Kenneth wrote:

> On 6 Mar 2005 06:42:09 +0100, Wayne Boatwright
> > wrote:
>
>>Mom always oiled her cutting board after practically every use, or at least
>>after contact with liquid. I think she usually used vegetable oil.
>
> Howdy,
>
> If so, she was lucky that she did not lose the board to
> rancidity... Mineral oil (from the pharmacy) is a much
> better choice.

How, exactly, does one "lose the board to rancidity?" The mineral oil
mantra is a recent arrival on the wooden cutting board scene. It's
based on faith, not empirical fact.

A long time ago, it was animal fats. Butchers scraped their blocks and
rubbed them with lard or beef fat. Country people rubbed pig tails on
their skillets to grease them and their boards to "slick" them. Then
when liquid oils became available, they were used. Then the carpenters
and cabinetmakers got into the act and promoted mineral oil because it
works on armoires and dining room tables, and they just figured...
Normal people kept to food oils anyway, because they work just fine.

The simple fact is that food oils work. They get exchanged in the
course of normal use and cleaning so that they need replacement
periodically. In the decades I've been in professional food service,
using wooden boards which we oiled with any of several different kinds
of food oils, not once have I ever seen or heard anyone else in the
business say their boards smelled rancid. In nearly 20 years of
dealing with kitchen questions on my radio program, amid all the other
calls I've dealt with about cutting boards, not one person has ever
raised the question of rancidity and their boards. In writing a couple
thousand articles and columns about food and cooking, not once has
anyone ever emailed me about rancid boards, although I've gotten them
on myriad other cutting board and chopping block issues.

Forget that business about mineral oil. It's not necessary.

Pastorio