Summer is here, and with the long days and warm weather it was the perfect opportunity to debut our gorgeous EndGrain Cutting Boards. And there was no better way than to have all our friends over for a cookout this past weekend.
To give our EndGrain the opportunity to shine we decided that our main dish would be prime rib cooked in our Pit Barrel® Cooker. We knew it would produce a perfectly juicy dish for all our friends to enjoy and would look gorgeous on top of our large EndGrain Cutting Board
Our EndGrain Carving Board is designed to be the centerpiece of the table or kitchen. I set out to create the best display around our EndGrain using a pale linen tablecloth to contrast against the maple and walnut woods of the cutting board.
Once the table was set, I prepared the prime rib with a generous amount of Pit Barrel® Cooker’s Beef & Game rub all over, making sure to rub it in and leaving no spot unseasoned. Then we inserted the metal hooks that came with our Pit Barrel® into the prime rib in the kitchen and used a large metal sheet pan to transport our prime rib to our Pit Barrel®. Once that was in and cooking, I was able to focus on our side dishes, drinks, and other preparations before our guests started to arrive.
I had cleaned the sheet pan we used to bring the prime rib out to our PBC earlier, so I was able to use it to transport our gorgeous, perfectly cooked prime rib right back into our kitchen. The smell was heavenly, and I had to dodge a few guests who were looking for some early samples, but who could blame them?
After checking in with everyone to make sure they had drinks and had sampled some of the charcuterie tray set up on our EndGrain Charcuterie Board, I let them know it wouldn’t be much longer until we served dinner.
With a little help from my husband, I was able to maneuver the prime rib onto the Carving Board and slice it. Thanks to the extra deep, extra wide, sloped juice grooves, not one bit of prime rib juice ended up on our tablecloth.
Dinner was delicious but our EndGrain stole the show: our guests couldn’t get over how it not only served as a gorgeous, perfectly sized setting for serving the prime rib but how it easily contained all those juices that came out when the prime rib was carved.
Once everyone had their fill, I made sure to package up any leftover prime rib to use for other meals. With the ingenious spillway that’s placed on the one corner of the EndGrain I was able to pour the prime rib juices into a separate container to freeze so I could use them for a tasty beef gravy sometime in the future.
After all the meat and juice was cleared away, I brought my EndGrain into the kitchen so I could scrape off any leftover pieces and rinse the board. We still had guests, but a good cook knows to clean as they go; I wanted to remove as much of the prime rib juice and cooked bits as possible to prevent any potential stains and microbial growth.
Once our guests had left for the evening, I gave the Carving and Charcuterie boards a quick wash with the EndGrain Cutting Block Soap making sure to keep my water usage to a minimum. Water and wood are not friends, so it’s best to expose the EndGrain to as little water as possible. I then carefully and quickly dried the boards with a lint-free towel and set them on their edges in a dishrack to allow ample airflow as they dried overnight.
The next day I applied the EndGrain Cutting Block Oil to every surface of our Carving and Charcuterie boards. And I do mean every surface – top, bottom, edges, and especially in the grooves. Washing any wood cutting board with soap and water can pull oil out of the wood surface and make it prone to drying; a dried-out board can warp and crack and no one wants that! End grain wood is very porous and will suck up as much oil as it can get, so I never hesitate to be extra generous with the oil. One of the easiest ways to apply it is to use disposable vinyl or nitrile food prep gloves. You can also use a lint-free towel, but I find that means the half the oil ends up in my towel instead of where I want it: on my EndGrain!
Once the board had a chance to absorb the oil for half a day, I finished it with some of the EndGrain Cutting Block Wax – it smells so good with lemon and orange oils, it’s a mini spa moment to wax the EndGrain. I recommend letting the wax sit on the board for one to two hours before buffing it and removing any residual wax with a clean, lint-free towel. This extra step only must be done about once a month (more frequently if you find that you use and wash your EndGrain almost daily). But it’s so worth it; they’re such a beautiful product that I am happy to invest the extra time to protect my wooden cutting boards.
Since the EndGrain is such a beautiful piece of handcrafted woodwork I never want to hide it: once it’s buffed and polished, I put it back in a prime spot on our counter for all to admire.