Oiling wooden kitchen utensils

Over the past couple of years I've been adding to my collection of wooden utensils with various op shop finds. I love the texture and colour of them, so much nicer to look at and touch than plastic. But of course, I want to take care of them to prolong their lifespan, and so I oil them regularly.

I've always rubbed olive oil on any of my wooden kitchen tools which seemed a little dry, however, a number of times recently I've seen reference to olive oil - or most other vegetable oils for that matter - NOT being suitable for kitchen tools as it goes rancid over time and can contaminate your equipment. Hmmmmm. The weather this summer has been hot and very humid, so I have actually taken to storing some oils in my refrigerator, and having it go rancid on my tools is not a concept that I am thrilled about.




Coincidentally, last month I came across a recipe for spoon oil on Stephanie and MAV's 3191 blog, which is essentially a 1:4 mixture of pure beeswax and mineral oil. The oiled timber products looked lovely, but the sound of "mineral" oil (i.e. not animal or vegetable) kind of rang alarm bells with me, so I did some research.

I couldn't find it initially here in Australia, but I eventually discovered it is called Paraffin oil, sold in supermarkets and chemists as a laxative, and in fact I had some in my cupboard from when my kids had had some 'trouble' several years back. And yes, it's a petroleum derivative. Yum.

Yes, it is supposedly non-toxic (provided you buy food-grade oil, labelled as 'BP' - British Pharmacopoeia - or 'USP' - US Pharmacopoeia), but it is still derived from petroleum, and one of the things I aim to do in my journey towards a simpler, more earth-friendly life, is to avoid petroleum products where possible.



So. More research.

It turns out that many people believe that olive oil IS an acceptable oil to use for timber surfaces, provided that these are objects that you use regularly, like wooden spoons and chopping boards. This makes sense to me. These items are washed in warm soapy water after each use - usually every day, or every other day - and are not sitting around in cupboards for any length of time for the oil to go rancid. (As an aside, there seems to be some debate around the 'net as the shelf life of extra virgin olive oil - anywhere from six months to two years, depending on the site you read. I'm guessing that the better quality the original oil is, the shorter shelf life it will have.)

I do however, have several old timber bowls which I use as fruit bowls or salad bowls during family functions and which are not used or hence, washed, all that regularly...

So. Once gain, research. Isn't the internet wonderful?


As it happens, once upon a time the most commonly used food-grade wood finish was tung oil, made from tung nuts, which was eventually supplanted by the cheaper and more plentiful mineral (paraffin) oil. Tung nuts are, however, a tree nut. Since I have two children with anaphylactic nut allergies which visit my house on occasion, this doesn't seem like a very good option either. Sigh.



I was looking for a vegetable oils with a longer shelf life than olive oil, and the two most likely candidates seemed to be palm oil and coconut oil. The former - palm oil - doesn't make my list of ethical products because of it's impact on the habitat of endangered orangutans and the environment through land clearing for palm plantations. There are some small, ethically-produced palm oil plantations around the world, however I've yet to find a source of this ethically-produced pure oil in Australia unfortunately.

Coconut oil however, is supposedly anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal (although I can't find a link for you that isn't dripping with dodgy Google ads I'm sorry; I refuse to link to any of those sites), and can be produced organically and ethically. But, it's also expensive.

By now, it was all starting to do my head in, like so many seemingly simple green-living issues I have looked into over the past few years...

In the end I decided I didn't like the thought of ever using the paraffin oil I already had - internally - on any of my family, and since I already had it in my cupboard, I made up a very small batch of Stephanie's original spoon oil recipe . I am, however, impressed by the various health benefits of coconut oil espoused by the Weston A. Price foundation, so I will probably have some on hand the next time I want to make more spoon oil. Mmmmm, honey-coconut scented salads bowls!


Cheers,