Cutting Boards for a Butcher

[lesmeyer]

Hi All. My butcher has asked me to make up some cutting boards so that he can display meat products (steaks) with the look of the steaks laying on a butcher block. I will use Euro Beech. My question, is what would the best oil be for this product - remember raw meat laying on it. Mineral oil as sold by Ubeaut looks good. Have to order from Melbourne as my local supplier has none left. Are any others worthwhile?
Regards
Les

[Xanthorrhoeas]

I believe that any pure, food safe paraffin oil will do. Pharmacies often sell it - more expensive but you do not need much.

[cava]

Try a veterinary supplier, as I have heard that they have pharmaceutical grade paraffin oil (cheap).

[Junkie]

I recommend a generous coating of mineral oil and let it dry, and then wipe a combo of mineral oil + bees wax (4:1).

[derekcohen]

Les, I made my first (!) cutting board the other day .. I had a scrap of She-oak that looked a natural. Anyway, I went looking for an oil to use. It needed to be food safe. My research said avoid anything that was petroleum based. The safe oils are natural oils. Tung oil get the thumbs up. Bunnings sell an oil for wood that is safe for food, and it is mainly tung oil. I think it was by Feast Watson.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[lesmeyer]

Guys thanks for the replies.
Derek, The Feast Watson one is what I used for the proto-types (2 boards), but the odour is too strong and might overwhelm the steaks :D. I used the Rustins worktop oil which has almost no odour, for my own mobile butcher block but Carba-tec no longer carries the brand :oo:. I am probably going to end up making about 14 boards so I will probably use our sponsor's product as it is advertised having no odour or flavour. Timbecon have some in stock, but need to travel 40km to get it. Will have to just get more free steaks from my butcher :).
Regards
Les

[derekcohen]

Hi Les

The oil is Feast Watson Kitchen Timber Oil.

You are not meant to pour it over the steaks! A little basting is enough before a BBQ :)

I have not noticed any odour at all once it is dry.

Will I see you at the Show - I'll be there Saturday and Sunday. Look out for me at Chris Vesper's stand.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Robson Valley]

Pharmaceutical-grade mineral oil would be safe enough. It's edible. 5W40 machine oil is not edible.
I'd want to well and truely waterproof the surface with multiple coats of any finish declared food safe in it's dried/polymerized final state.

Some years back, I carved a birch kitchen dish for wet scrub pads, sink stoppers and the like.
It got an oven baked bee's wax finish back then. Just as waterproof right now as the day I baked it.
However,
As time has gone by, the wax finish has taken on a dull milky appearance (crystallization?)
It isn't very attractive, and certainly would not look good for display purposes.

I agree with above, some sort of drying oil finish should look a whole lot better.

[Chief Tiff]

Baby oil is food safe mineral oil.

Years ago I read an article where the author turned a baby's rattle from celery-top pine; he finished it in baby oil because it would likely be also used as a teether.

[Fumbler]

I used liquid parrafin from the chemist on this bad boy. Here it is in the tub getting a soak. Cheap as and cheaper than Designated named "chopping board oil" and is food safe as 1 teaspoon will keep u regular!!416229

[cava]

RV, I vaguely remember that you would bake your timber kitchen utensils, and then soak them in oil.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the post for the method/temperature/mix etc that you used - can you refresh our memories with the method you use?

[BobL]

Les, I made my first (!) cutting board the other day .. I had a scrap of She-oak that looked a natural. Anyway, I went looking for an oil to use. It needed to be food safe. My research said avoid anything that was petroleum based. The safe oils are natural oils.

Derek - this is not correct. Some natural oils will go rancid in air after relatively short exposure and either the oil or its rancid components can taint food - an example of these are olive and canola. Pure mineral oil doesn't go rancid and has no strong odours so will not taint food which makes it better than some natural oils.

You'll need to remember the butchers boards will be washed hopefully in hot water and detergent on a very regular basis so there won't be much oil left in it after a few washes. Fortunately wood is naturally antibiotic (in fact it's toxic if you eat enough of it) so it sort of looks after itself so it doesn't even need any finishing. If the butcher wants to he can re-oil the boards but then cost may come into the equation.

