Bugs (weevils) on my banneton :(
So, I bought a banneton from eBay some time ago.
I haven't used it for quite some time, since I was quite upset with my breads.
Anyway, today my wife reached for it and saw that it was stored with quite some flour still on it, and it was full of those tiny black bugs.
She readily threw it on the toilet sink and rinsed it with lots of water.
Now I had a look at it, and I can see lots of very small holes around the banneton. I don't remember the banneton having those holes, and I'm afraid it could be made by those bugs. But do those bugs make holes like this on the material? Or is it common? Here:
So, what should I do? Just throw it away or is there any salvation for it? I just put my oven heated up to 130ºC and placed the soaked banneton in there to dry it out.
For this reason I store my less often used flouers in the freezer (along with any whole flour I got, as those go rancid much faster then white flour otherwise). Your benaton should be fine to use, due you might find it slightly annoying as flour my fall from those holes and make some cleaning work for you.
Any way, just remember that as with any food related work, baking requires us to keep good hygiene. A tip for tools such as cloths and benaton that are likely to be store dusted with flour is to give them a microwave zest once in a while, this will kill any eggs that are in there.
Happy baking!
The only holes I see are the ones made from the metal nails used to form the shape of the banneton. I think your fine. I store my bannetons cleaned out with a brush then placed inside a pillowcase that I roll up the open end and secure with cloths-pins. Since the basket got washed I would place it in a low heat oven ~200 F to fully dry-out the material and it will kill off any little beasties.
I have the same banneton and agree with Manna that the holes we are looking at are the ones made in the construction of the banneton.
Don't throw it away and happy baking.
Yes, my bannetons have those holes too, it is from the construction.
super long staples. You are looking at the heads of the staples that were shot with too much power from the staple gun so they were pushed below the outer surface of the cane. Not a problem.
The nice thing with these new digital cameras is that they can see what we don't see. I've even used a camera to find a splinter! :)
Thanks friends!
I dried the banneton on the oven and it did not become all soft or whatever.
I will remember to wipe off excess flour before storing it and maybe freeze it from time to time.
Took everything out of the shelf, but seems like the weevils did not spread out to other places. Fingers crossed.