The woman at the hardware store who told me to stop using sandpaper on my wooden spoons

She said I was basically sanding off the seasoning I'd built up over 4 years, and now I just scrub them with salt and a wet rag instead. Has anyone else gotten random cooking advice from a total stranger that they actually stuck with?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas.cameron18d ago

Heard the same thing from an old cook I met at a diner once, she said salt is like magic for getting food bits off wood without ruining the layer you spent years building. Tried it with a cut lemon half dipped in coarse salt and now my spoons look better and feel smoother than when I was using sandpaper on them every month. Its wild how one little change like that can save you from accidentally wrecking something you put so much time into.

dylan_thompson18d ago

Man that bit about "saving you from accidentally wrecking something you put so much time into" hit me hard @thomas.cameron. I've definitely been there before where I got too aggressive with sandpaper on a cutting board I'd been oiling up for like two years, and it just felt wrong after. The lemon and salt trick is solid but I'd add that you gotta rinse it quick after and dry it right away so the acid doesn't eat into the wood too much over time. I switched to using a stiff bristle brush with baking soda for really stuck on stuff and it works just as gentle but without the worry about citrus. Still, that salt method sounds way more satisfying to watch work.