The manuscript is currently at 101, 152 words. It is still not over. Very tired now. Brain is also tired.
Coincidentally Kid 2 is finishing her project, so right now our mother-daughters interaction consists of whining to each other through text, “Why won’t it end?” and then staring at it blankly because there isn’t enough brain power left to make sentences.
Must finish…
I have a kind of off-the wall question for you today. I have an old wooden cutting board. I’ve had it for years, and I’m used to it. Long story short, someone squeezed some Heinz 57 steak sauce onto the board and then put it in the sink. Normally, I’d wash it right away, but somehow I didn’t notice it was there until this morning. It sat overnight.
Now the cutting board has a bright yellow stain on it. Like bright yellow. I can’t get it out. I tried Bar Keeper’s friend. I tried lemon. I tried baking soda, vinegar, and a combination of both. I can’t put it into the dishwasher as it might fall apart.
Any ideas? I know it’s just a cheap cutting board, but I like it and want to keep it.
you can also try cutting a lemon and squeezing the juice on to the stain & let sit.
Oops just reread & saw you did try lemon ????
Would it be possible to sand a fine layer off to get rid of the stain? Could also try a half lemon cut side dipped in salt as a scrubber. Best of luck!
Just use it until it either the stain fades or you get used to it.
My kids like art. The more it stains the more they like it. I have found there’s not much hand sanitiser doesn’t get out (or rubbing alcohol but hand sanatisers much more accessible these days). Not sure if it would work on wood or sauce but it may be worth a try.
Hi, Ilona, if you can’t get the stain out, you could over-dye it to bring the color more in line with the background color of the rest of the board. There are lots of natural dye options — like, everyone’s experienced cutting beets and then having purple fingers … so, I’d suggest heading in that direction rather than using a chemical dye that might get into the food. There are a lot of books and info on natural dyes from plants nowdays as many fabric and yarn dyers are heading in that direction. I have even seen “natural food colorings” made from plant materials. Best of luck!
A bleach water solution?
One of the nicest things about wooden cutting boards is, is when there is a permanent stain on it, you can sand it off. Either by hand, or with an electric mini-sander. Saved many cutting boards doing that! *S*
The stain doesn’t matter to how it is used. You can just use it as normal.
Try sanding it back, how thick is the board?
A nice gentle sander are Brillo Pads (green sponge things). I finish wood with them.
If your wooden cutting boards have no marks, stains, burns… are you really even cooking? Those marks add character and are testament to the love you put into your work.
If your hands aren’t sore, your back stiff and your mind feeling a little mushy are you actually a writer? ????
Deep breath, please don’t kill the book. It’s fighting for it’s life and while we support “my mind, my story decisions ” BDH is starting to do the dance of worry. (She said she’s gonna kill the book. And we don’t have any answers for the parents yet. And Orro hasn’t published a cookbook yet.. and what about Maude? We want a wedding right? We don’t know where the new link to the inn will open. Dance, dance,worry worry dance)
I also have a couple of old cutting boards. one from my mom that my brother made in shop and one my kids gave me. They were rode hard and put away wet. What I did was take a palm sander to them with a pretty high grit. It got rid if the stains and smoothed out some of the rough spots from kids whacking cleaners. Then I seasoned it with cutting board oil. Worked like a champ.
The interesting thing about wooden cutting boards is they are NOT inert. Stains get absorbed, and released over time as they react with the cells of the wood. I would say try oxidation, ie oxy-clean or other oxygenating cleaner: baking soda and vinegar.Then give it a shot of reduction cleaner, simple pink or lemon juice and salt in the sunshine, and then let it be for a few weeks of regular use and retreat with both types of cleaner. As you use the cutting board, the knife edges open up cells that are stained and mush closed other cells, and over time the stain may just fade away. I have a nice 2″ thick board that has acquired and lost stains over the years. Love it and keep using it, stains and all.
Sand down the stain then re-oil the cutting board
you could cover the whole thing in sauce and let it set, the it would all be the same color lol. good luck
I use bleach. It will fade with drying, and if you wash off, let dry, 2 times, there isn’t really a bleach taste left IME
have you tried a light sanding and food grade mineral oil?
Have you tried hydrogen peroxide?
