Olive Wood In Kitchen Utensils - Safety, Comparisons, And Maintenance Tips

Centuries ago, somebody had the bright idea of making utensils from extraordinary olive wood. Little did they know that it would end up being one of the best, and most beautiful, woods for kitchen use. Keep olive wood utensils in good condition, and they could easily last you years with barely a mark on them. It doesn’t even take a lot of effort to keep them in good condition.

Olive wood utensils will need regular dousing with mineral oil to prevent cracking.  A combination of warm water and mild soap keeps them clean. When the grime is more stuck on, you’ll want to use lemon juice and salt scrub instead. Don’t let your olive wood utensils sit in the water. Dry them as soon as possible after cleaning, preferably with a lint-free cloth.

On this page, we’ll teach you how to keep your olive wood utensils in decent shape. When cleaned properly, olive wood looks great for years. Along the way, we’ll talk about the benefits of using olive wood utensils as opposed to other woods. We’ll even let you know how safe olive wood is for food. 

Is Olive Wood Good for Cooking Utensils?

Yes. Simple answer, we know. However, olive wood is terrific for kitchen utensils, and there are several reasons why. We’ll even put the whole look of them to one side since you already know how gorgeous well-crafted olive wood utensils can look.

Is Teak or Olive Wood Better for Cooking Utensils?

Both teak and olive wood are great choices for cooking utensils. Both offer superior durability and all the other advantages that we listed before. The choice between the two is a personal one. In our opinion, olive wood is the better option. While it does require a bit more in the way of maintenance, olive wood just looks better. We don’t know about you, but we always want our kitchen cooking utensils to look as beautiful as possible.

If you care about the environment, then you’ll be pleased to know that olive wood is much more sustainable. Olive wood often comes from end-of-life trees i.e., those that will be cut down anyway. Teak doesn’t, and much of the teak wood used in kitchen utensils (particularly cheap wood kitchen utensils) is produced unsustainably and is responsible for a lot of deforestation.

So, while teak and olive wood both perform admirably in the kitchen, for us, olive wood is always the best choice. It looks great, and it is so much better for the environment.

What Kind of Wood is Best for Kitchen Utensils?

Olive wood is, by far, the best kind of wood for cooking utensils. It is the most durable of cooking utensil woods, with only teak coming close. However, unlike teak wood, olive wood is produced sustainably. This means that you don’t need to worry about your environmental impact too much when you purchase olive wood kitchen utensils.

Remember – olive wood has a wealth of different benefits when used to make kitchen utensils. This includes antibacterial properties, durability, ease of cleaning, lack of odor absorption, and low heat conductivity. Purchase some olive wood utensils from a reputable company (such as us), and you’ll be enjoying them for a long, long time to come.

Is Olive Wood Safe for Food?

Absolutely! Olive wood has a wealth of benefits that make it fantastic for use with food.

As we said before – olive wood is antibacterial. If bacteria do stick to it (and it invariably will in the kitchen), the olive wood will slowly kill off the bacteria. As a result, you don’t need to worry about stirring bacteria into your food. So, right away, you have a material that is far, far safer than any metal or plastic kitchen utensil that you can buy.

Because the grain is so tightly packed on olive wood, you can worry less about chipping. This isn’t just beneficial for aesthetic reasons either. A lack of chipping or small cracks ensures that wayward food particles won’t get trapped. Those food particles can start to form mold or cause bacteria to grow, neither of which you want in your food.

Finally – olive wood doesn’t retain odors. Not if you clean the olive wood properly. So, you won’t be stealing foul odors into the dishes that you carefully craft. You can make the smelliest dish imaginable, rinse off the olive wood with a bit of soap and warm water, and it’ll be good as new for next time. How’s that for food safe?

Remember – olive wood is only food-safe if it has been sealed with a quality food-safe oil. So, when you do oil up your olive wood, make sure that anything that you do buy is food-grade. If it isn’t, don’t use it on food!

How Do You Protect Olive Wood Utensils?

