Innovation and technology serve us in so many different ways. Whether it’s making things more convenient, easier, or faster, new tools and techniques allow us to live our lives in different ways. Needless to say, new isn’t always better. When it comes to the kitchen, wooden kitchen tools still reign supreme on the Winger homestead. On today’s episode, I expand on why these phenomenal tools deserve a place in your kitchen. I explain what you need to do in order to properly clean and care for your wooden utensils. I also discuss the most common myth with wood in the kitchen (hint: bacteria) and provide some information that’s likely to shock you.
Links Mentioned On Podcast:
• Spoon Butter Blog: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2018/01/homemade-spoon-butter-recipe.html
• Old World Kitchen: https://www.poldersoldworldmarket.com
Innovation and technology serve us in so many different ways. Whether it’s making things more convenient, easier, or faster, new tools and techniques allow us to live our lives in different ways. Needless to say, new isn’t always better. When it comes to the kitchen, wooden kitchen tools still reign supreme on the Winger homestead. On today’s episode, I expand on why these phenomenal tools deserve a place in your kitchen. I explain what you need to do in order to properly clean and care for your wooden utensils. I also discuss the most common myth with wood in the kitchen (hint: bacteria) and provide some information that’s likely to shock you.
Links Mentioned On Podcast:
• Spoon Butter Blog: https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2018/01/homemade-spoon-butter-recipe.html
• Old World Kitchen: https://www.poldersoldworldmarket.com
Welcome to the old fashioned on purpose podcast, Teflon, silicone, random plasticky kitchen gadgets. Well, they just don't do much for me. I love to cook with timeless kitchen tools, things like stoneware and cast iron and wood not only makes my kitchen feel more warm and unique, but they also are really good investments. And in today's episode I'm going to share with you how I care for all of my wooden kitchen tools, whether it's the cutting boards or the spoons. And I'll share my super-popular actually, spoon butter recipe with you at the end. I'm your host Jill winger, and this is the podcast for people who are disenchanted with conformity, the ones who swim upstream, while the societal herd rides the river of least resistance, the ones who grow and shepherd, nurture and produce, knead and craft rather than consume. The ones who are old fashioned on purpose and choose to truly live, not merely exist. If you're a trailblazer, a Maverick, a homesteader, a modern pioneer, or a backyard farmer, well, you have found your tribe. So like I mentioned in the intro, I have really been focused. I think that would be the right word. I wouldn't say I've been spending hours and hours thinking about this, that I have shifted my approach to kitchen tools over the years and been, have been putting an emphasis on things that are timeless tools that will last for generations. Things that feasibly I could pass on to my children. And of course that's the cast iron skillets and the cast iron pans, the stoneware bread pans and the baking sheets and wooden spoons. And I get a lot of questions about, well all of it actually cause it's a little bit different, right? We live in a world where everyone, you know, stocks their kitchen from the Walmart kitchen aisle where things are plastic, they're kind of designed to wear out or go out of style in a few years. And the frying pans are super cheap, but they're, they warp and they scratch and we see them at garage sales and in landfills. And so that's kind of the mindset these days of how we get kitchen tools. So I kind of like to push back against that because I like to push back against anything that is the norm as you have probably, learned after listening to several episodes of this podcast. Anyway, find tools that are going to last and u m, it's kind of a process, right? I've k inda had to dig into different vendors and do some research, but I've been finding a lot of things that like antique stores and it garage sales or it thrift shops. So it's kind of it's a treasure hunt. It's fun to see what you can find, how to piece everything together. I've grabbed everything from old potato mashers with worn wooden handles and old knives with a patina and wooden grips and stoneware bowls with t he chippy edges that maybe I can't quite use them in day to day cooking, but they sure look good on the counter with a whole bunch of eggs in them. And those things just make me so happy when I'm in the kitchen and they kind of have this special energy with them because they have a story. Right? I love things that are worn with time. And I love the handles of things that have been touched by so many different people over so many decades, and I can't help but think of the stories that those tools carry. But anyway, I will stop waxing poetic over antique kitchen gear, and get down to the practical stuff. Right? So wooden spoons are something I love. I have basically ditched all of the plastic serving spoons or mixing spoons that I have in favor of wooden ones. Now, not just any wooden spoons. They have to be right. I don't know how to explain this on a podcast. I need you to be in the kitchen with me and I would have you hold a wooden spoon so you could feel the difference, but a cheap wooden spoon, like the kind that you would get in bulk at a big box store. I mean, those will work, but they don't quite have the same feel as a handcarved spoon or a spoon that is higher quality. And I don't know how to explain it. It's just a fact. Okay. It's just how it goes. My favorite wooden spoons I got from a small family business called old world kitchen and I will link