Clean a Bread Board
In every kitchen household, you will definitely find a bread board and a lot of people prefer the wooden bread board type because it is suitable not only for cutting bread but also meat, fruits or vegetables. It can also last for a long time even for years and years provided that you do proper cleaning, follow the correct disinfecting ways and protecting the board accordingly. Below are some of the steps that you should take in order to ensure that your bread board last longer and it is always safe and free of food-borne bacteria.
What you need:
- Liquid dish detergent
- Clean rags
- Sponges
- Bleach or hydrogen peroxide
- Water
- Bucket
- Salt
- Mineral oils
- Scouring pad
- Sandpaper
- Baking soda
Method:
- The first thing that you need to do is to use a sponge that you have soaked in hot water along with a mixture of liquid dish detergent enabling you to wipe-off the wooden bread board straight away after you have finished using it. Whenever the bread board has been used for cutting raw meat, you have to mix a liquid dish detergent, a teaspoon of bleach or hydrogen peroxide; along with water inside a bucket for your preparation to disinfect the bread board. This is one of the ways for you to clear the board from bacteria.
- Next, you need to sprinkle some salt on the affected stains. Leave it to dry for one minute before rubbing the salt with a lemon wedge to remove the stain.
- If you want to remove deeper or larger stains, you need to use a scouring pad soaked in an abrasive antibacterial soap. After finish cleaning, you can rinse-off the bread board and always ensure that the board does not stay in the water for a very long period of time.
- Use a clean towel so that you can dry the bread board and then, you need to learn and clean the board using a clean towel. After that, you can lean it against the drying rack or wall to dry.
- You should also use fine grit sandpaper for removing severe stains on the wooden bread board. The sandpaper needs to be rubbed along the grain of the board until the stain has totally vanished.
- Every time after cleaning the board, you need to polish the wooden board with a food-safe mineral oil such as almond, olive, walnut or beeswax, to protect and preserve the board and increase its long life.
- In due time, warping will occur if you always use only one side of the board and this results in the build-up of moisture thus making the wood fibers to swell. In order to prevent warping, you should use both sides of the board equally.
- If there is any strong odor coming from the bread board because of heavy usage of cutting garlic, large amount of seafood, onion, chilies or other similar foods, you can simply use baking soda to remove the bad odor.
Additional Reading:
http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_6208459_care-instructions-wood-bread-board.html
http://www.leechesson.com/cutting_boards/wood_cutting_board_care.htm
http://josephjosephkitchenware.co.uk/how-to-clean-and-care-for-your-wooden-kitchen-cutting-board/
Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizziebob/34893773/
