Wooden Chopping Boards

lucernarian

Hello there!

I bought one the other day, and naturally I want to start using it. The glass board is painful on the ears let alone any knives.

But I hear it's a good idea to oil the board a bit before use, to stop it cracking etc. All over the internet, I see the term "mineral oil" being the one to use on chopping boards for this. I don't want to take a chance on using olive oil repeatedly for it if it ends up being smelly.

Problem is, I don't know what it is and anywhere I look doesn't have any! I do know that it's baby oil without the perfumes. Found a post on boards and also a website mentioning that. But that doesn't say where I might go to find some.

I did find a bottle in a home decor place in Dublin, but this stuff was fuel grade paraffin oil. It contained white mineral oil according to the bottle label (yay) but then went on to inform me that it was dangerous to the environment and has been known to cause cancer. So I'm damned if I'm putting that stuff on a chopping board!

Any help on where to get this stuff please?!

Btw I tried a chemist and asked for mineral oil or paraffin oil and they didn't have a clue what mineral oil was and hadn't seen paraffin oil in a decade or two!:pac:

lucernarian

Ah, expensive oil. After the prices I saw going for that today, I might just take my chances with olive oil after all:p

mukki

the bottle in my hand has a label for 6.99 on it, and we treated the worktops in the kitchen 3 times (well the wife did, i was playing call of duty 4)


but yeah probably costs more then the chopping board

lucernarian

Ah. The place I saw it in had Danish Oil for 16.99. And though the chopping board was half the price of that, it's still very good and I bought it in a big sale. One of those very thick cross-grained ones. Not the usual strips glued side by side. Each piece of wood is edgeways if you get me. So I wanted to make this bargain last:D

The Sweeper

TBC, mineral oil is essentially what baby oil is made from, except without the added fragrance.

Don't bother with it. You can oil your board if you want, or use it without oiling. If you're going to oil, use a food grade oil like vegetable oil. You oil the board by pouring some oil in a bowl, and then take a sheet or two of kitchen towel and immerse in the oil. Squeeze the towel out so there is no dripping oil, then start to rub it over the board until everything is oiled.

I oil mine every so often - usually when they look as though they're totally bone dry and in need of it. I wouldn't be oiling with a non-food-grade oil on a food preparation substance.

The best way to preserve the life of your board is to scald it off as soon as you've finished preparing food on it, then prop it upright and allow it to air dry. Never leave it immersed in water, or put it in the dishwasher.

The Sweeper

Danish oil - I posted that it wasn't for use on kitchen benchtops, but I'm editing that - half the sites that recommend it say it's food safe and you should use it. The other half don't. Some of the tins themselves say not for bench top use, other tins and brands say 'food safe when dry'.

The upshot is it's polymerized linseed oil, and linseed oil is food for mildew. It also depends on the brand name for how the oil has been prepared. I for one wouldn't use a tin of danish oil with pictures of garden furniture on it to oil my chopping boards without reading the ingredients and preparation list very closely.

Mr Magnolia

As The Sweeper points out, you can't use standard wood treatment oils on a food preparation surface unless you want to seriously sicken people.

lucernarian

I came across a UK forum which mentioned a certain place called Ikea...

http://www.ikea.com/ie/en/catalog/products/00046786

Problem solved:D Thanks for the suggestions anyway, there's some useful info in them.

Alun

Speaking as a wood-turner here who makes things for food use occasionally ...

"Mineral Oil" is a term used in the US for what we here, and in the UK, call "Liquid Paraffin" or more specifically "Medicinal Liquid Paraffin" or "Liquid Paraffin B.P.". Note this is very definitely NOT the kind of paraffin oil that you put in a stove or an oil lamp, but a medicinal grade oil that can be taken orally for laxative purposes. That makes it food-safe in my book (the quantities it's used in as a finish won't cause any laxative effect). It's a somewhat old-fashioned remedy, and therefore becoming more difficult to get hold of, but any decent pharmacist ought to be able to get hold of it for you.

