Slate boards are one of our favorite ways to serve cheese and charcuterie. This beautiful stone material highlights the food you’re serving with its dark color, and its rustic natural texture offers aesthetic appeal.

But slate cheese boards require specific care to look their best and serve food safely. Here’s how to clean and maintain your slate serving boards so they’ll last for years to come.

Why Do We Use Slate for Cheese Boards?

Slate is a beautiful natural material that humans have used for millennia for building and even for serving food. It’s durable, stain-resistant, and heat-resistant, and even helps keep food cool—a particular benefit when serving cheese in warm weather.

While slate requires careful handling to avoid chipping or shattering, it’s quite sturdy with proper care and cleaning. After all, if slate roof tiles can last for hundreds of years, slate can have a long, useful life in your kitchen.

Are Slate Serving Boards Food Safe?

The short answer is yes, slate boards made for use in the kitchen are safe for serving cheese, charcuterie, and other foods.

Unlike wood, marble, or granite, the black slate used in kitchens is a non-porous, stain-resistant material, meaning it won’t absorb odors or flavors from the foods you serve. Note that many kinds and colors of slate quarried from all over the world are used in construction, and some of these are more porous than the black kitchen slate we’re familiar with in North America.

Some types of kitchen slate are treated with mineral oil to seal them, including our Circular Slate Set, made by Brooklyn Slate with stone sourced from New York’s Slate Belt. In addition to ensuring food safety, this feature makes our slates dishwasher safe.

Slate serving boards have a slightly textured surface, an expression of the stone’s natural properties. That’s why it’s important to wash and dry slate cheese boards thoroughly after each use.

How to Clean Slate Serving Boards

Because they’re somewhat fragile, slate charcuterie boards require gentle handling, but they’re easy to clean. Simply wash slate boards with a soft sponge or cloth and mild dish soap in the hottest water you can stand.

If you haven’t applied cork feet to the bottom of your Cheese Grotto circular slate, you can put it in the dishwasher. Allow slate serving boards to air dry completely before storing them or applying mineral oil.

Once you know how to care for your slate cheese boards, it’s easy to keep them in great condition. With the proper care and cleaning, your slate cheese boards will provide a beautiful serving surface for years to come.

Do you have any slate serving boards in your collection? Tag us @cheesegrotto on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and let us know!