[Robson Valley]

I disagree with the notion of olive going rancid very quickly.

The oven baking process uses a simple fact of gas physics described by Charles' Law.
Preheat your oven to 325F, no hotter.
On a cake rack over a sheet pan, slather all your wood pieces with good olive oil.
Now into the oven for 3 minutes 30 seconds. Leave them longer and they will begin to brown like French Fries = fact.
Out to cool, you can see air bubblimg out of cut surfaces.
Brush on more oil if you wish, won't hurt at all.

Here's what happens:
As the wood heats up in the oven, the air in the wood heats and expands, then bubbles out through the oil.
Whe you take the wood out of the oven, the remaining air in the wood cools and contracts.
This sucks the oil far down into the wood to replace the heated and displaced air.

Heated air expands, cooled air contracts. That's the substance of Charles' Law.
Just to soak wood in oil is a constant battle against the elastic proerties of air that you are trying to compress to force oil into the wood.
Lazy sod that I am, I can do the whole job, once and for all, in 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

I use olive oil. In the years that have passed since I carved and baked 70 spoons and 30 forks, none of them are rancid at all.
Of course in this day and time, 75% of what is labelled as olive oil is NOT olive oil but maybe 10% of the contents.

[BobL]

Heating olive oil makes it go rancid even quicker - this is why olive oil is best not used for cooking because it loses most of of its health benefits. This is why a good chef will add olive oil AFTER any higher temperature cooking rather than before. The same applies to many other oils. Most people have no clue about this and are unable to tell if their olive oil is rancid so are constantly consuming rancid oils with little or no health properties. There are oils that can be used for cooking with heat that won't go rancid e.g. coconut and rice bran oil.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

I have used Robson Valley's technique but with paraffin oil on an end-grain Crows Ash cutting board. At first, I thought that I had totally ruined it - the bubbling out that RV speaks about - but, over a year later, the wood is still really well sealed. This technique, with this oil and timber combination, does provide a very hard and impervious surface. Photos below, though this board is not at all beautiful, not even attractive really, it was basically just an offcut slice across a limb that had some spalting, but instead of being burned for firewood, it is a useful board.

416266 close-up of surface
416267my ugly, but useful, board

[cava]

I use olive oil.

How would it go with bee's wax?

[lesmeyer]

I believe that any pure, food safe paraffin oil will do. Pharmacies often sell it - more expensive but you do not need much.
This is what I did today. Went to pharmacy and purchased a bottle (200ml - $7) works out cheaper than other food safe worktop oils and first coat looks promising. Apparently I should have a spoonful for myself at the same time and then head for the loo :D.
Regards
Les

[ian]

two issues ...
what are the "food safe" handling procedures your butcher is supposed to follow? I have some recollection that washing is supposed to include sterilization at something like 80+ degrees C.

secondly, I recall reading somewhere that once a "non food safe" oil or finish has fully cured, the resulting material is "food safe". Does anyone know if this is true?

[lesmeyer]

Hi Ian, your point is valid, and I believe that my butcher will be washing the boards the same way that he washes all the trays that he currently uses to display the meat products. So periodic oiling will be required and he understands that. I have seen many photos of upmarket butchers using wood boards to display meat products thereby projecting a "butcher block" look. My butcher is very successful in an upmarket shopping centre and he will in no way compromise his business.
A few proto-types will be delivered and after some experimentation, he will then decide whether to continue with the wood boards or not.
Regards
Les

[Robson Valley]

Common practice to chemically sterilize surfaces with 10% chlorine bleach.
Biohazard Containment Facilities (Levels 1 & 2, I think) are routinely cleaned up this way.
80C wouldn't disturb a baked oil finish anyway.

Finishes which polymerize in curing have substantially different chemistries, usually becoming quite inert from the liquid stock form.
It should report this on the label or check the MSDS sheet.

[brit]

I make a lot of boards and not only do you need to consider food safe you also don't want the meat flavoured with oil. Watco butcher block oil is my pick 2-3 coats and leaves a gloss finish. Food safe mineral oil is a popular finish with customers, and grape seed oil will do the same job.

