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.
Add lemon juice and leave in the sunlight for 2 days?
Or risk leaving a distinctive taste. 🙂
Maybe as a last resort? Then it can be the steak cutting board!
I’d be tempted to coat the whole board, let it sit overnight, and then wash. Then you’d have a rare yellow cutting board!
I have heard of using tea to “stain” cloth and to cover scratches on a wood table. Wonder if it would help cover up the yellow stain? Hope you find something to take care of it. Thanks for all your hard work. it is much appreciated and enjoyed.
In my experience the stain will fade slowly over time.
Try some boos board cream or other wood board conditioning creams. It’s counterintuitive but it took some stains off my wood board!!
Coming from a background in food service, at this point, it’s just discolored, not ruined. Wash with a 10-20% bleach /water mix, then let dry. The stain might lighten up if you let it dry in sunlight, but no guarantees.
You can also sand it down, and refinish the surface. A little more labor intensive, but probably the only way to absolutely get rid of the stain.
try putting it in the sun if you get it faded a bit, sounds crazy but that’s what takes stains out of cloth diapers and it can’t hurt to try
I’ve also had good luck using oxi-clean on a turmeric stained carrera marble (old and so porous!) countertop. Mix some into a paste, slather on stain and leave overnight.
I’d leave it alone. It’ll probably fade in time. Gives it character! Somebody (husband) occasionally puts a cast iron or sooty pan from outside cooking on the grill right onto the cutting board that sits out 24/7. It’ll have a black hideous ring for awhile. It’s ugly for a bit then fades away. Even oil spots fade and it’s a cheap IKEA board.
Could you sand back to unstained wood, then oil it…maybe?
Sorry you’re so tired, I hope you’re done soon so you can allow yourself a decent break. Your supreme effort and talent are appreciated more than you can know!
I recently saw a show for treating wine stains on tables….And I can’t frigging remember what they said to use. Toothpaste?!?! Heck….
Wikihow also has two great methods. One is using ammonia on a soft cloth. Blot.
Search removing wine stains/rings on tables. I know not a wine stain, but the science has to be the same. I hope.
I feel the same about two of my cutting boards. Everyone is aware, touch them and die. Same with my knives.
Dye the rest of it yellow to match.
Or sand it down and refinish.
I am begging you to only use Food Safe chemicals on the cutting board. Wood is porous and will soak up/then leach out whatever you put on it. At our house the rule is, “Other than soapy water, if you can’t eat it, then it’s not safe the cutting board”.
My suggestion is to take a photo of the cutting board and then ask the BDH where they’ve seen it or something similar in size and quality. The item will likely be located in minutes. Best of luck Ilona!
If it’s superficial you could just sand it and put some mineral oil and beeswax on the exposed wood.
Bleach? Mr Clean Magic Eraser?
Thank you for your words. They make my life better.
How would you feel if you made the whole board yellow? If you can’t remove what’s there, then staining the rest might be an option.
A little bleach?
you might try sanding it off.
use the other side?
otherwise baking soda paste.
then use a food safe oil on it.
I would try IPA or rubbing alcohol. You can get sharpie off a countertop if you rub it enough times with IPA. I know this because I am endlessly trying to figure out what resists isopropyl alcohol. 22 years of experience says “nothing”. You may also make a whole in your board, depending on how deep the stain goes. So it kind of defeats the purpose…
IPA Isopropyl Alcohol is not potable. Probably not a problem if most has evaporated but why chance it?
If you’re going with alcohol, try the Everclear it’s Ethanol and food grade.
Whatever gunk you use, wash with soap and water afterwards, then oil/wax.
Acetone is a bit chancy but might be ok. It’s soluble in both oil and water, so you’d have chance of pulling the color into solution. Just do it before it dries
IMO
Start with
– you’ve obviously already hit it with soap and water. Finish with it too
– 1 hydro hyper oxide
– 2 lemon juice salt a sun
– 3 Oxyclean
– 4 sanding… start with 120 cause you’ll need to take off a bit, the progress to finer grades, until your happy. 600 is too fine, suitable for a really fine finish and this is after all a working surface.
Apologies to the 600 person
Lastly after all that it might no quite get there so something that adds alittle color. Cut up some tomatoes or chili peppers on it and rub in the juice. 🙂
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
Re : The salt, it kills a lot of bugs
I use a lot of turmeric and periodically it stains one of my counters or cutting boards. I ignore it, and over the course of a few weeks it goes away. I hope your yellow stain will too.
Thank you for Innkeeper. It always makes me smile.
Thank you for Innkeeper!
As for the stain, if you have a few hours of direct sunlight available I would give it a rinse and let it sun bathe.
No idea if it will work, but the sun gets stains out of my clothing that bleach can’t even touch, so maybe?
sorry if that seems like a stupid suggestion ????
Is it a stain or has it removed the color from the wood. Hydrogen peroxide might remove the stain. If the sauce removed the color of the wood, try rubbing walnut or other nut over the wood to transfer color the wood.
Might want to do a light sanding and then coat in food grade mineral oil or wax?
It sounds like you need some “you” time. I hope you are able to relax and come back refreshed.
Dawn dish detergent cleans almost everything. Try leaving undiluted Dawn on the stain for awhile and then wash. Good luck.
