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Cutting Boards

CRUZMISL

By CRUZMISL
in Kitchen Consumer

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Chris Hennes

Chris Hennes

Posted
Posted

Great board! What did you decide to treat it with?

Just mineral oil. I thought about doing the mineral oil/wax treatment suggested above, but decided to go the easy route this time around and see how it goes.

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

Anonymous Modernist 6707

Anonymous Modernist 6707

Posted
Posted

Hello!

I've promised myself I wouldn't buy any new kitchen equipment until I'm able to afford getting MC, but I really want to practice my knife skills and all I've got is a lousy plastic cutting board from IKEA. I know there's plenty of advice elsewhere about how to choose a cutting board, but I want to know not just what kind of board to invest in, but why.

So my question is, what do I need to take into consideration before buying a cutting board? Types of wood, treatment, size, etc? Does MC cover this question in-depth or should I look to other sources to make an informed decision?

Thanks for reading.

  • 4 weeks later...
weinoo

weinoo

Posted
Posted

End grain boards drink a LOT of oil/wax. Mine needed to be oiled daily for a week or so, a few times a week for many weeks after. Finally it stabilized; now I oil it once a month at most. Be sure to oil it on both sides, especially in the beginning, so you don't encourage it to warp.

Dave at Boardsmith makes the nicest boards I've seen or used.

Very excited with my new board from Dave...

New Board.jpg

So, here's my question: This board wants to suck up a lot of oil. I sent an email to Dave and he suggested:

Apply oil as needed. You can apply too much so a little will go a long way.

I guess I'm confused as to what is too much?

Mitch Weinstein aka "weinoo"

Tasty Travails - My Blog

My eGullet FoodBog - A Tale of Two Boroughs

Was it you baby...or just a Brilliant Disguise?

  • 5 months later...
Judy Wilson

Judy Wilson

Posted
Posted

at the lab, we use wood cutting boards because wood has natural antibacterial properties. Though some people like plastic because you can bleach them, and also some people color code them (one for meat, one for veggies)....

Judy Wilson

Editorial Assistant

Modernist Cuisine

  • 5 months later...
Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
Posted

I'd like to replace the old plastic cutting board that lives in my GF's kitchen, and I was thinking of getting a bamboo board. What are the pros and cons, benefits and drawbacks, of bamboo vs plastic? Thanks!

...Shel

 ... Shel


 

Panaderia Canadiense

Panaderia Canadiense

Posted
Posted

Bamboo, all the way. I have several bamboo boards, and they are my hands-down favourites.

Pros: much easier to keep clean/sterile than plastic, looks a whole lot better, heavier and therefore less prone to go sliding off the countertop while chopping. Can be refinished with a sander and a bit of oil. Does not swell or warp when wet. Heat resistant. Does not mold. Does not seem to accumulate smells/flavours - I can chop onions on bamboo, give it a good wipe, and then chop fruit, and no onion flavour will transfer.

Cons: bamboo fibre is wicked hard on knife edges. If you've got a good steel, no worries. Otherwise your knives will go dull a bit faster on bamboo than any other board.

As for plastic,

Pros: lightweight, cheap, disposable. Kind to knife edges. Can be soaked in bleach with few ill effects.

Cons: much harder to keep clean/sterile unless you're comitted to soaking it in bleach, accumulates knife marks quickly, stains easily, ends up looking really ugly. Melts if you accidentally hit a hot pan with it or (and I found this out the hard way) are working too close to a hot oven. Can accumulate mildew in moist climates. Some boards are so light that they can go sliding off the countertop while chopping (this happens to me more often than I'd like to admit, so it bears mention). Holds on to smells/flavours - I have a dedicated plastic board for garlic, because I simply can't get that smell out of it, not even with repeated bleachings.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011) ⋆ My eG Foodblog (2012)

Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
Posted (edited)

Why not a inexpensive maple board?

Size, weight, ease of maintenance, space requirements. Toots needs inexpensive, no-brainer stuff in her kitchen.

.... Shel

Edited by Shel_B (log)
  • Like 1

 ... Shel


 

pbear

pbear

Posted
Posted

I second the suggestion of Epicurean boards. Read Products makes a similar line (indeed, it's been around longer). Both are woodfiber laminates, basically sawdust bound with plastic. They're sturdy, light and relatively gentle on knives, yet easy to clean. Woodfiber laminates have been my "go to" boards for over ten years now.

