# wooden spoons absorbing odors



## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

I wonder at the use of wooden spoons and if anyone keeps their spoons separate for use in savory and sweet dishes.  (I don't - i don;t really have enough places!) 

For instance, if you stir a pot with garlic and other strong flavors with a wooden spoon, being porous it absorbs the odors.  You can wash it, but how do you get the odors that are absorbed into the wood's pores?  And if you use that to stir a pastry cream, do you get some transfer? 

I often wonder about that.  I haven't really noticed an effect in the actual cream, but i do notice when i taste it using the spoon - the spoon gives the spoonful i'm tasting a strange taste. 

I'm careful not to keep the spoon in the delicate sweet creams for too long, but wondered, does anyone else have this problem?

i wash my wooden spoons, like practically anything else, in the dishwasher, but i found this also when i'm at a house without a dishwasher.


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## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Hmmmmmm? Sounds like one of those things that's right in theory, but not in reality?

I use lots of wooden spoons, paddles, and similar utensils. Never notices them holding on to aromas---not any more than a wood cutting board.

Let me ask you this: When you take them out of the dishwasher to they smell soapy? Based on your idea, they should absorb that odor too.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Depends on the spoon.

Beech is probably the best, is tight grained and holds up well.  I usually have 2 or 3 at home and don't notice much odour rentention.  Curry is bad for this though, and  I usually have a "yellow" spoon for that.  Some times a good scrub with pure baking soda will remove both the odour and colour from curry

Bamboo doesn't hold up all that well and splinters easily.

Some of the cheaper supermarket ones are poplar or another wood, and these take on odours quickly.  Then again, they never last long anyway.

At work I use s/s spoons, the wood ones don't hold up to the heat in my commercial d/washer


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Never put wood anything or wood handled anything in a home dishwasher, either.  Wood is wash by hand if you want it to last.

BDL


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## Iceman (Jan 4, 2011)

I get wooden sets by _Chefmate_ from Target for $4, they used to be only $3. You get a regular spoon, a slotted spoon and a slotted spatula. For the price, I just use them until they crack or get chippy-edged, then pitch them out. The only disappointment I've ever had is when I didn't have a back-up, but I've fixed that by just buying more. Anyway, to answer the question, NO, I've never had any odor problem. Unfortunately for me, LOL, I'm now going to start checking if I've missed it.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

KY, I don't know why i can smell the garlic on the spoon and not the detergent, but detergent is made to rinse away and garlic is made to linger!  and the garlic is always sauteeing in the oil which is also clinging. It seems the odor of the garlic comes out when the spoon is in the hot liquid, and i have to say i don;t know if it would really transmit to the cream or whatever, but the spoon itself does smell. 

I am pretty rigid about the I-cook-you-clean-up rule in the house - the worst meal my husband gets is better than most anything we get anywhere else, so he has nothing to complain about - and he puts them in the dishwasher.  But i would do it too.  They;re cheap spoons, after all.  Washing stuff by hand, BDL, is against my religion.  But would a hand washing take out something that is absorbed into the pores of the wood? 

i do buy cheapo spoons, admittedly, and they probably do absorb more.  I could keep a single spoon for sweets, but wow, that would be a level of organization beyond my ability (and how to train the husband to put that particular spoon in that particular place?  More than my job is worth). 

Well, i admit it was an idle question, made because i am trying to avoid doing the work i should be doing.  Interesting though. I did get one of those silicone spoons but i find it unpleasant.


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## bill paulk (Nov 18, 2011)

hello,

honestly you should never put detergents on a wooden utensils or cutting blocks. Only if it's necessary. The soaps can get caught up just like oils.  The garlic has oils that are very sticky.  You can sanitize with a sanitizer. Always make sure the water is at least 220 degrees.  it would be simpler to buy a new spoon. Never use on food with high oil content.  Wooden spoons are mostly meant for food with a high acid content. This would include tomato sauces. The acid and metal is not a good relationship. I hope this helped you.


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Bill Paulk said:


> hello,
> 
> ... Always make sure the water is at least 220 degrees...


Care to share your technique to get water that hot? /img/vbsmilies/smilies/crazy.gif I thought it turned to steam at 212°F


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## bill paulk (Nov 18, 2011)

Lol...I would like to find that out also. I did mean to say 212 (100°c) here's the funny part. I used to work on a dim sum restaur
ant,lol


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## bill paulk (Nov 18, 2011)

Lol...I would like to find that out also. I did mean to say 212 (100°c) here's the funny part. I used to work on a dim sum restaur
ant,lol


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## mikelm (Dec 23, 2000)

Never even though about this poblem, though I have only two wooden implements.  One - olive wood - I've had for years and it's holding up just fine... Like BDL, I NEVER put any wood in the dishwasher, and I always handwash them the moment I'm through using them.  I just rinse them under.my hottest tap water - a maximum of 140*  - and rub them hard with my dishwashing sponge without any added soap or detergent and rinse well again, and dry them immediately

The other is curly maple, which makes for a he!l of an attractive flat stirrer, and I haven't noticed any problem with it, either.

Mike


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

OLive wood and maple, well, naturally they don't absorb like the ones i have.  I have about ten, and they're almost all pretty porous.


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Since it is not possible to boil water to 220, only 212 F.

      The  best way to clean many kitchen things is to put into a steamer. which will go over 212 f  Wood impliments  of any kind however.should not be done like this.

 In fact the NSF does not recomend any wood in commercial food operations. Today the spoons are made of a composite material thet is not  porous. as are most cutting boards.(hard rubber)


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Soak them in water with baking soda. 

Soak them in water with bleach, but a weak solution,  not for too long (1/2 an hour), and rinse thoroughly afterwards. 

Soak them in a weak solution of "kitchen surface" cleaner, as you would with bleach.

Do not soak wood in hot water for any length of time.  Do not boil it.  Do not pressure cook it.  Do not run it through the drying cycle of a home dishwasher.  At least not if you want it to last. 

BDL


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

BDL, thanks. I wasn;t really asking what to do with them, though, but just wondering if it was something others noticed and if they used metal or some other spoons to avoid the problem.

However, it makes me want to ask about the drying cycle. Our dishwashers don;t have a drying cycle. They rinse with very hot water and then the stuff dries on its own. That way pretty much everything not adversely affected by the detergent can go in there - (like rubber or aluminum or steel that isn;t stainless)

I put all my plastic measuring cups and other containers in even the bottom drawer, because the machine doesn;t heat air, just water.

Anyway, they last fine enough, especially considering they cost maybe a euro each. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/smile.gif If i have to replace them every five years, i win anyway. Though those olive wood spoons are gorgeous (but not putting one of those in my sauteed garlic in any case!)


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## bill paulk (Nov 18, 2011)

I guess I'll never hear the end of it,lol.


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