By Ann Weaver.
My family has a large wooden cutting board. We’ve had it since I was born, which means it’s been close to twenty years. We have cut everything besides raw meat on it. (Raw meat can infuse germs into wood, so we use a plastic board for that.)
Unfortunately, the cutting board often gets a bit smelly. Even worse, it can cuase the flavor of something particular pungent to meld into whatever else you cut on it. Imagine a garlic-tasting apple! Yes, that’s happened many times before. It is not pleasant in the least.
When we know the board needs to be cleaned, we don’t just wash it with soap and water. That’s fine for surface cuts, but it doesn’t clean the grain of the wood. Instead, we use the method I will be teaching you today.
Grab a container of kosher salt and half a lemon. Yes, it needs to be kosher salt, because the flakes are bigger.
Take your cutting board over to the sink and sprinkle some salt on it. Using the cut side of the lemon against the board, scrub the salt back and forth, scrubbing with the grain of the wood. Make sure you’re squeezing the lemon at the same time to get the juice to come out and help the salt to stick better. You can rub it against the wood as well, but running with the grains will clean it better.
After a few minutes of scrubbing, wash off the salt and lemon juice. Use soap and wash it like you would with any dish, making sure that all suds are rinsed off. Repeat directions on the other side of the board. Let it dry and place it back wherever it goes.
It’s not a huge deal, but it definitely gets the job done. It can also help if the board has been colored by something bright like strawberries, which has definitely never happened at my house! XD
Let me know if you use this method with your family’s cutting board in the comments below!
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