oils-are-safe-to-use-on-your-cutting-board/

Perhaps rub it with the lemon rind...or process the rinds to make a bit of oil

[MaiDong]

Wipe with lemon/lime after I've applied the coconut oil?

[2fishin2]

Why do you feel so strongly you NEED oil? You dont need to do anything except wash when finished and dry. Cutting boards are functional and dont need to be pretty. The post about lemons for cleaning is good to. You do not need to oil it. Want to transfer oil to your food go right ahead. It will last forever.

[Seligne2]

So the coconut oil will soak in, and then should I wipe the surface? Will that prevent the coconut oil from coming off onto the food we prepare?

Allow the coconut oil to sit and soak in. Then wipe with paper towels and allow to dry. Coconut oil is used in cooking for frying. You could drink a bottle of it and have no ill effects to show for it except the shits for a week.This is why the kind of oil you use is important. It must be an edible oil.

[Seligne2]

Why do you feel so strongly you NEED oil? You dont need to do anything except wash when finished and dry. Cutting boards are functional and dont need to be pretty. The post about lemons for cleaning is good to. You do not need to oil it. Want to transfer oil to your food go right ahead. It will last forever.

A common cutting board is easy. You can ultimately just toss it out and buy a new one if you don't take care of it. But think about things like 150kg butchers blocks or a beautiful salad bowl made of exotic wood. If you are a normal person, your inclination will probably be to want to keep it in the beautiful condition it was in when you acquired it. The only way to do this is to take care of it. Wipe it out after use with minimal water and no soap and oil it periodically. It will then last several lifetimes. The same applies to other things: that favourite knife with the wooden handle, etc.

[Seligne2]

Wipe with lemon/lime after I've applied the coconut oil?

I have never done that and don't see why it would be needed, but it certainly would not cause any harm.

[2fishin2]

Why do you feel so strongly you NEED oil? You dont need to do anything except wash when finished and dry. Cutting boards are functional and dont need to be pretty. The post about lemons for cleaning is good to. You do not need to oil it. Want to transfer oil to your food go right ahead. It will last forever.

A common cutting board is easy. You can ultimately just toss it out and buy a new one if you don't take care of it. But think about things like 150kg butchers blocks or a beautiful salad bowl made of exotic wood. If you are a normal person, your inclination will probably be to want to keep it in the beautiful condition it was in when you acquired it. The only way to do this is to take care of it. Wipe it out after use with minimal water and no soap and oil it periodically. It will then last several lifetimes. The same applies to other things: that favourite knife with the wooden handle, etc.

Agree to an extent....if a person owns a 150kg butcher block then its for commercial use and they care about functionality and not look.

As far as soap goes, you better use soap! And you should on occasion use a diluted mixter of bleach and water on it also. Water only will never take bacteria off that board. Salmonella and food poisoning is a big concern dont ya think?

[Seligne2]

Here's a quote from research at the University of California: "Our research was first intended to develop means of disinfecting wooden cutting surfaces at home, so that they would be almost as safe as plastics. Our safety concern was that bacteria such as Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella, which might contaminate a work surface when raw meat was being prepared, ought not remain on the surface to contaminate other foods that might be eaten without further cooking. We soon found that disease bacteria such as these were not recoverable from wooden surfaces in a short time after they were applied, unless very large numbers were used. New plastic surfaces allowed the bacteria to persist, but were easily cleaned and disinfected. However, wooden boards that had been used and had many knife cuts acted almost the same as new wood, whereas plastic surfaces that were knife-scarred were impossible to clean and disinfect manually, especially when food residues such as chicken fat were present." (See http://faculty.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/faculty/docliver/Research/cuttingboard.htm)

Wood contains enzymes, etc., that kill bacteria. If you are really concerned about bacteria and the item is small, put it in the microwave for (I'm guessing, 10 seconds or so).

I owned a 150 kg butcher's block and had it in my home. End-grain maple. ~100 years old. The butcher's family I bought it from were the ones who instructed me about the importance of oiling it in the interests of sanitation and maintenance.

[MaiDong]

I've got several professional chef friends in the UK who swear by oiled wooden cutting boards, that's why I'm persisting, I fully subscribe to the ethos of keeping things in good condition to lengthen their life, why buy shit and throw it away 6 months later because it's warped/cracked/fat stained??

Mrs Maidong has a Thai 'BBQ'(skewered pork/chicken/beef) business and bought this cutting board because we've tried with plastic cutting boards but they're IMPOSSIBLE to clean, no matter how hard I scrub, with brillo or wire wool, I can still wipe oil off the board with my finger.

