Follow our tips to keep your wooden kitchenware in perfect condition
Wooden kitchenware is easy to rinse by hand. Scrub the kitchen utensils with a brush or sponge underneath warm streaming water without soap. Are the kitchen tools extremely dirty or greasy? Then use a little bit of mild detergent, preferably odourless because wood absorbs smells. Let air dry after cleaning. Never put your wooden kitchenware into the dishwasher! Due to the exposure to a large amount of water in a dishwasher, the wood may swell, and will shrink during theb drying proces. This proces of alternately swelling and shrinking may cause thewood to warp or even crack. For that reason, also never leave your wooden cooking utensils in standing water, because this can also cause them to warp or crack. Warping or cracking may also happen if you don’t clean your wooden cooking utensils in a dishwasher, in the case that you don’t take care of the wood well, f.ex. with Uulki natural and food safe wood care products and chopping boards for wooden and bamboo kitchen utensils.
Wood is very similar to our own skin. We apply body lotion or body oil regularly to keep our skin hydrated, and this is also the case with wood. After being exposed to water and / or heat, untreated or not frequently treated wood can expand. When the temperature drops or the water has dried up, the wood will shrink again. Because of this wood can crack and / or warp. If you finish your wooden kitchenware with Uulki Wood Oil for cutting boards, countertops and cooking tools, the wood pores become saturated with oil and won’t suck up any water. Uulki wood oil is 100% natural, plant-based (vegan), and food contact safe. For full protection, you can also use Uulki Oil and Wax 2-in-1 for wooden and bamboo cooking tools and chopping boards. Apart from nourishing the wood intensely, this completely plant-based/ vegan wax also leaves a water resistant layer on top of the wooden surface. Like that, food scraps and juices won’t be able to penetrate the wood. If you repeat this treatment regularly, warping or cracking kitchen utensils will be history! So, take care of your wooden kitchenware just like you would do of your own skin, by using our food safe oils and waxes.
When you leave wooden kitchen utensils in water, they will suck up tons of water. Because of this, the wood expands. Thereafter, when the wood dries, it shrinks. When wooden kitchen tools are exposed to these extremes regularly, the wood can crack and even warp. In the dishwasher your kitchenware is exposed to extreme temperatures and water overload. On top of that your cooking tools also come into contact with aggressive detergent. So, never leave your wooden cooking utensils in water and never put them in the dishwasher! It’s very easy to clean wooden kitchenware by hand and it only takes a few seconds. Too keep them in good shape, it’s best to treat them now and then with Uulki natureal, foodsafe and vegan wood care for kitchenware and chopping boards from wood or bamboo.
Don’t throw away your old and worn out cooking spoons, spatulas, tongs, and so on, immediately. With the right treatment and care, they will look just as new! The first step is thoroughly cleaning your kitchenware to refurbish. Do this by scrubbing it with a brush or sponge underneath warm streaming water, preferably without any dish soap. In case they need profound cleaning, use a little bit of mild, odourless detergent. Let air dry. Next, you can sand your wooden kitchen utensils. This step is only necessary if the wood splinters or if it has small notches. Finally, treat your wooden cooking utensils with Uulki Wood Oil for chopping boards, kitchenware and countertops. Spread the plant-based wood oil on the wooden surface with your hand or a soft cloth and allow it to be absorbed. After an hour, you can wipe off the excess oil with a cloth and your wooden kitchen utensils will look great again!
Right now, you can find a lot of kitchenware made from bamboo in stores everywhere. These are considered to be an ecological alternative for utensils made from other materials, but is bamboo that environmentally friendly? Not exactly. Due to the high demand for this kind of wood, more and more plantations are being created. Even though bamboo can grow on a nutrient-poor soil, numerous forests had to make way for this raw material. Creating a monoculture results in the loss of biodiversity, a bigger risk for epidemics and higher CO₂ emissions from the soil. On top of that, bamboo is often processed and this also has a big impact on the environment. Nevertheless, bamboo is an ecologically sustainable product when it stays unprocessed, is harvested from sustainably managed forests and doesn’t have to be transported from Asia. So, when living in Europe it’s better to choose for wooden kitchenware made from local wood, like beechwood or cherrywood. Like that, the wood or the wooden kitchen utensils do not need to travel for thousands of miles to get to you and carbon emissions can be reduced! It’s even better when the wood comes from sustainably managed forests. And this is the case with Uulki!
It can happen that wooden cooking utensils get splinters and notches from using it. But this is easy to fix! After rinsing your kitchen utensils with warm water and letting them air dry, you can sand the wood. Before getting to work, we recommend you to read our tips:
Use sanding paper with a medium grain: the size of the grain is very important. If you choose a grain that’s too small, you will have to sand for a really long time. Do you choose for a grain that’s too big, you run the risk that you’ll make scratches in the wood. We recommend you to use sanding paper with grain size P120 or P180. First use the coarse sanding paper (P120) and finish with a finer grain (P180) to smoothen the wooden kitchen utensils. Do you want the wooden surface to be smoother? Sand it again with sanding paper with grain size P240. At this point, don’t use sanding paper with a coarser grain anymore to prevent closing the wood pores when sanding. This can lead to problems when treating with oil.
Always sand in the direction of the wood grain: if you don’t do this, it’s possible that you will sand the grain completely flat and scratch it. With this disappears the beautiful structure of the wood. So make sure you sand in the direction of the wood grain. With end grain, like the inner side of a spoon, it’s best to sand in circular motions, just like you would sand an end grain chopping board.
Sand evenly: Sand the complete chopping board with the same intensity.
Finish with Uulki oil and / or wax for wooden kitchenware
After sanding your wooden cooking utensils, the wood will be completely dehydrated. So it’s very important to finish them with Uulki Vegan Wood Oil and / or Uulki Wood Wax after sanding to nourish the wood intensely. Repeat this treatment with oil and / or wax regularly to guarantee the long lifespan of your wooden kitchenware. Uulki wood oils for wooden and bamboo cooking utensils are 100% natural, plant-based (vegan) and food contact safe.
It’s obvious that you need to rinse your wooden kitchenware profoundly to counteract the absorption of odours, colours and flavours. But also by treating your wooden cooking utensils with Uulki Wood Oil for cooking utensils, cutting boards and kitchen worktops from wood or bamboo, the chance of this happening is getting smaller. Our wood oil is 100% natural, food safe and contaisn only plant-based / vegan ingredients. Do you want to avoid this completely? Then we recommend you to use different kitchen utensils for different kinds of preparations. Like that, it’s better not to use a wooden cooking spoon used for spicy dishes, which may give off a lot of colour and flavour, for baking sweets.
