You've got a bad choice to make. It's not good policy at all to use the
same board or area for meat prep and then for food which will not be cooked.
Cross-contamination is a certainty.

I would have boards for trimming and cutting meat made up to place on areas
of the counter where I can wipe with bleach or detergent and feel certain
they were not hiding just out of reach. Use the open area to prepare foods
which will not be cooked. I would go a drying (curing) oil to help shed
moisture, though it will darken the counter a bit. Check walnut oil as a
possibility, or one of the oil/wax mixes. Keep some bleach, cut 10:1 in a
spray bottle nearby for wiping.

I would also make sure I could replace the entire area relatively easily in
case someone left a glass too cold or a pot too hot on it to discolor it.

"Dan White" wrote in message
...
"George" george@least wrote in message
...
Could be. But you don't use either if you want best results. Mineral
oil
doesn't cure, so it sequesters oil-soluble inorganic soil and oil-loving
organic creatures (like bacteria) from the depredations of detergents.
Until, of course, the detergent finally emulsifies all the oil, at which
point the piece "looks dull" and needs to be reoiled....

Go bare or go cure.

George - I have a vested interest in this topic as about 18 sf of my
counter
space is being left au natural for a mineral oil treatment rather than
poly.
This 18 sf area is for food prep. Everyone else just about everywhere has
said that some kind of oil is the best treatment for such a use. I have a
feeling that either way (bare or mineral oil) has pluses and minuses. Is
it
possible that the wood is protected from moisture and possible
delamination
better with mineral oil than with nothing? Maybe this is enough reason to
go with the oil if so.

dwhite



"Richard Clements" wrote in message
...
I've never made a food idem before, so I've never really looked into
this,
I
have always been told that you use mineral oil on cutting boards, I
was
recently told that butcher block/spoon oil lasts longer, and someone
today
told me that there the same thing, if there not is there is diff in
preformace? anyone know the answer?