Cutting Boards

[Norm Matthews]

I can clean my large rubber cutting board in the sink but often scrub it in place with coarse salt (kosher) and a cut lemon. I've been told that butchers clean their boards with watered bleach and salt. Every few years I go over it with a sander. I have had it for around 10 years. When I had a wooden cutting board, I scraped it with a bench knife. I have never seen a wood cutting board rot.

[paulraphael]

The cutting board thread resurfaces ...

I've had a maple Boardsmith board now for five years, and love it. I prefer it to my giant maple countertop, primarily because cleaning it is easier. The endgrain construction also resists getting marked up, and is supposedly easier on knife edges.

Dave's advice is to get the biggest board that you can clean in your sink. For me that was 16x22— I had a restaurant pot+pan sink in my kitchen. I've downsized now, and can use the new sink (a more pedestrian 16 x 21 home sink) with just a bit of awkwardness. I'm still happy to have the big cutting board but sometimes use a small one for small tasks.

Some thoughts on nice endgrain boards:

-get a bench scraper. It's the best tool for cleaning as you go, and for keeping the surface smooth. Sanding is required for removing serious damage (I haven't had to do this). Never use a wire brush.

-a good board conditioner will preserve the looks and health of the board. A new board will be incredibly thirsty for the stuff; eventually you may only need to wipe some on every month or two. Board conditioner contains mineral oil and wax (usually bees wax, sometimes some carnuba wax). Dave sells his own, or you can make it, or you find other brands. I've made my own, and am now using Howard brand, which seems a bit better than my homebrew and is pretty cheap on Amazon.

-sanitizer solution is a good idea, especially if you cook for strangers and don't know who might be immune compromised. Sanitizing comes after washing; it's not a substitute. You can't sanitize a dirty or oily board. The idea is to kill most of the last remaining microbes. Bleach solutions aren't very good on porous or semi-porous surfaces like wood. They're actually ineffective here. They also smell, irritate mucus membrains, and will spot your clothes and disintegrate your towels. Vinegar / lemon juice is also ineffective ... there's a lot they won't kill, including viruses like norovirus. The best thing I've found is restaurant sanitizer that contains quaternary ammonium compounds. They're odorless and non-toxic and don't irritate skin or damage fabrics. Just spray a dilute solution and let it dry. The same stuff is used in rinse water when hand-washing dishes. You can pick it up at any restaurant store.

-These cutting boards are not for use with a heavy cleaver or serrated blades. By heavy cleaver I mean ones used to break joints and behead fish and poultry. These will hack up the surface of anything, so use a cheaper board. People disagree with me on the serrated blade part. It is ok to use, say, a good scallop-edge bread knife if you're very careful with it. Just keep in mind that a serrated knife is a saw, and it will carve grooves in your board if you use any pressure at all. I don't want to have to sand my board every month just to keep it sanitary, so I use a different board for bread (the only thing I have a serrated knife for).

[weinoo]

These cutting boards are not for use with a heavy cleaver or serrated blades. By heavy cleaver I mean ones used to break joints and behead fish and poultry. These will hack up the surface of anything, so use a cheaper board. People disagree with me on the serrated blade part. It is ok to use, say, a good scallop-edge bread knife if you're very careful with it. Just keep in mind that a serrated knife is a saw, and it will carve grooves in your board if you use any pressure at all. I don't want to have to sand my board every month just to keep it sanitary, so I use a different board for bread (the only thing I have a serrated knife for).

Yes to all.

I cut bread on my IKEA wooden counter top but try to stop before I go all the way through the bread.

When I want to hack up a bird or something similar, I pull out my old Boos board or one of those industrial plastic ones we used to carry around to catering jobs.

[Robenco15]

Good point about the sink. I'll have to measure but I'm sure an 18x24 board is probably too big for it. I'd rather deal with some awkwardness at the sink though to have more cutting room on my countertop.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I now have a new Boos 20"x30" edge grain board. I did not get it for cutting, however. I am using it as a kitchen work surface, for which it is very nice. I'm still considering a Boos end grain board for use as an actual cutting board. My two concerns are the not insubstantial cost and weight.

There are colloidal silver containing sanitizer solutions. Has anyone used these with wood cutting surfaces?

[paulraphael]

Everything I've read suggests that colloidal silver is an obsolete antimicrobial. It's become a trendy miracle substance in blogs and natural health articles, some of which advocate uses that the medical community considers unsafe (ingesting it!).

Here's a rundown on sanitizers that are common commercially.

[andiesenji]

Everything I've read suggests that colloidal silver is an obsolete antimicrobial. It's become a trendy miracle substance in blogs and natural health articles, some of which advocate uses that the medical community considers unsafe (ingesting it!).

Here's a rundown on sanitizers that are common commercially.

When I was a newly-minted lab technician, back in 1958, we used colloidal silver in the lab to isolate some pathogens in cultures in petri dishes. It was NOT effective against all strains of E-Coli - nor some of the other pathogens. We were also warned to keep from prolonged contact with it because even then it was known that it could cause damage to the kidneys if ingested and it could also be absorbed through the skin. Things have not changed during the ensuing 55 years.

It can be DANGEROUS - Like what happened to this man.