them in the show notes. They often have sales where you can grab their spoons for good prices and they're by far my favorite. They are so smooth to touch. They're really durable. I just love the feel and those are spoons that I plan to have for many, many years to come. So I get my spoons there. I've grabbed my wooden cutting boards all over the place. Honestly, one of my favorite place to get a cutting board is the clearance aisles at TJ Maxx. I find a lot of kitchen stuff at TJ Maxx, for good prices. So I have a collection of stuff, but it's important that with these heritage kitchen tools, whether it's cast iron or wood or whatever, that we take care of them properly. And wood can be a little bit intimidating I think at first glance because we're used to plastic and things that we can just pop in the dishwasher. So when we get into the territory of a wood cutting board or wooden spoon, I think people aren't quite sure what to do with it or how to care for it. So we're definitely going to talk about that in a minute. But first I wanted to address kind of the elephant in the room as far as wooden cutting boards goes because for many, many years I kind of avoided using my wooden cutting boards because I assumed they were not as safe or as sanitary as a plastic board. And that was kind of the general consensus that floated around for many years that you know, if you really want to be clean in your kitchen and make sure you get any bad bacteria off of your tools, you need to use plastic. Now I was super surprised though when I stumbled across a research study done at UC Davis that actually confirmed the exact opposite and I'll try to find the link for this study and put it in the show notes. But this study showed that plastic boards actually tend to hold on to bacteria more stubbornly than there wouldn't counterparts, especially once they get a bunch of knife cuts in them, which is kind of what cutting boards do. Right. So I was really, really surprised to find that out. And there was something that if I'm trying to try to recall the wooden cutting boards, tend to like the bacteria may be in there, but it seals it in. And when they did tests to see how much bacteria remained on boards after washing or sanitizing the wooden boards actually came out better. So I kind of feel validated now that I've always been drawn to wooden cutting boards and as long as you're taking care of them, there's really shouldn't be a safety concern or sanitary risk there. Right. So happy news if you've been avoiding using your wooden cutting boards for that reason. Now wooden kitchen tools don't require a lot of fuss, which is good because as you know, I'm not a fussy person, but they do appreciate a little bit of moisturizing every now and then. So, just to reiterate, when we have our wooden tools, you never ever, ever want to put them in the dishwasher, right? So we always hand wash them. We want to avoid letting them soak in water for a long time. So it's better just to get them cleaned. You can use some soap if you'd like, use your scrubby pad and then get them on the drying rack or dry them off quickly. We don't want them to be sitting in a soapy water-filled sink for many, many hours. And that's really the extent of what it takes to clean your wooden tools. And then every so often though, you do want to moisturize them. I know some of you are going to ask me how often I moisturize mine. I will say probably not often enough. I would say a couple of times a year is t he the best recommendation. But even if you do this just once a year, like right now it's, it's almost February. It's a great time for me to be dinking around in the kitchen and cleaning out drawers and kind of taking inventory. And so right now for me is a great time to get out all the spoons, get out of the cutting boards and give them a nice greasing with some spoon butter. And that's what I like to do. And I wanted to share kind of my technique with you so you can do this as well if you have some dry spoons or some unhappy cutting boards. So let's real quick talk about what spoon butter entails. So spoon or wood butter is also known as cutting board cream and you don't eat it. Okay, it is not something you eat. Oh, I guess you probably could, it wouldn't hurt you, but it's just a mixture of oil and beeswax. And we use that to moisturize and protect when boards and spoons, you could put it on wooden handles, like for your knives. Anything like that. And when we keep the wood moisturized, it's going to prolong the lifespan of our tools and prevent the cracking and the splitting. And so if you're using them a lot, you're washing them a lot that could potentially dry them out and this is just going to help them not crack or split in the future. Now as far as the ingredients go for the homemade spoon butter, there's a lot of different trains of thought on this and I noticed that online a lot of people were recommending mineral oil when they were conditioning. Anything from like butcher block countertops to when cutting boards. And honestly I just don't love mineral oil. It's just not my first choice c ause I think it's a petroleum product and i t's just not as natural as I would like. So what I usually try to do is opt for unrefined coconut oil instead. And I'm guessing t hat most of you already have that in your cabinet, so it shouldn't be something you have to go b uy. It has lots of different uses. Another option you could use, it's not quite as common, is Walnut oil. So that's another option. Just be sure you skip things like olive oil or vegetable oils because they have a tendency to go rancid. And the last thing you want is to oil up your cutting boards and your spoons and then they start to get icky and have an off taste and kind of affect the things that you're cooking. That would be, the instance