Season Board Oil
£10
Food-grade mineral oil. Stops the wood drying, keeps it from cracking, never turns rancid.
Five minutes a month. A board for decades.
A solid wood board, looked after properly, will outlast most things in the kitchen - and the care is the same whether it's our end grain (the best chopping board you can buy), the walnut double sided, or a serving board. Five minutes a month. (Wood fibre boards need none of this - they go in the dishwasher.)
It matters to your knives too: an oiled board stays flat and smooth, which is part of why end grain is kind to an edge.
Watch the method
Oiling your board
Jason shows you the whole routine in a couple of minutes. It's an evening's ritual in the loosest sense - most of the five minutes is the kettle boiling while the board dries.
1
Clean and dry
Wash the board and let it dry fully. Oil on a damp board sits on the surface instead of soaking in.
2
Oil it, generously
Work the oil in with the applicator, going with the grain. Don't be shy - the wood takes what it needs.
3
Leave it overnight
Let the oil sink in while you sleep. The board does the work from here.
4
Wipe off the excess
In the morning, wipe away whatever the board hasn't taken. That's it.
How often? Monthly for the first few months, then whenever the wood looks dry or pale. The board tells you.
Between oilings
The daily rules
Hand wash - warm water, a little soap, done.
Dry standing on its edge - so both faces dry evenly.
Never the dishwasher - the heat and water will crack it.
Never left to soak - wood that swells wet, splits dry.
What not to use
Not the olive oil
Cooking oils - olive, vegetable, sunflower - turn rancid inside the wood, and there's no getting them out again. Board oil is food-grade mineral oil: it feeds the wood and never spoils.
Quick fix
Onion and garlic smells
Scatter coarse salt over the board and scrub it with half a lemon, cut side down. Rinse, dry on its edge, and the smell goes with it.
What you need
The two things that make it true
Everything above takes one bottle and one applicator. Both last a long time - a coat a month barely dents the bottle.
Season Oil Applicator
£12
A smooth sponge head that spreads the oil evenly and reaches the grooves, with a cover to keep it clean between coats.