We accidentally had some tomatoes spoil and leak onto my mom’s butcher block counter while she was out of town. The stain was well set when discovered. What finally made a dent was 3% hydrogen peroxide left to sit for 1 minute then wiped away with a paper towel saturated with vinegar and then left to dry overnight. It took a few retreatments but we got it to the point where you could only find the stain if you looked really hard.
Preceding this we did use every combination of baking powder, bakkng soda, lemon, salt and vinegar we could find recommended on the internet which did lighten it a little.
It’s been a couple of years now and our mom has no idea anything ever happened to it, but I can still spot a faint shadow if I search it out.
Stain it yellow.
we are all loving frinnkeeper! I’m so sorry its wearing you out. it didn’t show at all.
Have you tried cooking oil on the cutting board?
Bleach. We used to have to clean the wooden chopping block at camp with it e very day.
Sand and re oil with mineral oil from drug store
I have an ancient and much-loved cutting board that has experienced severe stains several times through the years. I consider them badges of honor! And here’s the important thing: they eventually fade away to nothing.
If all else fails, you could try sanding the stain off.
I have no idea if this would work on ketchup but I’m working on a very old stain on my bedroom floor with repeated applications of peroxide and ammonia. The stain is getting lighter and the edges have become blurry, so it is doing something.
I’ve seen many comments that suggest staining the whole thing and I like that idea, but have an alternate suggestion. If you’re really bothered by the stain (to the point that you won’t use it as is), what about using it as an opportunity for creative wood staining? Maybe get a kid or both involved? You could try different natural items and try to stain patterns in it or maybe use actual stains? It might be a fun creative endeavor. Or it might be incredibly frustrating. Depends on your mood and thoughts about wood projects. ????
Would sanding the surface work? I sand mine with 200 grit every year or so, and then oil it with mineral oil and let that set for a day or so.
Its just an ugly old board, but my Grandfather made it, so it is a treasured possession
I’m sorry you’re tired but I hope you know that the BDH appreciates all your struggles with giving us amazing stories! ❤️
As far as the cutting board goes, I’m repeating what many others have said: sand it down, wash it and seal it with a food grade cutting board oil. Hope it comes out – good luck!
Put a smiley face on it so you smile when you use the cutting board or put Oro on it
You might try a baking soda paste. cover it with plastic wrap and leave it over night. Someone just told me this approach with stained marble and granite. Hope it works. If it lightens some but not enough just repeat
Try using alcohol to clean it
Or pink stuff from Amazon
It cleans almost all household blemishes to my initial surprise
And I totally understand how you feel regarding the being tired
Держитесь!
sand it down and get some butcher block oil at hardware store.
I “inherited” my mom’s old chopping board that got stored for a while so it had a lot of stains. I wanted to repurpose it and hang it on our own kitchen walls. I tried all known and “google” methods but there was still a lot of the stains embedded on the wood.
My husband sanded it. It looked like new!
Mod R, have we named the guy in the picture? I feel like he needs a name. He deserves it for being an honorary member of the BDH. ????
I’ve always thought he looked like his name could be Mortimer. Maybe Edgar. I like the current picture with the quill pen clenched in his teeth and the look in his eyes!
I like those! I was thinking Horatio or Bertrand maybe? Definitely an old fashioned name. ????
Oh, I like Bertrand! It has possibilities.
yes – I was going to suggest Mortimer too !!
Squirt Heinz on the entire board and let it sit, so you turn the entire board a cheerful yellow.
Try white paste toothpaste.
Consider the stain a beauty mark and let it fade over time. Sounds like the board has been cleaned beyond the usual and you risk damaging it more with aggressive cleaning (it’s probably old enough the antibacterial properties are long dead anyway). If the stain isn’t too deep it’ll likely fade with use but at this point seems to be a cosmetic issue. A bit of character for your favorite board.
Get some sandpaper out & sand the side back until the stain is removed. Easeir if you have a sander rather than doing it by hand. One you have done that, clean it off with metho then oil it before you use it.
Lots of salt. Wipe it with a damp cloth and pour a snow drift of coarse salt on it. let it sit overnight.
If the stain is too strong for that moisten with vinegar and then pour salt on it. And let sit and dry overnight.
Years ago I asked a local butcher what they did with their wooden cutting counter to clean and sterilize it – they used salt. the counter was bleached almost white from decades of being treated with salt every night.
This may sound weird… but you could always make it into an art project. You could do a painting or do a carving. Does it really need to remain a cutting board?????
Try a little bleach and water mixture like you would to clean it after chicken or other raw meat. Ultimately it may just need a light sanding, then rub the whole thing down with mineral oil.
Put steak sauce on the entire thing and leave it overnight. It won’t get rid of the stain, just unify the entire board in stain-ed-ness. 😉
Try lemon juice and sunshine. Then, when that doesn’t work well enough, get out a sander and take a layer off with two round of sandpaper, one coarse then one fine. Follow up with board butter, which is the best thing ever for wooden cutting boards and wooden knife handles. (You can make it or buy it at places like Home Despot, also called wood conditioner, just buy one that says it is for cutting boards and butcher block counter.) I rescue old cutting boards once or twice a year from estate sales.