So, I'll have a look around for some suitable coconut oil, I assume it has to be 100% pure, I haven't really seen anything other than 100% pure coconut oil anyway, it's all over the place isn't it

Thanks for all your suggestions, especially Seligne2, much appreciated!

MD

[HooHaa]

given that it is a run of the mill thai cheapie cutting board, why not just use and replace it when needed, what do those cost, 99 baht?

also using a wooden cutting board with pork and chicken especially is begging for trouble.

im uncertain as to how you would have difficulty with a proper food-grade white plastic board, soap and water and a bleach rinse.

[MaiDong]

The cutting board cost about B300 I believe, B50 more than the plastic food grade cutting board we bought from Makro.

I challenge you to cutting pork skin & chicken fillets on a plastic cutting board and managing to get it clean, it's well known that it's practically impossible to do so. If you need, I can make a little video showing you, assuming you have no faith in my elbow grease

[MaiDong]

Our cutting board, 38cm in diameter and 7cm's thick, is not a 'run of the mill thai cheapie cutting board', it's used universally by businesses all over the land...My carpenter friend in the UK would give his left testicle for my cutting board

[MickA]

May I ask where you got it from please?

[wayned]

Most butchers will not ever wash a cutting board or for that matter oil it. They rely on the natural oils from the meat that they cut to keep it seasoned. Also they would usually have a separate board to cut poultry. They would clean the board by scraping it with a sharp knife/cleaver but never scrub it with soap water and a scrubbing pad

My cutting boards are home made from local trees that are cut down and I surface them using a planing machine. They are rarely washed but I do oil them with normal cooking oil and throw them out when they develop cracks where bacteria can grow.

[MaiDong]

May I ask where you got it from please?

From one of those run-of-the-mill sellers who push their carts around the streets of the kingdom

[Seastallion]

So the coconut oil will soak in, and then should I wipe the surface? Will that prevent the coconut oil from coming off onto the food we prepare?

I have the same as you....very solid and very heavy (about 10kg). It went black mouldy, and sanding by hand was almost useless as the wood is so hard.

I did some research and food grade mineral oil seems to be the consensus. Vegetable oils will encourage mould.

The "mineral oil" used as a laxative mentioned above may be castor oil, and that would work, but I would be cautious of any mineral oils as some may be toxic.

Locals boil or soak their new boards in a strong brine. You can oil it after it dries. I don't have any pot big enough for boiling, so at the moment I'm just scrubbing it every time and then leaving it out in the sun.

I'd be interested to know what the final consensus of this thread will be. I'm thinking of experimenting with vege oil, but with salt...see if I can get salt to dissolve in oil.

[2fishin2]

So the coconut oil will soak in, and then should I wipe the surface? Will that prevent the coconut oil from coming off onto the food we prepare?

I have the same as you....very solid and very heavy (about 10kg). It went black mouldy, and sanding by hand was almost useless as the wood is so hard.

I did some research and food grade mineral oil seems to be the consensus. Vegetable oils will encourage mould.

The "mineral oil" used as a laxative mentioned above may be castor oil, and that would work, but I would be cautious of any mineral oils as some may be toxic.

Locals boil or soak their new boards in a strong brine. You can oil it after it dries. I don't have any pot big enough for boiling, so at the moment I'm just scrubbing it every time and then leaving it out in the sun.

I'd be interested to know what the final consensus of this thread will be. I'm thinking of experimenting with vege oil, but with salt...see if I can get salt to dissolve in oil.

Oil will not remove mould. Use a hand sander or planer. Dont need any oil.

[Seastallion]

Yes....it was to prevent further mould.

This very pale wood (tamarind, I've just learnt above) is very very hard. I sanded for about and hour and the original small saw marks were still there...and the black mould. I went through two sheets of 180 grit for just one side.

[wayned]

My new made to order cutting board treated with mineral oil:

[KillingTime]

So i too have been trying - without success - to find mineral oil in Thailand having bought one of the circular Tamarind end grain boards found all over the country.

Until today.

It seems Ikea Bang Na have been carrying this stuff for sometime but it never occurred to me to look for it there.

Here's the link.

http://www.ikea.com/th/en/catalog/products/00170993/

I shall go and get some tomorrow hopefully. Alas my board now has cracks all over it as it's been laying around for months. Might have to trek down to Klong Toei market and pick up another.