We’ve been talking loads about how easy it is to maintain your olive wood utensils, so we figured that we would wrap up by giving you the step-by-step for keeping your olive wood utensils in great condition. Follow this advice, and you can be sure that your olive wood utensils will look just as great five years from now as they do today (actually, they will last a lot longer than those five years!)

Never Let Your Olive Wood Utensils Soak

Olive wood is incredibly durable. The most durable wood for kitchen utensils. However, olive wood does have a kryptonite – long soaks in water. Just a short soak in water can lead to your olive wood utensils needing to make a beeline for the closest garbage can.

Olive wood, like all wood, can crack when left in water for long periods. Even 30 minutes can be killer. The water will saturate the wood, leading to the utensil expanding, and causing cracking. At that point, it is as good as useless.

So, when you follow the tips below, make sure that you never, ever soak the utensils in water. Don’t put them in the dishwasher either. Your utensils should be rubbed down with water, but never soaked in it. More on that soon.

For Daily Cleaning

Finished cooking with your favorite olive wood utensils? They probably look filthy.  We also know how annoying it can be to do the dishes after you’ve spent an age cooking a delectable meal. However, we promise you that cleaning your olive wood utensils is simple. It’ll take a few minutes. Here’s what you need:

Yes. You probably have that sitting around your home already (we told you that cleaning your utensils would be easy!). Here’s how you do it, although to be honest, this is just us explaining how to do the dishes, which we are sure you already know how to do:

This should be enough to deal with most dirty kitchen utensils. But, if you notice that odors are sticking to the olive wood (which is rare), or stains are starting to appear, then you’ll need to do a bit more cleaning. This leads us neatly to the next section.

When Stains and Odors are ‘Stuck-On’

If you have stains or odors that are tough to remove, things are a little more difficult, but not impossible to deal with. You’ll need:

If you don’t have lemon juice and salt, you can use white vinegar. It works just as well.

Here’s how you do it:

Regular Maintenance

While cleaning will go a long way to ensuring that your olive wood kitchen utensils last as long as possible, you’ll still need to do some regular maintenance. There are two things you need to do here:

Let’s walk you through how to do this.

Oiling the Olive Wood Kitchen Utensils

If you don’t oil the utensils at least once per week, there is a chance they could crack. Once they have cracked, they are useless. Thankfully, the job doesn’t take that long.

While there are plenty of different oils you can use on olive wood, we recommend buying a food-grade mineral oil. Food-grade mineral oils won’t burn like some of the other oils used on utensils (e.g. olive oil, beeswax, etc.) and they shouldn’t impair the flavors of your food either.

Once a week, after washing and drying the kitchen utensils, rub the food-grade mineral oil into them. You can use a clean cloth or a paper towel for this. Don’t be stingy with how much you use. Make sure that the utensil is properly covered and soaked. Leave the oil to seep in overnight. You can then wipe away the excess with a paper towel in the morning.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Most people will probably not need to use hydrogen peroxide with their kitchen utensils. It is only really needed if you haven’t cleaned your kitchen utensils in a few weeks (i.e., they’ve been stuck in the cupboard or a drawer). The hydrogen peroxide will just clean them up a little and clear any bacteria that may be hanging about on the surface of your olive wood kitchen utensils.

Using hydrogen peroxide is much the same as your daily utensil cleaning ritual, so read through that section to know what you need to do. The only difference is that you’ll use a squirt of hydrogen peroxide alongside the dish soap. It is important to wear gloves when you do this since hydrogen peroxide will irritate your skin.

After you have cleaned the utensils with hydrogen peroxide, clean them normally and dry them. Oil the utensils afterward.

Olive wood kitchen utensils are some of the best kitchen utensils money can buy. Not only do they look good, but properly maintained olive wood can last years and years without issues. The best part is that regular maintenance doesn’t take much effort. A clean after every use with some mild soap and warm water is about the most that you need to do. Each week, you’ll want to oil the kitchen utensils. Do that, and you’ll have very durable wooden utensils that you can enjoy for a long time to come.