How to Clean Wood Cutting Board? [Step-by-Step Discussed]
Nowadays, kitchen utensils can be cleaned and fixed with a flick of a finger. If your knife has become blunt, you need to run it along with an electric sharpener. Dirty dishes are tossed right into the dishwasher, and out of shape wood chopping boards are thrown away to the trash.
It might not be important to discard a cheap board, but it would be a shame for the chef if it went wrong because proper cleaning and care weren't given. Wiping away the dirt is not that hard, and with the help of our article, you'll be able to learn how to clean wood cutting board step by step.
Let’s get started.
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Best Way To Clean The Wood Cutting Board
Step 1: Rinsing the Board
Mix a light quantity of soap into a small bowl of hot water. Then take a sponge and dunk it into the fluid and scrub the entire board. It has been proven scientifically while cleaning the volume of water holds great importance. The more water you use, the more bacteria and dirt particles will be removed.
A lot of water should be used to run over the board and mainly on the jarred sections where most of the food particles are trapped. Maximum cleansing would be ensured in this way.
Step 2: Disinfecting the Board
The chopping board must be disinfected with either a solution containing two tablespoons of chlorine bleach and a gallon of water. You should only use pure white vinegar as the rest of the kinds of vinegar gives out an undesirable smell to your board.
These fluids are the best medium to disinfect the item because vinegar, being an acid, has a very low pH and bleach is a base, so it has a very high pH. Bacteria and other germs can live in specific pH conditions, and therefore are killed by this solution.
You will have to apply this by dipping a clean cloth into the mixture and wipe the board with it in an up and down motion. Keep doing it until you think it has been disinfected thoroughly.
If a mold-like or sour smell comes off your board, all you need to do is put a cup of baking powder onto it and spill white vinegar all over it. An oxidation process will occur due to the mixture of these two ingredients, and any stain or bad smell will be eliminated from the cutting board.
There is, however, another natural way of taking care of this situation, chop up a lemon into a half and then repeatedly knead the sides of the lemon along with the item. Once you are done, let it stay like that for a couple of minutes before you wash it off.
Step 3: Drying the Board
Now that all your rinsing and disinfecting parts are done, you have come down to a crucial step; drying it up. The last step must be the most significant because if you are unable to remove all the molecules from it, the wood will swell and become warped after a while.
This is one of the biggest reasons why you shouldn’t drown your board in water or never put it inside a dishwasher.
Though it is not a part of the cleaning process, it is advised to rub mineral oil onto the entire board after it has become dry. If you do this every time after clean up, the oil will take up the space between the wood fibers and stop water from getting in there.
By this, cracking and splitting are prevented, which in turn stops the growth of bacteria and germs in those cracks.
You should never use organic oils as there are fats in them which will become spoiled and therefore go rancid. Due to this reason, the board will start to stink a lot.
Tips to Keep Your Board Hygienic and Clean
Final Words: By now, I'm sure you know exactly how to clean the wood cutting board.
So, take proper care of your board. It might not cost a lot of money, but why waste your cash when the warping can be prevented with just a bit of attention? Follow all the steps mentioned above and make sure you keep all the tips we talked about in mind.
We hope that this article was helpful. Please, don’t hesitate to comment below if you have any confusion or question.
