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Looking After Your Spoons

If you’d like to protect your spoons and other woodenware and keep them looking shiny and hydrated, this is what I’d recommend.

Oiling your spoons brings out the grain and protects them somewhat from soaking up liquids. Unlike most cooking oils, linseed oil is a ‘drying oil’. That means it oxidises, or ‘dries’ in air, turning into a polymer, which resists being washed out and doesn’t go rancid.

Why this oil?

Pre-oxidisation is a process which adds nothing to the oil but reduces its drying time to about a week and also lightens its colour, while the oil remains food safe. Most raw, cold-pressed linseed oils you’ll come across take a long time - a couple of months - to fully dry. To speed up drying, chemicals called ‘siccatives’ are often added. It’s advisable to avoid using this ‘boiled’ linseed oil for food-related woodenware.

This oil comes from Swedish-grown flax plants. Long summer days give Swedish linseed oil a higher concentration of linolenic and linoleic acids when compared with linseed oil from southern Europe (~80% versus ~30%). This helps it dry quicker and form a stronger film. In my opinion, it also has a more pleasant aroma.

Application

I would suggest pouring a little bit of the oil onto your spoon, bowl or cutting board and simply rubbing it in with your fingers. You can wipe off the excess with leave the item for about a week to fully dry. I only do this every few years but you may prefer to do it every few months if you like your spoons to look more hydrated. A little goes a long way!