that we do not want to create. So stick with the coconut oil or the Walnut oil just to be safe. Now the other ingredient here is beeswax. This just helps to coat and protect. I personally like the little tiny bees wax pellets and you can get those on Amazon or in a lot of different like candle making stores or craft stores. And the only reason I like those is just because they melt more easily than a bigger chunk of beeswax. But if all you have are the beeswax, like the little bars, or if you have bees and you have legitimate bees wax, I mean, no worries. The measurements are not super duper exact. You don't necessarily have to get out this, you know, scale that's going to give you this scientifically exact measurements. It's pretty forgiving. So use the pellets, use the bars, it doesn't matter. Chop it up. Just use what you have. Keep it simple. Okay, so for the recipe, this is really easy. I'm gonna walk you through it and kind of give you some of my commentary and then I'll put a link in the show notes with a blog post that I made that has a printable recipe card and pictures and the whole nine yards. So listen through the process and then for all the measurements and such, head over to the blog, you can print it out or just look at it on your computer. And that way you don't have to worry about taking notes because if you're like me, you're probably listening to this podcast while you're driving or while you're cooking or while you're gardening and you don't have a piece of paper and a pen. Super handy. So here we go. The homemade spoon butter recipe. So you're going to need for a little batch, just makes a small jar, small. I'm guessing. I'm thinking like a quarter cup, which will actually last you a really long time. You're going to need two tablespoons of bees wax pellets, or if you don't have the little pellets, you can just take your little bar and shave it or chop it up finally and get about two tablespoons. Don't stress over the measurements too much. And then about six tablespoons of unrefined coconut oil and you're going to place both of those ingredients in a small glass jar like a Mason jar would work. Just something that is safe for heat. We don't want to cracking. Okay, so we're gonna put it in a small glass jar and we're going to then place that jar in a small sauce pan and fill it a third of the way with water. So the water should come up about, I don't know, a third of the halfway up the side of the jar, but we don't want water to get inside the jar. And then it's super easy. Turn on the burner to medium, low heat. Give your little bees wax coconut oil mixture a stir occasionally until the bees wax melted. It's going to take longer for that to melt then the coconut oil and then remove it from the heat. Carefully set it aside to cool and it will thicken up. So it's like a cream. And then that's really it. All you have to do at that point is apply a nice layer to your cutting boards and your spoons and any utensils you have that have unpainted wooden handles. Okay? So rub it in. You can let it sit for a couple hours or let it sit overnight. If you put a lot on there, you might want to wipe it off after it's had a chance to sit. Use it just a clean, dry cloth. Otherwise, if it's soaked it up sufficiently, you're probably good to go. Just put it back in the cabinet or you can go ahead and use them. Because the bees wax and the coconut oil are food safe oils, you don't have to worry about it putting any dangerous contaminants into your recipes. There shouldn't be any flavors. Honestly. The wood should absorb most of that. And that's it. Super simple. And you can repeat this. Whenever you feel like your spoons or your boards are looking a little bit on the dull and dry side and that's kind of up to you. It depends on how often you're using it. Like I said, I usually only get to this once, maybe twice a year. If I'm really, really motivated, I should probably do it more. But even once a year is better than nothing. Right. And you can just go ahead and put a lid on your little jar and your spoon butter should keep at least four or five months. So it'll last you a good long while. I've also seen a bunch of people, make this into little gifts, little stocking stuffers or, or house-warming gifts or maybe they give a gift basket with some wooden utensils and they stick a little jar of spoon butter in. So I think that's a really smart idea. But believe it or not, this has been a really popular recipe on the blog. So I thought it would be fun to share it with all of my friends on the podcast as well. So, let me know if you try it, post a picture over on social media, give me a tag. I'd love to check it out and see your spoon or your cutting board collection. And I hope that you enjoy those heritage kitchen tools just as much as I do. I think it's a wonderful way to find joy in the kitchen to use things. I have a story and that have meaning and to teach our kids if we have kids or grandkids to cook with tools that potentially we could pass onto them when they're older. So just a fun part of that idea of a heritage lifestyle and living old fashioned on purpose and happy spoon buttering my friend. So if you are falling in love with the idea of an old fashioned intentional kitchen full of amazing tools and rich memories, you will love my heritage kitchen handbook. I've packed this little ebook full of my very best tricks for cooking and eating like a farmer. Even if you live in the city and you can grab it for free over at www.heritagekitchenhandbook.com and that's it my friend. If you have a minute, I'd be so honored to have you subscribe and leave a quick review over on your favorite podcast player so more people can find this podcast and I appreciate so much for you following along and we'll chat next time on the old fashioned on purpose podcast.