[lesmeyer]

I make a lot of boards and not only do you need to consider food safe you also don't want the meat flavoured with oil. Watco butcher block oil is my pick 2-3 coats and leaves a gloss finish. Food safe mineral oil is a popular finish with customers, and grape seed oil will do the same job.

Hi Brit, thanks for this info. I would like to experiment with the Watco product as well. Where do you purchase this?
Regards
Les

[double.d]

Some good info here thanks.

I am also making a special order board and was wondering what grit to use on the final sand.

[Enfield Guy]

I'm currently experimenting with a few things.

Did an end grain board in Vic ash a month or so ago. Glued it up with tight bond 3, finished with OSMO. Gave it to the brother and his wife with the instruction to put it in the dishwasher each time it is run, 2 or 3 times a week. Been more than 6 weeks now so say 15 cycles. By all reports it's as good as gold. I will see it mid next week.

Also been playing with the Robson Valley method using Orange Oil. On some Hoop Pine pot stirrers, that have deliberately been mis cared for, are fine and compare well with new product. Note, the ones in my drawer have been used twice a week for about 2 months, have been left to soak on numerous occasions and bashed against the side of the pot.

Some Vic Ash soft cheese knives treated similarly have faired well. I reckon though there needs to be a slight variation on the method of application. I have had better results soaking overnight, cooking and resting, washing, another light fine sand, soak and cook again. They end up quite luxurious to the the touch.

[Robson Valley]

Yup. One of the Gas Laws in Physics. Oils don't oxidize in woods where there's no oxygen any more.
Even if it did, it's down inside the wood, boiling water can't move it so there's nothing to taste.

I'd like to see the Iodine Numbers to demonstrate that olive oils can heavily oxidize in a matter of seconds in cooking.

[Robson Valley]

Cava: I did a birch dish with bee's wax. The result was as waterproof as you could ever hope wood to be.
Biological waxes all melt approx 60C, maybe less. I painted on the beeswax and into the usual 325F/175C oven.
Because of the wood mass, it took about 5 minutes to get the bubbling (Charles' Law expanding hot gasses.)

The painting process made an awful spattered mess in my kitchen. The result was consistent with oil applications.

[Cornards]

G'day Les,
I give the Feast Watson Tung Oil a tick of approval, to a point. However, over the past forty years of doing joinery and making a few Chopping/cutting boards the best solution I have always used is good old cooking oil - a cheap olive oil - soak each surface over night. Safe as houses food and chemical wise. When it needs to be cleaned, a half cut lemon rubbed over the surface with some pure Himalayan salt washed off with boiling water, dry with a paper towel then smear another coat of cooking oil over the surface to soak overnight again - this is dependant on how often you use the board.
Regards,
David.

[soundman]

Sorry fells this always happens.
This issue has been well and truly researched and addessed .... there will always be those who think they know better or say "I've been doing this or that for ages".

Facts are facts
Some of them have from time to time been published by regulators too.

There is simply no vegitable oil that is suitable for cooking or food impliments ...... every damn one of them causes one problem or another.
Going rancid
Having a tainting flavour
providing food or a favorable envionment for microbes

The only "natural oil" that come close is "wallnut oil".

As far as tung oil ..... first you have to find pure Tung oil, most of it is adulterate or diluted with something or has metalic driers added ....... then there are arguments yes or no, is it toxic and how much and does it taint, even in its purest natural form ....so you are satisfied that it is safe ....... is it certified as such... leave it alone

Yes there are food certified or claimed food certified oils ......... get that in writing quoting who is certifying and who tested it.

The bottom like is the safest thing is food grade or pharmacy grade parafin oil ....... it is clean white hydrocarbon that has no taste and is pretty much inert..... it does not react and it does not polimerize .......... if a health inspector asks what was used, and you say food or pharma grade parafin oil you will have no argument.

Bees wax .... oh great ...... do you have a food safe certification for that ....... yeh thaught not.

what you use at home is one thing ...... safe for handles is another thing ....... safe and appropriate AND CERTIFIED for use in a commercial environment is another all together.

If it was my business, reputation and public liability involved I would not be using anything other than a certified product.

