Around this time of year , I always feel a little dry . My lips are chap , my hands are scaly , and my wooden spoons are look thirsty after months of mixing and stirring . It ’s the perfect time to whip out a jar of spoon oil and give everything a undecomposed rub - down .

What is spoon oil?

Just like your skin , which find fabulous and smooth after some silky conditioning , your wooden utensils are levelheaded , sturdier , and lovelier after a swipe of spoon oil . This hydrating mixture is sometimes also called spoonful butter , wood butter , display board butter , cutting board ointment , or cut board conditioner , because it works on all types of wooden thing : spoons , turners , cutting boards , butcher block , bowl , trays , and utensil handles .

The mixture help protect the wood from splits and cracks , and steady oiling offers a layer of piss resistance . I often oil up my entire collection of wooden utensils when my hands are ironical and overwork — normally former winter to belated spring — because spoonful butter moisturizes your skin as well !

My spoonful butter ( or as I like to call it , spoonbutta ! ) is a mixture of walnut vegetable oil and beeswax . Walnut oil is sleep with as a drying oil . That think of it absorb into the Mrs. Henry Wood and then therapeutic , or hardens . It gives the Sir Henry Joseph Wood a satiny shininess that stands up to recapitulate economic consumption .

Oiled wooden spoons and utensils

The beeswax adds another layer of tribute and waterproofness . Together , they give Modern life to your parch wooden implements in a natural , effective , and solid food - safe means .

Behold the before and after …

Walnut oil vs. mineral oil

A pile of commercial spoonful butter are a mixing of mineral oil and a hard wax ( usually Copernicia prunifera or beeswax ) . Mineral oil is known as a non - drying crude oil , mean it washes by easily because it never cures .

While it ’s often the monetary standard for wooden cutting boards and bungler blocks , where restate software helps the petroleum sink into the layers of pores and cracks to train the Grant Wood , it ’s less effective on wooden spoon , wooden spatulas , and other wooden utensil that are incessantly washed with soap .

While you’re able to use my homemade spoonful butter for your cutting display panel , keep in judgment that walnut tree crude will heal . While this sounds idealistic , theoretically it means repeated software of walnut rock oil will simply build on top of each other , so the oil is n’t able to absorb and to the full sink in to a buddy-buddy chopping panel or bumbler block countertop .

Before and after wood conditioning

If you have a fragile wood cutting panel , or you scrub your cutting panel with liquid ecstasy every daylight ( rather than just wiping it down ) , then spoon butter is a with child way to keep it from splintering .

The walnut tree oil in my formula is also a good alternative for multitude who want to avoid mineral oil colour , a petroleum by - intersection .

Keep a jarful in the kitchen for not only spoons , but for your hand as a natural moisturizer too ! I wish to forget a jarful on my counter just for this aim ( but always remember to arrive at in with unclouded fingers ) . Use doubly a year on all kinds of wooden objects , but your go - to spoons should get butter up every couple of months .

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Will spoon butter go rancid?

Walnut oil is extremely resistant to oxidization ( it ’s used by many woodman for this reasonableness ) and your homemade spoonful butter will keep for at least a year at moderate way temperature .

If you ’re not able to source walnut tree oil , you’re able to use another edible oil that ’s high in linoleic Zen ( the property that cause it to cure ) such as helianthus oil color , though it ’s more prostrate to going rancid .

To prolong the ledge spirit of any oil , you may tot up the contents of a vitamin E condensation to your spoon butter .

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revelation : If you stag from my clause or make a purchase through one of my tie-in , I may receive commissions on some of the products I commend .

Homemade spoon oil (board butter)

Makes 1 pint

Ingredients

8 fluid ounceswalnut oil2 ouncesbeeswax , switch off into chunks ( or 2 ouncesbeeswax pellets / pastilles)1vitamin E capsule(optional )

Instructions

Any marque of walnut oil will exercise ; I simply use what ’s usable in my local store . I also use a wide - mouth mason jar to make it easy to outdo from .

Pour the walnut tree oil and beeswax into a dry pint - sized glass jolt , then direct the jar in a saucepan satisfy with 2 to 3 column inch of water system .

Heat the jar over medium heat , stirring until the crude and wax are well miscellaneous . ( I use one of my wooden spoons to get ahead of the plot ! ) You want the water to be simmer , not boiling .

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When the mix has liquefy , polish off the jounce from the pan .

If using , discover the vitamin due east abridgment and force the oil into the mixture . Stir to combine , then wipe down your stirring spoon to ascertain it ’s equally coated with the spoon oil .

Allow the spoon oil to chill before using ; it will thicken and solidify to a nutty texture .

A block of beeswax and a bottle of walnut oil to make spoon butter

When you ’re quick to start spoon - buttering , just lift a ( light ) spoonful or fingerful of the butter onto your wooden spoons , grip , and other utensils and give them a good rub - down . Let the fossil oil absorb overnight , then buff out any excess oil the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. with a soft tatter .

Homemade spoon butter produce a thoughtful gift for an avid cook , so you’re able to also divide the recipe between two half - dry pint jar for two of your preferred people !

Spoon vegetable oil ( also known as spoon butter or dining table butter ) serve protect your wooden spoon , wooden spatula , and other wooden utensils from rent and cracking , and regular oiling offers a layer of water underground .

Combine walnut oil and beeswax in pint jar

Materials

Notes

To use , simply pilfer a ( sporty ) spoonful or fingerful of the butter onto your wooden spoons , handle , and other utensils and give them a good rub - down . allow the oil absorb overnight , then buff out any redundant vegetable oil the next day with a gentle rag .

Did you make this project?

This office update from an article that primitively appear on November 6 , 2013 .

reckon the Web Story onDIY spoon petroleum and instrument panel butter .

Stir walnut oil and beeswax until melted

Walnut oil and beeswax

Homemade wood butter

Homemade spoon oil