Mike Marlow wrote:

wrote in message
oups.com...

Joe2:

I believe it was indeed salad oil. But you will never, ever win this
or make your point to the satisfaction of some.


Think about a wooden ladle soup into a wooden soup bowl eaten with a
wooden spoon. Yet these folks didn't have antibacterial soaps,
chlorine cleanser, Mahoney's special curing walnut oils, and sadly many
didn't have the luxury of choosing all their woods. Seems like they
did alright in retrospect.



Your comment got me to thinking (a dangerous thing indeed...) - look at all
of the wooden salad bowels in use that see gallons of vegetable oil soaked
into them, and only really see a casual washing. It's not like housewives
all across America spend any extra attention really super scrubbing their
salad bowls to get the veggie oil residue out. Yet - it's been quite a
while since I've read of an outbreak of rancid veggie oil related illness.
Not that I discount the notion, but I have to wonder how much is being made
of the issue. Sometimes these things take on lives of their own in forums
like this - become "facts" in spite of themselves.

I've smelled "rancid" cutting boards. You haven't been getting out
enough, Mike. Rancid bowls and boards is NOT a figment of the
public's imagination. Proper care prevents it, though.

http://www.hollandbowlmill.com/faq.htm - just one of many hits on the
topic.