Sorry I didn’t see this earlier…I hope something already worked by now! ????
I’ve used liquid dishwasher detergent to remove stains (such as beet juice) from cutting boards, my white kitchen counter, etc.
Just pour a little bit of dishwasher liquid on the stain and lightly manually scrub it, then rinse. In my experience, it gets rid of the stain within seconds, so it doesn’t need to soak.
Good luck!
I’d hand sand it with a block till I removed the stain, get the rest of the board to the same grit/sanding finish, and then refinish it with a food safe conditioning oil. Will look gorgeous!
Apply some food safe oil to the board to darken it?
I is sorry yous is tired. I feel your pain. You deserve the sleeps.
Sun bleaching can remove tomato stains (just setting it in a strong bright sun for a few hours), and requires no experimental procedures.
Maybe sand paper it a bit?
Good luck!
One random thought- maybe try just sanding it off, if it’s not too fragile or stain is too deep. Then put some oil on it
Try sublight. I have been putting my colored cutting boards in the sunlight and the color just vanishes. Good luck.
sunlight*
Coat with a darker sauce let it soak in and then give it a good scrub. Back in the days of table cloths they used coffee or tea to dye a slightly stained table cloth ivory.
Maybe a light sanding and then apply a stain remover?
Sand it.
You can sand Cutting boards. Depending how deep the stain is this could work. However if it is most of the way through the board obviously don’t try it. Sanding will also remove the patina that that has built up over the years
as a wood worker, I would say that the only thing is to plane it downand reoil it. there is always the chance that the stain has gone too deep, in which case you would have to just accept it and let it fade with time.
My wife and I make cutting boards to sell. Sand the whole surface with 220 grit sandpaper until the stain is gone. Treat the raw wood with mineral oil, then get a board wax of Amazon to finish it. Easy peasy.
Maybe sand off the top layer and see if you get all the stained wood?
Make a slurry of 1/2 cup of baking powder, and 1/2 to 1/2 cup of white vinegar, spread over the entire board.
Allow it to sit for a few minutes, and then give it a good rinse.
My step-grandmother used to swear by good ‘ol’ salt. Just rub it in really hard, then rinse in cold water and dry it. We have a cutting board in the shape of a pig that my son made for me years ago. I love it!
All the comments about sanding, made me think of that time I used…… Salt….. To scrub something clean. And it worked. I dont know how. I forgot what. But it worked.
Might be worth a try.
Good luck.
Also, even though i love your chapters, if your mind needs a break, please take it. I can wait.
Lmao, posted this, then saw a comment about salt. Sorry about the doubleness
Yes! I know the answer to this one. Rub it with lemon again and put it in the sun. This works quick in Australian sunshine with high UV, so it may take a day with no ozone hole?
Then very important, oil it after this to bring back the colour
My mother and grandmother would keep it. I would keep it. Remember how our parents, grandparents, great grandparents lived. Use the board!
Very fine grit sandpaper, super strength Dawn, Oxy Clean, salt & sun in combination should help.
Good luck & please let us know what (if anything) works!
It’s just “patina”. It will moderate to unnoticed eventually. Don’t stress. Just like us, it is aging gracefully.
Sandpaper to sand the stain off?Start with a rough grit, then go finer and finer. Or, if you can, turn it over?
That is what I did when my Mom scorched my favourite wooden cutting board by putting a overly hot pot on it. She literally melted the bottom of the pot off by forgetting it on the stove. Sigh.
I did not read through the thousands of comments, heh, but mineral spirits, if it hasn’t been said. It’s what we use to keep our board oiled and fresh and it takes care of stains. Use a small amount on the stain and then work your way up to the whole board. Keeps it fresh and brings out the wood. Someone made me a board that’s like 5lbs of wood (not sure what type) but it’s gorgeous and that’s what he said to use. Hope it helps!!
Uh oh. Bright yellow…does the stain have feathered edges? If so, frame the cutting board and hang it on the wall because the yellow could be a fungus or bacterium.
Sand your cutting board
I read course ground kosher salt with lemon juice was effective.
Have you tried making a paste of baking soda and water, and letting that dry on the stain? I’ve used that to pull some nasty stains out of things.