Tip Of The Day

[Old_Geezer]

No question, just a tip (which I suspect everyone else already knows).

Suppose you have a foodstuff, oh plucking something out of the air, say a pack of Tandoori chicken breast mini fillets; and you see they will soon be past the 'best before'. And suppose you think, "Rather than go past the date I can slice those up and use them as the basis of a sandwich filling. Maybe add a few other ingredients also."

And as you slice the fillets you see the paprika coating falling onto your nice wooden chopping board. Suppose that you get concerned that it may be difficult to clean so you take away the wooden one and opt to use the antibacterial plastic one thinking that must be easy to clean. I'm just warning folk, both stain and both are not easy to clean.

Just a head's up that the simple job of slicing up some fillets can cause a major problem.

Nylon scourer will hardly touch it, neither will a metal scourer, and wire wool pan scourers will only removed some. After a period hand rubbing the boards with aluminium oxide abrasive paper, and finally giving up and using the power sander, the boards will become somewhat thinner than they were, but the red colour will be no longer visible. And at least half of your morning will have gone.

[aelmpvw]

gawd knows what it does to your stomach lining

[Bazile]

Lol - just buy a new one

[Mamyalynne]

We've all been there.

[Old_Geezer]

The wooden one used to be owned by my late grandmother so would be loath to sling it. (When I first got it I sanded it down and treated it with a beeswax/block oil mix.)

I don't think they do decent size Microbans any more.

[Samuraisan]

I always use a white plastic board and then put it in the sink and cover it with bleach. I do that after chicken too, to disinfect it.

[Old_Geezer]

In fairness, bleach wasn't something I thought of.

[ummmm]

After scrubbing I would have used bleach as well. You know it's clean from being scrubbed anyway.

Some tomato products stain plastic. If they are stained after going through the dishwasher I'll use bleach.

[Old_Geezer]

I have (ex)white microwave safe containers that accumulate tomato stains. Was most disappointed with them. Perhaps I'll try bleaching them too.

[ummmm]

Same...mine are microwave containers.

If you don't like the thought of the harshness of bleach sterilising tablets work well.

[diddlydo]

Frankly I don't care if something as innocuous as paprika or turmeric or beetroot stains my wooden board - just wash it and carry on regardless. Well-used kitchen things are allowed a few battle scars.

[anneasquith]

Soak in bleach .

[anneasquith]

Oops, should have read the answers before posting :-)

[Cloverjo]

I'm with diddlydoo on this. I love fresh chillis and often have stains on my chopping boards from them. Just wash and go on as before.

[Khandro]

Isn't the bleach more dangerous than the bacteria?

[ummmm]

It's not bacteria. It's a stain.

[-SharonA-]

If you soak in bleach doesn't the smell and taste transfer to food?

[woofgang]

dishwasher :) but yes a tomato/oil mix will satin some plastic badly

[ethandron]

Use a plate to chop it up on next time OG, as you don't like the stains.
All my chopping boards are stained. I have occasionally bleached them but the staining doesn't bother me.

[woofgang]

Big enough OG? Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

[Khandro]

I don't think it's paprika OG, it's Tartrazine, "a synthetic lemon yellow azo dye primarily used as a food coloring.[1][2][3][4] It is also known as E number E102, C.I. 19140, FD&C Yellow 5, Acid Yellow 23, Food Yellow 4, and trisodium 1-(4-sulfonatophenyl)-4-(4-sulfonatophenylazo)-5-pyrazolone-3-carboxylate)."


You can make a very useful scraper out of a piece of broken glass, wearing a glove and holding it at about 45 degrees you can scrape away at the stain using a sharp edge - broken glass is sometimes used by furniture conservators as well as conventional steel scrapers, which need continually 'edging'.