Cutting Board Comments

Why Own a Cutting Board?

A cutting board is a necessary prep surface for cooking, and serves several purposes.

• Saves your counter top from damage or staining
• Protects your knives (my countertop is granite)
• Sets a safe, stable surface to hold food while chopping
• Transports chopped food to the compost bin or pots on the stove easily
• Localizes messes and makes it faster to clean up
• Prevents cross contamination (1 board veggies/fruit, 1 board meat/poultry/fish)

No matter what you own as a cutting board, an expensive, fancy looking cutting board cannot make up for bad knife skills. So keep in mind your skills with the knife, combined with the right boards sets up your cooking station.

How to Choose Your Board?

What should be considered when deciding what to buy?

• One board or two? If a meat/poultry/fish eater, you need 2
• Consider the size (dimensions): do you cook with leeks or celery which are long? If so consider a board long enough
• If board will be stored in a cabinet, that may restrict size
• A too-small board will cause food crowding and likely knife accidents
• How heavy is the board? I need to easily lift and move the board to the sink to clean.
• Does it slip around? Mine has rubber feet, can you make yours non-slippery?
• How thick is the board and does that affect your stance when cutting? I am 6′ tall so adding 1.5″ with the thickness of the board and its feet puts it at just the right height (my counters are also at the top range of counter height)

What about glass cutting boards?

• Do not use a glass board, it dulls the knife very fast
• A blunt knife leads to accidents
• They can be loud as each chop clanks
• Foods slip around on its surface, leading to knife accidents
• Glass boards usually lie flat on the counter and tend to slip

What about porcelain/ceramic cutting boards?

• Do not use porcelain or ceramic boards, as they dull knives
• Can be very heavy
• Non-renewable source, high carbon footprint to make
• Chefs only use porcelain for rolling dough!

What about Wood?

• Do I chop lots of veggies and fruits?
• Do I want an end-grain or edge-grain wood?
• Do not use soft woods, use hardwoods
• Does it have a liquid channel?
• Does it have non slippery feet?
• Teak and Walnut are softer hardwoods, good for high quality blades (2)
• Maple and Bamboo are similarly hard, great for board longevity
• Cooks Recommends: Teakhaus by Proteak Edge Grain Cutting Board as their favorite (~$100 USD).

What about plastic?

• Get plastic if you cut meat, poultry, or fish
• Avoid slick or smooth plastic, as this can cause knives to slip.
• Also avoid Acrylic plastic cutting boards as they damage knives
• The board must be scrubbed with a hard-bristle brush and soap before putting into the dishwasher to sanitize

Visual Aspects of Wood Boards

Cooks: Visually there are also two ways the wood can be constructed for the boards: End-grain boards or Edge-grain boards.

End-Grain: This type of wood board is a highly-aesthetic, checkerboard patterned with good durability that is easy on my knife. This is the “butcher block” look, showing the growth rings of the wood used. This board will cost a bit more generally, but present a “self healing” quality and do not show cuts as easily. They require more frequent cleaning and a greater level of maintenance. I have seen this with Bamboo and Maple.

But also, since they are so exposed, this board needs more care as they may be susceptible to cracking or splitting since you are working directly against the grain. Generally, I cut gently enough there is no real difference between the two types, but if you are a heavy chopper (or use a cleaver a lot) this may make a difference.

Edge-Grain: This type of wood board is also very aesthetic and has character. It looks like someone aligned a bunch of 2×4’s on their small side and then glued them together and cut down into cutting boards. I have seen these in Cherry, Walnut, Maple, and Teak. Long term this type may show scratches and knife cuts.

Environmental Concerns

Hardwoods: Maple-Walnut-Cherry-Teak

Wood boards should be hardwoods generally taken from sustainable forests. They are completely biodegradable and renewable. Wood boards are something small-time carpenters make and sell so you may be supporting local businesses. Some Chefs, like Chef Lev, think a hardwood like Maple, makes the best cutting board and is a kitchen standard. So, I use Maple at Kitchen on Fire.

Hard Grasses: Bamboo

Environmentally, bamboo is a tough sustainable grass that grows fast and grows everywhere. It regrows without planting or adding chemicals of any kind, and does so quickly. As far as I can tell, growing it causes no harm to any forests, animals, soils, people or environment. And, a bamboo board that has reached the end of life is biodegradable and, if not made with toxic materials (like mine), you can even burn them in your wood stove if you want (according to DecourSnob).

General Wood Cautions

Some wood products are processed using formaldehyde-based glues. The craftsman who made my board avoided using the harshest glues. So, my suggestion is to use wooden boards that have been manufactured in a non-toxic way. I do not want that bad stuff to leech into my (or your) food or gas out into my house.

I am also concerned with general mineral oil treatments, some of which contain petroleum products. I make sure the oil I use on my board is a food grade oil.

Plastic

Plastic has been shown to not necessarily be any “cleaner” than wood, but are easier to sanitize by putting them in the dishwasher with the heat cycle active. But plastic cutting boards are not all that great (1).

