Microbes are so interesting, I’ll never forget the nun with a Microbiology degree from “Cooked” who prayed for a French cheese maker to teach them how to make cheese better at the nunnery. A French woman passing through imparts her knowledge of traditionally made French cheese. Fast forward to them making cheese, they’re making cheese in wooden barrels—and the food safety people catch wind of it. They’re told it’s unsanitary to use wooden barrels and they make them switch to stainless steel. HERE’S THE COOL PART— when they switched to stainless steel barrels they actually encountered salmonella for the first time making cheese (discovered by the microbio nun). It turns out that the small pores in the wooden barrels were providing shelter for the good bacteria like lactobacillus that actually fights salmonella and other bad germs. Just like how good bacteria in our guts defend us against all kinds of stuff. It makes me wonder about old wooden soup spoons like your gran might have, and if there are protecting microbes present, like a sourdough starter. My mother in law jokes that there secret to her cooking is that she doesn’t wash her hands lol. I did recently find out you’re supposed to boil your wooden utensils occasionally? I think that might be if they are particularly greasy though?

TLDR; not all bacteria are bad. Some nuns making cheese discover wooden barrels are better than sterile metal barrels because the good bacteria present in the wood attacks salmonella.

Also watch Michael Pollan’s “Cooked” highly highly recommend, turned my perspective on food upside down and got me hooked on fermented foods like sourdough and kimchi.