Danish Oil is a vague description, and not defined anywhere. Each make has a slightly different list of ingredients, and it's pot-luck really what's in it. There's usually an oil in it, usually Tung Oil (some use linseed oil), which in it's pure form can be used as a finish too, or in combination with natural ingredients to form special blends specifically made for finishing articles that come into contact with food. These usually include some kind of aromatic oils, mainly to make them smell nice (and therefore sell better!). The problem with Danish Oil is the various unknown (and usually not listed on the label) VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are in it.

Another oil that many turners use for food-safe items is BLO, or Boiled Linseed Oil (plain linseed oil goes rancid very quickly). It also has the property, shared with Tung Oil, that it polymerizes slightly when heated, so that if you apply it to a rotating piece on a lathe, the heat from the friction will harden it and create a nice natural finish.

The Hill Billy

I've used the same wooden chopping board for the past 7 or 8 years now. A big lump of a thing I got in Dunnes for a tenner. It is used every day of the week & I've never oiled it & it is in great nick.

I wouldn't bother oiling it to be honest.

emc2

Hill Billy wrote: »

I've used the same wooden chopping board for the past 7 or 8 years now. A big lump of a thing I got in Dunnes for a tenner. It is used every day of the week & I've never oiled it & it is in great nick.

I wouldn't bother oiling it to be honest.

I think I have the same one, I've never oiled it and it's still in great nick too.

lucernarian

Alun wrote: »

Speaking as a wood-turner here who makes things for food use occasionally ...

"Mineral Oil" is a term used in the US for what we here, and in the UK, call "Liquid Paraffin" or more specifically "Medicinal Liquid Paraffin" or "Liquid Paraffin B.P.". Note this is very definitely NOT the kind of paraffin oil that you put in a stove or an oil lamp, but a medicinal grade oil that can be taken orally for laxative purposes. That makes it food-safe in my book (the quantities it's used in as a finish won't cause any laxative effect). It's a somewhat old-fashioned remedy, and therefore becoming more difficult to get hold of, but any decent pharmacist ought to be able to get hold of it for you.

Danish Oil is a vague description, and not defined anywhere. Each make has a slightly different list of ingredients, and it's pot-luck really what's in it. There's usually an oil in it, usually Tung Oil (some use linseed oil), which in it's pure form can be used as a finish too, or in combination with natural ingredients to form special blends specifically made for finishing articles that come into contact with food. These usually include some kind of aromatic oils, mainly to make them smell nice (and therefore sell better!). The problem with Danish Oil is the various unknown (and usually not listed on the label) VOC's (Volatile Organic Compounds) that are in it.

Another oil that many turners use for food-safe items is BLO, or Boiled Linseed Oil (plain linseed oil goes rancid very quickly). It also has the property, shared with Tung Oil, that it polymerizes slightly when heated, so that if you apply it to a rotating piece on a lathe, the heat from the friction will harden it and create a nice natural finish.

The problem with the term "liquid paraffin" is that people seem to use it and the word paraffin oil interchangeably. I thought that paraffin oil was also known as kerosene, used for many central heating systems. As for chemists, the ones I've tried in Dublin city don't sell it despite its uses as a laxative.

As for Tung Oil, I came across a tin of it that was also retailing in the €15-€20 region so I didn't buy it. I also was told that it's extracted from a nut so people who are nut sensitive have been known to react from cutting food on chopping boards which were prepared with this. That's a small risk I still don't want to take.

Anyway, I got the other stuff. A half litre bottle for €4.50, should do me fine. As per the link it's explicitly labeled as suitable for food utensil use.

quazzy

Hill Billy wrote: »

I've used the same wooden chopping board for the past 7 or 8 years now. A big lump of a thing I got in Dunnes for a tenner. It is used every day of the week & I've never oiled it & it is in great nick.

I wouldn't bother oiling it to be honest.

+1

My lump of wood has been going strong for the last 4 years.

I'd say leave the oil and just carry on regardless

Prenderb

I use olive oil on mine...