Why should we do this? Mainly because wood is a relatively 'soft' material and with the sharpness of the knives we use, small grooves are created on the surface of the cutting board. When food becomes trapped in these grooves, it can decompose and cause bacteria to grow, the board can become stinky, all kinds of things can happen. Another thing can happen is that when we wash our boards with hot sudsy water and dry it quickly before putting it away, the water that has seeped inside the board can cause the wooden board to split and crack over time.
How do we season a cutting board? Here's how and what you'll need.
1 soft cloth (I grabbed a cotton one out of my husbands 'bag of rags' from our last home improvement project)
A Mineral Oil (do not use a vegetable oil, olive oil, canola oil etc only because a vegetable type oil will become rancid over time, mineral oil will not.) I picked up a small bottle of it at Ikea in their kitchen tool section.
Cutting Board
Here's the How-To
Start with a clean, dry cutting board. We want to really let this mineral oil seep into the grain of the board. Depending on the size of the board, pour an amount on to the board.
Wipe with the soft cloth with the grain of the board, not against it.
Once this process is complete, repeat on the other side of the board.
If you (like me as well) don't get to this as often as one should, you should ideally repeat this process in 24 hours to really seal the board. But if you are diligent about it, you could probably get away with skipping the "repeat in 24 hour step"
The first time I did this I was amazed at just how much oil absorbed in to the wood, I giggled because it seemed as if the board was thirsty. The cutting board also looked new again. Good luck, I hope you find good success with this!!
