The Simple Trick To Keep Your Cutting Boards Odor Free

Every home chef knows that you have to take considerable care with your cutting boards to keep them clean, especially the board or boards you use with meat. One of the biggest cleaning mistakes when using a wooden cutting board — or any other material, honestly — is allowing the board to get smelly. Nobody wants a stinky implement in their kitchen, for one thing, but there is also the fact that the odors embedded in your cutting board can contaminate the flavors of foods you cut on the board afterwards.

We spoke with Kareem El-Ghayesh, the James Beard Award-nominated chef behind Austin's KG BBQ and ambassador for the American Lamb Board, about the all-natural pantry staple he favors for keeping cutting boards pristine. "I would use vinegar, honestly," he said. "We use it all the time in all of our condiments and sides and sauces. It's also a great cleaning ingredient, natural, organic... it's really great on food surfaces." Maybe you've already heard of adding a bowl of vinegar to your dishwasher to clean it, but the fact is that it's an all-around champ when it comes to keeping your kitchen looking spotless. It isn't altogether surprising, then, that vinegar is chef El-Ghayesh's pick for keeping cutting boards odor-free.

Chef El-Ghayesh embraces a popular maxim when it comes to kitchen sanitation: "Clean as you go." The process is foolproof and fast when using vinegar, he says: simply put the vinegar on a kitchen towel and wipe the board down with it, then wash it as usual. The key thing, he says, is not to waste time. "[A]s long as you are cleaning quickly, you shouldn't have any trouble with it. You finish working and then clean it right away," he explains. "If you're working with raw meat and you leave your wooden cutting board with the juices on it, that's just not a good thing." A prompt wipe-down will help to combat the odds of any nasty odors developing.

For those inclined toward cutting back on the use of more complex cleaning chemicals in the kitchen, it's great to hear about a cleaning hack that doesn't involve bleach or other aggressive agents. The tip about vinegar is right up there with the time we learned that lemons will clean the stains from plastic cutting boards when exposed to a bit of sunlight (and time). We love pairing all-natural cleaning methods with all-purpose cleaners that contain no ammonia, dyes, parabens, or other harsh chemicals, like Grove Co.'s multi-purpose cleaner.