Wooden kitchen utensils can get quite dirty and they can also pick up unpleasant odors from edibles such as onion, raw meat, eggs or garlic.
How to keep them like new?
First of all, wash them immediately after use. Do not throw them into the sink and leave them in there for a few hours, or worse, until the next day. The odor can get impossible to eliminate if doing so, depending on which “stinky” food you handle on it.
It is better to hand wash your wooden utensils than using a dish washing machine.
Use soapy water, do not pour liquid dish washing liquid directly on. Wood absorbs anything it gets in touch with. Directly touching the dish washing liquid, it absorbs a large amount of chemicals which are very hard to rinse afterwards.
Make sure you rinse them with plenty of warm or hot water, after washing.
To sanitize them, after washing them, place your wooden utensils on a flat surface and pour on 3% hydrogen peroxide. Leave to act for 15 minutes and then generously rinse.
To renew them , use mineral oil. The reason why you shouldn’t use cooking oil is that this one goes rancid and it will give your wooden utensils a bad smell, instead of a fresh look.
You can also use peanut or walnut oil. Just make sure no one in the house is allergic to neither.
Mineral oil is non-toxic and it can easily be bought from drug stores. It only costs a few bucks.
To prevent them from getting “fuzzy” on the sides, or everywhere, just treat them once every 2 or 3 months as reminded above, and they will keep forever.
To remove burnt stains, use sand paper.
The sand paper is also good for removing the fuzzy aspect, if it already happened.
