Tag: kitchen care

  • Look at the Handle Before You Turn the Oven On

    Look at the Handle Before You Turn the Oven On

    The short answer: scrub the factory oil off with hot soapy water, dry it over the burner, then heat the empty wok until the steel turns a blue-grey colour. Add a very thin film of high smoke point oil, wipe most of it away, and heat until it smokes and stops. Repeat two or three times, working up the sides. That builds the polymerised layer that makes carbon steel slick. Do it on the hob rather than in the oven, and the reason is not tradition: most woks have a wooden handle, and 450°F for an hour is not something a wooden handle survives. The single most common mistake is too much oil, which leaves a sticky surface rather than a hard one.

    Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend things I would use in my own home.

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  • The Board That Gets Safer With Age, and the One That Does Not

    The Board That Gets Safer With Age, and the One That Does Not

    The short answer: hot soapy water immediately after use, rinsed and dried standing on edge, never left flat and never in a dishwasher. Once a month, oil it. That much every source agrees on. What almost none of them mention is the research that reverses the received wisdom about wood and plastic: when a microbiologist tested both, bacteria on wood were absorbed into the surface within minutes and died there, while plastic boards that had been used and knife-scarred could not be reliably cleaned by hand at all. A worn wooden board behaved almost like a new one. A worn plastic board did not.

    Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy through them I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend things I would use in my own home.

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