Extend the life of your wooden spoons and boards with spoon butter
Wooden spoons and chopping boards are wonderful to work with and can give your kitchen that true farm feel. But if you don’t take care of them, they can lose their shine and even crack. So to prevent that, we want to take good care of our wooden utensils. And a good way to take really good care of them is by using spoon butter.
Now, if you’ve never heard of spoon butter, don’t worry. It is simply fat or oil mixed with some beeswax for extra durability, and it is super easy to make. But even though it is easy to make, it does do wonders for your wooden cutting boards. Before I discovered spoon butter, I would just use plain olive oil, but I had to oil it up on an almost daily basis. But ever since I started using spoon butter, I only have to reapply it every couple of weeks. Which is much more economical and not to mention way more time-saving. Because let’s be honest, who has time to oil up their wooden plates and cutting boards every day or two? I know I don’t have time like that. And I didn’t even do my wooden spoons most times.
But we do want to take good care of our wooden utensils so that they will last the rest of our lives. Some of the wooden kitchen utensils I inherited from family members and others I bought second-hand. And I don’t baby them, I let them soak when washing dishes, my toddler regularly drops them (or uses them for mud cakes), and I often use my wooden plates as makeshift cutting boards. To be fair, they are basically the same as my cutting board but a tad smaller. And I do believe that a big reason they are still in such good shape is that I always make sure they are well polished.
Why use wooden utensils
They look absolutely gorgeous! Which is not the most important reason but is definitely a nice bonus. Personally, for me, the main reason I prefer wood over anything else is that it is completely natural. It also has the benefit of not conducting heat. So I can leave my spoon in my pot with soup without burning my hand later on. And who doesn’t love not burning their hands? I know I really love not burning my hands. And if you ever have trouble with burning your hands on pot handles or lids, then why not sew some pot holders. It’s easy, and it allows you the freedom of customising it to your needs and personal style.
Another great reason to use wooden kitchen utensils is for your health. Wood after al is toxin-free and completely natural, unlike plastic which has its problems. Since multiple studies show that some of the chemicals in the plastic can leach into your food. Even if they were designed and made to be used for cooking. A problem that we won’t have with wooden spoons.
Wooden kitchen utensils are not just better for your health, but they are also better for your other cookware. Since wooden chopping boards tend to be softer than plastic versions, wooden chopping boards will keep your knives sharper for longer. Which will require you to sharpen them less often without losing cutting capabilities.
How and why to care for wooden spoons and boards
We all want our wooden chopping boards to last as long as they can. And to ensure that they will last for a long time we need to take good care of them. That means making sure that the wood is well moisturised. Which will also result in a beautiful shine and a longer life span for the wood. And beautiful shiny wood that will last a long time is what we all want. Right? I know I much prefer shiny healthy looking cutting boards over dull and cracking ones.
So now that we know that, we want to polish our wooden kitchen utensils regularly with oil or ideally spoon butter for better looking and longer-lasting cutting boards and spoons. We can talk about how do you go about moisturising your wooden boards. Luckily it’s super easy. We add a bit of spoon butter onto our cutting board and rub it in until it all looks shiny and deeper in colour. If any spots are drier than other spots, you will notice that they won’t get that deeper colour and added shine. And to these spots, you simply add a bit more spoon butter until it does deepen in colour and gets that shine. I tend to always start with small amounts of spoon butter and then add more as I need it. Rather than using a lot and having to wipe all that excess off.
And as an added bonus, when you ensure your cutting boards are well moisturised, the grain won’t split as easily. Which does not just prevent the cracking and thereby making the board unusable. But it also ensures fewer bacteria can creep in between tiny cracks in the wood. Since wood always swells a bit when properly moisturised and shrinks when dried out, after all, wood is a living material. Which is part of its charm, because just like us, you can see it change depending on changing conditions.
How to make spoon butter
Making spoon butter really is a very easy and uncomplicated process. You start with either some grated beeswax or some pellets. Which you melt and add the coconut oil too, mix it well and leave it to cool. What could be simpler? Then you simply apply some to your beloved wooden spoons and cutting boards.
What do you need for your spoon butter
To make spoon butter, you really don’t need much since the mixture is simplicity itself. All you need is some coconut oil and beeswax. If you don’t want to use coconut oil then you can use a different oil if you prefer, just keep in mind that certain oils will go rancid more easily than others. Which is why so many people prefer coconut oil for these things since it is antimicrobial.
To prepare your spoon butter, you will need a couple of things you will most likely already have anyways. Since you will need a pan and an old jam jar of some sort, as well as a chopstick for stirring. I find digital scales to be very convenient when measuring, but regular analog scales will work too.
- 75 gr of coconut oil
- 20 gr of beeswax
- A glass jar (100 ml)
- Digital scales (are rather handy for measuring)
- A saucepan (any pan will do really)
- A chopstick for stirring
Preparation for your spoon butter
Grate your beeswax unless you’re using pelleted beeswax.
Put your beeswax in your glass jar and put your glass jar into your saucepan.
Fill your saucepan with your glass jar in it, with water until it is about halfway up your jar.
Put your saucepan on the stove, and on medium to high heat, heat up the water so that the beeswax in the jar will melt. (if you find that your jar rattles, you can put a cloth under it to help against the rattling)
Add the coconut oil to the beeswax once the beeswax has melted, and stir well until all is melted.
Leave to cool on the counter.
Apply to your wooden chopping boards and spoons by putting a small dollop onto the board or spoon and rubbing it in well. Leave it to absorb the butter for a couple of hours or ideally overnight, after which you can wipe off any excess with a cloth.
Store it in the jar at room temperature, and it will keep for a couple of months.
Plenty of time to use it all up on all your beautiful wooden spoons and chopping boards. And when you’ve polished up all your beloved spoons, why not post a picture to Instagram and tag me so that I can see your lovely spoons. Since I would love to see all your gorgeous spoons and chopping boards.
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