Syzygies

Syzygies

Posted
Posted

I second the suggestion of Epicurean boards.

I want to love my Epicurian boards. However, with good Japanese knives kept sharp on water stones (who cuts the barber? kept flat on a diamond stone), if I mince garlic on my black Epicurian board I see bits of black in with the garlic.

My favorite setup is a working butcher block counter, that one washes and scrapes down with a bench knife after each meal. One cooks better with enough room, like so many activities. I only use portable boards for individual messy steps I want to contain. The cleanup cost here pays for itself, there isn't the blizzard of prep bowls if the ingredients are laid out directly on the counter. In my tightest kitchen, I scrape the wash and rinse water directly into an open, ready to run dishwasher, saving the mild effort of catching it in a retired metal dog dish. (Ah, Dolly. She so loved cooking time.)

Per la strada incontro un passero che disse "Fratello cane, perche sei cosi triste?"

Ripose il cane: "Ho fame e non ho nulla da mangiare."

Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
Posted

I second the suggestion of Epicurean boards.

I want to love my Epicurian boards. However, with good Japanese knives kept sharp on water stones (who cuts the barber? kept flat on a diamond stone), if I mince garlic on my black Epicurian board I see bits of black in with the garlic.

My favorite setup is a working butcher block counter ...

Totally irrelevant for Toots ... her knives are junk, she never sharpens them or uses the steel, tosses them into the sink, soaks 'em with other items, etc. However, other reviewers have also mentioned the black bits ... best not to even consider a black board, which, for Toots, is a no-brainer: she hates anything black.

 ... Shel


 

Shel_B

Shel_B

Posted
Posted

Soooooooooo wood colored bits are OK?

bamboo.

I've not read anything about the lighter-colored board coming apart. In any case, I didn't ask about this type of board nor do I know enough about them to want one ...

 ... Shel


 

Porthos

Porthos

Posted
Posted

I am all about plastic boards. My dishwasher has a sanitize cycle but I don't normally use it. For me being able to put my cutting boards in the dishwasher is very important. I now buy the ones with raised rubber edges to help keep them from skittering about. I just got rid of my bamboo board because I never used it. Having to specially hand-clean something in not what I'm about.

The sanitation objections I here about plastic are interesting in light of all of the NSF-certified boards available in restaurant supply stores. I use plastic boards in the 2 volunteer kitchens I provide leadership for. We use a standard 3-sink wash-rinse-sanitize system and after doing this many years I have never had anyone we feed (this is tied into 2 west-coast Renaissance Faire where we feed some of the performers) come back and let me know they think our food made them sick. And believe me they would!

Porthos Potwatcher
The Once and Future Cook

;

crinoidgirl

crinoidgirl

Posted
Posted (edited)

Bamboo, all the way. I have several bamboo boards, and they are my hands-down favourites.
Pros: much easier to keep clean/sterile than plastic, looks a whole lot better, heavier and therefore less prone to go sliding off the countertop while chopping. Can be refinished with a sander and a bit of oil. Does not swell or warp when wet. Heat resistant. Does not mold. Does not seem to accumulate smells/flavours - I can chop onions on bamboo, give it a good wipe, and then chop fruit, and no onion flavour will transfer.
Cons: bamboo fibre is wicked hard on knife edges. If you've got a good steel, no worries. Otherwise your knives will go dull a bit faster on bamboo than any other board.

As for plastic,
Pros: lightweight, cheap, disposable. Kind to knife edges. Can be soaked in bleach with few ill effects.
Cons: much harder to keep clean/sterile unless you're comitted to soaking it in bleach, accumulates knife marks quickly, stains easily, ends up looking really ugly. Melts if you accidentally hit a hot pan with it or (and I found this out the hard way) are working too close to a hot oven. Can accumulate mildew in moist climates. Some boards are so light that they can go sliding off the countertop while chopping (this happens to me more often than I'd like to admit, so it bears mention). Holds on to smells/flavours - I have a dedicated plastic board for garlic, because I simply can't get that smell out of it, not even with repeated bleachings.

I'm also on the bamboo side. I expect to still be using my main board in 20 years.


Bonus: bamboo is a very renewable resource.

Edited by crinoidgirl (log)

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