How to Season a Cutting Board

How to Season a Cutting Board

Cutting Boards of Choice
Personally I prefer wood boards, why? Plastic and glass boards are not very durable and could pose risks to the safety of the meals. Hence by the best board you could afford. Now here is the question. How to maintain and season the board?

Why do it?
Why season the cutting board? Wood is naturally a material with pores. These pores can transfer flavors, colours and even dampness from one dish to another. Apart from this unpleasant phenomena wood could also split, chip and even rot from the inside if not seasoned prior to using it and then of course maintained.

What can be Used to Season the Board?
usually a high grade yet cheap mineral oil could be bought at any super market/food store. The best is to use a combination of mineral oil and bee's wax. However regular cooking oil will also do quite a bit of magic if mineral oil is not available.

How to Season and Maintain?
Apply the mineral oil mixture thoroughly and leave for 30 minutes. Then clean the surface of the board with a kitchen towel and leave overnight to absorb the mixture. This procedure should be repeated thrice at a minimum. this is the initial seasoning. Then it is just matter of maintaining the seasoning by applying a single layer or the mineral oil mixture on a regular basis.

How to Test the Seasoning? 
Simply sprinkle some water on the surface. If the drops of water form the likeness of silvery beads on the board, then voila! It's done!! However in time the seasoning and hence the water repellent qualities of the seasoning will diminish. That's the very reason the seasoning needs to be  maintained.

Long life to your cutting boards!