OH BTW ...... how good is your insurance ........ if it all goes bad, that butchers insurance company will come looking for you .... so ..are you feeling lucky.

cheers

[Xanthorrhoeas]

We certainly live in a very heavily regulated world and litigation is something that needs to be considered. Public Liability insurance is expensive, and, believe me, even if you have paid the premiums your insurer will walk away from you if you have not used a certified safe product - it is in the fine print that you have do do everything correctly, or have evidence to prove that you have considered all aspects of what you do, to be covered.

One aspect of this though is what is certified? Certified for what? Certification costs money.

But, I also think that no lawyer would be able to sue you for using the food safe oils like olive oil, grape seed oil and walnut oil. If you can safely ingest it then a court would send a litigious protagonist packing for claiming that you should not have used it. I also doubt very much that they could make a convincing claim that beeswax is unsafe for humans.

I don't sell products like these so I'm safe from litigation anyway. However, for use in your own home it can be fun to try different techniques and I have read this thread with interest. I have proof that Robson Valley's technique works with paraffin oil and I have no doubt it works well with bees wax, olive oil etc. Thanks to all contributors for refreshing the recurring question.

david

[Junkie]

A rather 'spirited' response from soundman.


Sorry fells this always happens.
This issue has been well and truly researched and addessed ....
It would be great if you could provide links to this.


Bees wax .... oh great ...... do you have a food safe certification for that ....... yeh thaught not.
As far as I'm aware, Beeswax (white and yellow) is a listed food additive with Food Standards Australia New Zealand - INS number is 901 (INS = International Numbering System for Food Additives). It can be purchased with or without organic certification (certification from ACO (http://aco.net.au/); NASAA (https://www.nasaa.com.au/); OFC (http://www.organicfoodchain.com.au/) etc).
If don't want to make your own mix i.e. mineral oil and beeswax (4:1), you could always purchase an off-the-shelf product like this: Butcher Block Conditioner (http://www.howardproducts.com.au/butcher-block-conditioner-355ml.html/)

[woodPixel]

This is what I use: Food Grade Mineral Oil | Stella Food Grade Oils (http://foodgradeoils.com.au/product/food-grade-mineral-oil/)

I made a million chopping boards over quite some time for a kitchen/cooking chain and we went through the whole thing.

This stuff carries all the right certifications and is used in industry. It is backed up with the appropriate science and regulatory needs.

All I do is put it into a monster plastic tub (supplied from a wholesale food company for bulk food storage in restaurants... NOT one from Bunnings!) and submerge it for 24 hours.

I bought 20 Litres in a big blue drum and I'd reckon there is still 19.95 Litres there. :)

After a soak, they would sit on a wire rack to drip off. Id then just vacuum pack them with my heat-shrinky gun still a bit juicy.

I feel pretty confident in saying this is the answer you are after, as the company supplies this to both the food industry, plus makes a very emphatic statement for its use: "STELLA Food Grade Mineral Oil is food safe for use on wooden chopping boards, bread boards, butchers blocks, salad bowls, and all wooden food utensils where a natural and safe finish for raw timber is desired. Also suitable for food processing, food paper manufacturing and food packaging production."

Hope this is helpful.

Here are some pictures I did of Ilyas totally amazing boards (such talent!). They came for a soak in my tub! :D

Evan :)
416537416539416538

[double.d]

I bought a tin of Bondall Timber Benchtop Oil which clearly states it is food safe and for use on cutting boards which is good enough for me.

[woodPixel]

So, 160° for 3.5 minutes... is there enough oil to to soak in? Should one pre-heat the oil and sit it in a shallow bath, or is simply slathering it on OK?

[Lappa]

I used Ecowoodoil - Natural Woodwipe on my pizza peel. Love the Warning on the back:

416540

Instructions
416541

[chambezio]

You know.....when I make cutting boards I never do anything as far as an applied finish. Because everyone has their own ideas of what is best I let them put their own finish on. Its so easy......to walk away

[lesmeyer]

Guys, thank you so much for all the replies. If the butcher boards were only to be used at home most of the ideas would be great.
As the boards will be displaying meat products laying on them in the display cabinet at my butcher, I have already provided him with samples that were oiled with Gold Cross Liquid Paraffin (one can drink the stuff). No odour and a great result. So the suggestions by Soundman and woodPixel align with what I have chosen to use.
I think that all of us who have read/contributed to this post would have learnt something. I certainly did.
Regards
Les

[Fumbler]

I think that all of us who have read/contributed to this post would have learnt something. I certainly did.
Regards
Les

Trust me Les, we'll all be back here in 3months when someone else asks the very same question, "which oil for chopping block?" and the same arguments will come around again, but maybe just in a different section of the forum, hahaha talk to you in October!! oh, and you can let us know how much extra steak the butcher has sold laying on your blocks!!