• The problems with polypropylene plastic cutting boards, is that they are not recyclable in most areas, can leach toxins into food, and is apparently an environmental problem throughout its lifecycle. However, it is able to withstand higher temperatures, as in dishwashers, than high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
• But out of all the plastic cutting boards high-density polyethylene is probably the best. It is considered safe, does not contain BPA, and is FDA approved for food use, as well as it is often used in professional kitchens.
• At this point, some people are now saying chuck out the plastic cutting boards all together and use bamboo instead. They still suggest using two boards.

How Many boards?

I always recommend two boards, one wood one for veggies and fruit, and one plastic (dishwasher safe) for meat, poultry or fish only.

Maintenance of Wood or Bamboo

I tend to scrub my boards with simple hot and soapy water. I do not soak wooden boards, just wash it in the sink, dry with a clean kitchen or paper towel, and place on a dish rack to air dry after my day of cooking.

Once a month, when I remember, I do the salt and lemon treatment where I sprinkle kosher salt on the board, scrub with half a lemon (cut side down) releasing some of the juice with each scrub. Then I let it sit ~10 minutes and using my bench scraper I scrape off any liquid and discard. Then using hot water I do a final rinse and again let it air dry.

Once a year I sand it a bit with soft sandpaper, do a lemon-salt scrub and let it dry, then finally wash it with soap and water and let it dry. Final step is to apply a food grade oil.

• Baking Soda is used to remove stubborn stains from a cutting board or butcher block. (Sprinkle on stain, rub, rinse with hot water.)
• Lemon Juice is used for smells. (Rub cut lemon on service squeezing out a bit of juice and let sit, then wash with soapy water.)

A note: Remember to clean the bottom of the board too as moisture can get trapped there and introduce bad things.

Wood Oils

I do not recommend using Tung or Linseed oils, vegetable or cooking oils, varnish, or rubbing alcohol. Instead use oils recommended by craftspeople:

• Coconut oil is rich is saturated fats that will eventually go rancid. But coconut oil that has been run through the distillation process, produces an oil that will not go rancid. Great for all wood kitchen utensils too. (This is what I use.)
• Mineral oil (aka liquid paraffin) is derived from petroleum that is colorless, odorless, and flavorless. Its properties prevent water absorption, which makes FDA food-grade mineral oil a popular choice for wooden kitchen items: wooden spoons, bowls, cutting boards and butcher blocks. (I will not use petroleum products in my foods or food prepping, even if FDA approved.)
• Beeswax is popular for cutting boards as well. It is a natural bee produced wax that will hydrate, shine, and waterproof a cutting board. 
• Carnauba (aka Brazil wax) is derived from a Brazilian palm leaves. It provides a glossy finish and water resistance to wood and may come combined with carnauba, beeswax, and mineral oil.

When to replace?

Generally, I would not replace my cutting board until it is deeply cracked or appears to be breaking apart. Mine is ~7 years old and still doing great. I expect this one might last my lifetime, it is so well made.

My Cutting Boards

I have two cutting boards. The first, and most often used, is an end-grain bamboo cutting board that someone made for me. This board is 17.5″ wide, 12″ deep and 1″ thick. It has a groove around its perimeter to keep liquid from messing up the counters. It also has little rubber feet to keep it from sliding around. (The negative about having feet is that I cannot use the back side of the cutting board. But once one side wears out, I will remove the feet and use the back side as my “new board”.)

The second, is plastic and I use this for meat, poultry and fish. This one can be placed in the dishwasher to properly sanitize after I do a quick scrub with soap and a brush.

Repurpose Older Wood Cutting Boards?

• Serving platters for a nice selection of nibbles
• Trivet for hot dishes
• Create a chalk cutting board
• A nice background for food photographs
• I’ve seen pictures of it used an an art easel
• A bottom to build a gingerbread house on
• Paint a board as a gift or add a shelf as wall hanging
• Turn into a wall clock
• Add handles and make it into a tray
• Big enough, make a table

–Patty

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NEWS 3/21/2019: A new study in mice suggests that consuming the chemical compounds found in thermally abused cooking oil may trigger genetic changes that promote the progression of late-stage breast cancer. The study defines “thermally abused cooking oil” as oil that has been reheated to high temps repeatedly. This makes me concerned about fast food fryers, and how careful we need to be regarding reusing oil. Chef Olive always says that once an oil has started to smoke you need to not cook with it, it is damaged. And he stresses one should never consume damaged oil, advice we should all consider following.

Articles: Added more in the Tisanes drinks area.

Recipes: Added Radish Slaw and instructions on cooking French Lentils.

TIPS: I hope you know to never to eat green skinned and green fleshed potatoes. It is caused by light and improper storage, and is produced by chlorophyll. Solanine, a toxic alkaloid, is growing in the spud and can cause (sometimes) severe stomach problems. You can save a bit of the potato by peeling it, and cutting away below the greenish parts. Or be safe and toss it.