[Sca-cooks] Wooden Bowls

[Tara Sersen Boroson]

Depends on a) what kind of quality they are to begin with, and b) how
much abuse you're willing to give them.  For instance, if they're some
of that pressed/woven stuff, they probably won't survive much abuse.  If
they're solid wood, they will survive much more.  But, if they're really
  *nice* solid wood, you might not want to abuse them just on principle,
unless everything else fails.

That said, I've never had a problem throwing most wooden bowls in the
dishwasher.  The scalding hot water and strong dishwasher detergent
should do the job.  Bowls with no finish seem to come through with no
ill effect.  Bowls with finishes sometimes behave differently.  On one
bowl, the really cheap finish flaked.  I just sanded it off and
considered it to be an unfinished bowl after that.  On others, over time
the finish would dull a bit.  If I used them daily and washed them this
way frequently, the unfinished ones begin to dry out and crack;  But,
for infrequent washing, it is never a problem.  What this all means is,
unless they're cheap the dishwasher should do a good job at scrubbing
them clean of any odor without hurting them.  If you have, or know
someone who has, a Bosch dishwasher or a dishwasher that has a
"superhot" cycle, that might work best for killing mildew.  My Bosch
heats the water to 161 degrees Farenheit, instead of the American
standard of 140.

Now, I'm working my way through a bag of those ju-ju-be-like
sombrero-shaped gumdrop things.  Excuse me while I go pry my jaw open...

-Magdalena

Ann wrote:

> I was going through our Canton's cooking and feastgear this past weekend.
> By default, it has all wound up in our storage shed for the past couple of
> years.  Most of it is in Rubbermaids.  However, there was a cardboard box
> with about 40 wooden bowls in it which haven't been used for our last
> several feasts.  We had them when I first started cooking in 1992, so
> they're at least a decade old, probably much older since they mostly came
> from thrift stores.
>
> For lack of a better word, these bowls have acquired a "musky" odor from
> being in storage.  The recommendations I've received so far for trying to
> fix them have ranged from "use a bleach-water mix" to "don't put bleach on
> wood" to "just toss them, because you'll never get rid of the aroma."
>
> So, does anyone here have any recommendations about what, if anything, can
> be done?
>
> John le Burguillun