Any photo's of the boards? better still, any of them with steak on it in the butchers window?

[Robson Valley]

I painted the olive oil on the spoons or forks by the dozen. On a big cake rack over a big sheet pan and into the preheated oven.
All I learned was that 4 minutes and the wood began to crisp and brown like french fries, which was not what I intended to see.
The oil sucks into the cut ends of the wood. I did paint more oil on a batch or two, on the ends, but I didn't see anything that would suggest an improvement.

The oil of your choice. The application technique means you cannot wash it off. Boiling water will not leach it out.
And, it's quick. 3 1/2 minutes and it's done for good. No overnight soaks at room temperature to be blown off the next day in hot soup.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Here are some pictures I did of Ilyas totally amazing boards (such talent!). They came for a soak in my tub! :D

Evan :)
416537416539416538

Wow, amazing work. However, they make me dizzy, so I would happily hang one of these on my wall, but I would NOT use one as a chopping board - I might be so dizzy I cut myself.

[Xanthorrhoeas]

The oil of your choice. The application technique means you cannot wash it off. Boiling water will not leach it out.
And, it's quick. 3 1/2 minutes and it's done for good. No overnight soaks at room temperature to be blown off the next day in hot soup.

Hi Robson Valley (do you mind if I shorten to RV? abbreviation is a way of life here in Aus), have you ever tried the technique on a glued-up item? I'm just wondering how adhesives would handle the heat. Since so many chopping blocks are made with lots of endgrain blocks glued together it would be useful to know.

David

[Robson Valley]

I don't mind at all. The Robson Valley is the mountain district where I live.
I thank your country for sending a big team of wildfire specialists. Our people are exhausted.
The southern part of our province is Hell on earth. Close to 40,000 people on the run. 250 lightning fires in 48 hours with BIG winds.

No. I have never baked a glue-up. I know that 3.5 minutes is an eternity when you are watching the clock!
I do know that as mass increases, I had to reheat again and again to see bubbles (the waxed dish as opposed to a spoon.)
So much of the interior of a wood block would remain unheated (wood is a pretty good insulator), I don't think that the
differences in expansion rates would lead to a crack. I have more unfounded theories if you need any.

Some popular adhesives claim greater strength than the woods on either side. Maybe a scrap glue-up of junk wood might
be a revealing experiment?
Brian

[Xanthorrhoeas]

Our local news media is sooo parochial I haven't seen anything about the fires - they are too focussed on boring local politics. I'm glad that Australian experience can be put to good use. We have enough of the hellish fires here because our dominant eucalypts are living firestarters - literally, that is how they dominate the ecosystem. I presume it is coniferous forests going up in Canada?

I agree, some trials of the glue, oil and bake would be worthwhile. I'll add that to my list! Maybe others reading here could do so too and we can compare photos and notes?

David

[Robson Valley]

Yeah, any kinds of junk wood glue-ups would be ideal. We need to know, we need the experience.
Carving, I don't have any of that sort of dimension scrap to mess with.

Worst hits were dry grassland ranch hills with scattered Ponderosa pines. Fire storms.
Further north here would be Douglasfir (aka your Oregon) then into the real boreal forest of
Lodgepole pine, spruce and the cedars.
Based on experience with good friends over the past 20 years, a lot of BC homestead history has gone up in smoke.

I lived in Melbourne for 4 years, late '68 - late '72. Clear memories of grass firestorms and huge bush/forest fires.
That's why we need your experience and familiarity to take over so our people can rest.
We have crew coming from all across Canada as well.

I'm well away far north of fires (so far) but the smoke today is back to 250m at best.
Yesterday, we could see clouds in the sky.
The worst starts maybe tomorrow when they go back into some areas to see who got burnt out and who is OK.