Several weeks ago, I mentioned stained cutting boards. And a number of you threw out some ways to clean them. After doing some research and experimenting in the kitchen, I figured out what works best for my strawberry stained wood cutting boards!
Step 1- Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the cutting board and then gently squeeze some lemon juice over the salt. Use the flat side of the lemon to rub the salt and lemon juice around the stains.
The acid from the lemon juice will also help with disinfecting!
Step 2 - Sprinkle some baking soda over the lemon juice and rub gently with a kitchen towel. Rub for a few minutes, in small-ish circles.
Step 3 – Rinse the lemon juice and baking soda from the cutting board for a minute or two under lukewarm water. Pat dry and then air dry.
…..Voila!
What has worked for you in getting those pesky stains out of your cutting boards?!
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Fantastic . . . I’ve always wondered this myself. Even though no-one else uses my cutting boards, I’ve always found them ugly and embarrassing! Good Tip – Thanks!!!
I use plastic only, because I can throw then into the dishwasher or hot soapy water with bleach. I have a supermarket chain in town that sharpen all my knives for free, so I don;t worry about dulling my knives on them
I have stains from fresh basil and rosemary on my one cutting board so you will see me jumping across the room so that other people don’t see the disgusting stain. I screamed- no don’t use that one. My husband said “Is that for the chicken so we shouldn’t use it for other things?” Sure, let’s go with that while company is there. My cutting boards are plastic so I am not sure if the same thing is going to work but I am going to try it
Thanks for another great tip!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for this tip. It is invaluable. I am off to try it.
Bar Keepers Friend–works on counter tops too.
I got two thin plastic cutting boards from IKEA and they are red. So no worry about red stains!! They clean AND sanitize in the dishwasher. You want the kind that are not brittle so they don’t dull your knives.
Does it work on plastic cutting boards too?
Thank you! We had strawberries a few days ago and I forgot to immediately clean the cutting board, so it looked like someone was killed on it! Now there is only a very small area where you can see the stain, and it is just a darker part of the wood. I can deal with that!
I LOVE my wooden cutting board, but I don’t always remember to clean it right after using it, especially since we mostly just cut veggies on it (our meat cutting board is plastic).
This isn’t really a “shortcut”, because this is exactly how one is supposed to clean a wood cutting board. This isn’t a cooking trick, or a kitchen hack or anything… it’s the proper sanitary way to clean a wood cutting board.
You aren’t supposed to used soap or anything else on a wood cutting board. Only lemon or lime juice, salt and baking soda. Wood has natural disinfectants, and those can be washed away with soaps.
Also it is perfectly safe to cut meat on wood cutting boards, as long as the board is cleaned after use. Plastic cutting boards are more likely to harbor bacteria.
After the wood cutting board is dried, would applying some food safe mineral oil also be useful? I’ve done this with a wooden pizza peel and mineral oil really brings out the wood’s grain.
A quick google search for data rich / non-salesy information included this link from Fine Woodworking…
http://www.finewoodworking.com/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=26893
I’m afraid of oiling my cutting boards. Mineral oil is not something I want to ingest and food-derived oils, e.g. olive oil, go rancid.
Hello,
I have a problem. My friends like american food and I told them that I can cook them for them but unfortenately I can’t.
So now I need some good recipes of americen food to impress them so please help me with books, links and tips.
Thank you for your help.
Best regard,
cookingnoob
The only change I would make is that I had to rub the baking soda pretty vigorously. I also rubbed it w/ the grain of the wood. Overall, this worked like a charm.
On a side note, why would anyone comment on this page about using a plastic cutting board. Is it really germaine to the conversation? Besides, why would someone even be on this webpage if they didn’t need to clean a stain off of a wood cutting board?
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