Like so many other things, some people get enthused about a product and believe they can make money on it and excessive self-promotion turns it into a fad that costs the GULLIBLE money and does no good at all.

Read this. before wasting money on something that does not work and can cause problems.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

This is the product I was thinking of and wondered if anyone had experience with it on cutting boards:

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Innovation/Antimicrobial-worth-its-weight-in-silver

[paulraphael]

That product uses ionic silver, not colloidal silver. It's new .... I don't see any tests besides the manufacturers.

It may be good stuff, but by the company's own description, it's for "hard, non-porous environmental surfaces (painted, glazed tile, plastic, non-porous vinyl, metal, glass)," which would not include wood.

[dcarch]

Why not just get a germicidal UV light?

100% clean, no poison.

dcarch

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I have impared vision due to cataracts (among other things). I try to minimize exposure to UV.

As I recall Boos recommends a vinegar solution.

[paulraphael]

Vinegar's better than nothing, but there's a lot it doesn't kill.

[dcarch]

I have impared vision due to cataracts (among other things). I try to minimize exposure to UV.

As I recall Boos recommends a vinegar solution.

When I use my UV light, I use an extension cord so that i can turn it on/off from another room.

dcarch

[Porthos]

That product uses ionic silver, not colloidal silver. It's new .... I don't see any tests besides the manufacturers.

It may be good stuff, but by the company's own description, it's for "hard, non-porous environmental surfaces (painted, glazed tile, plastic, non-porous vinyl, metal, glass)," which would not include wood.

From the product label:

SANITIZATION OF FOOD CONTACT SURFACES: Do not use this product on utensils, dishes or glassware.

I think I'll stick with my bleach solution on my plastic cutting boards. Still the first method (of 5) listed in California's CURFFL for manual sanitizing. YMMV.

[paulraphael]

Quaternary Ammonium sanitizers are fine for dishes and silverware glassware. There's no bleach (which can pit stainless steel). Most of them are made with wetting agents, that keep the solution from beading up on the surface, so it dries without leaving spots. They're the standard for a final rinse in hand washing. Dunk your plates and wine glasses in the quats and let them dry. You're done. They're sanitized and they dry without spots and streaks.

[Shel_B]

Have you considered a bamboo board.  I have one like this (upper left corner)  which is slightly smaller  23 x 16, and very durable. 

 

I didn't want to leave this hanging, as I mentioned that it looked like a perfect solution to my problem.  As it turned out, 23-inches is just a scosh too narrow - I really need the 24-inches.  Bed, Bath and Beyond has one with the requisite dimensions, and I'll check it out in the next day or so.

[paulraphael]

The thing to consider with bamboo boards is that they're a kind of engineered wood product. Which means by volume and by weight there's a LOT of glue. I don't know how you'd ever find out what kind of glue a manufacturer uses, but many of the glues are much harder than the bamboo itself, and also harder than what makes for a knife-friendly surface. There are also ecological issues. Bamboo is a fantasically green renewable resource. But many of the glues used in making the composits are not. You can read discussions about this in regard to bamboo flooring; some studies suggest that air polution from the glues during manufacture is a significant problem.

[Shel_B]

Bamboo is a fantasically green renewable resource. But many of the glues used in making the composits are not. You can read discussions about this in regard to bamboo flooring; some studies suggest that air polution from the glues during manufacture is a significant problem.

 

That's very interesting.  Moving away from cutting boards for a moment, but sticking with the glue used for joining pieces of bamboo, I've noticed a number of bamboo utensils, like mixing spoons, salad forks, etc., made with strips of bamboo that have been glued together.  I wonder how safe that glue is and if it's the same type of glue used in flooring and to join together cutting boards.  Certainly something to look into, if one is concerned about health and environmental issues.

[dcarch]

I don't know if the glue for bamboo kitchen use is food safe. But I don't feel it is of environmental concern.

 

Plywood, particle board, furniture, ------------------ etc. use glue billions and billions times more than the few kitchen tools.

 

Bamboo has to be glued because bamboo plant is a tube, not solid lumber.

 

Bamboo is extremely durable, with tensile strength like steel and does not rot easily. 

 

Bamboo is extremely fast growing, you can actually sit in front of a bamboo plant and see it grow.

 

And bamboo shoots are delicious  :-)

 

dcarch

[Norm Matthews]

 It has been 30 years since I owned a restaurant and things may have changed since them but the health dept. said a bleach solution was a satisfactory sanitizer.  A friend told me he asked his butcher what he used to clean his cutting board and he said he used the bleach solution with salt as an abrasive. 

[patrickamory]

I thought that wood and especially bamboo sanitized themselves very well with a mixture of hot water and soap? I don't use plastic or artificial surfaces for cutting meat - my impression is that the bad bugs survive very well on hard surfaces like formica.

 

As for bamboo wearing down knives - this is absolutely true, I have to hone my knife far more frequently when using my bamboo cutting board than my maple end block one. But I do enjoy the lightness and thinness of it.

[paulraphael]

I thought that wood and especially bamboo sanitized themselves very well with a mixture of hot water and soap? I don't use plastic or artificial surfaces for cutting meat - my impression is that the bad bugs survive very well on hard surfaces like formica.

 

There's been a ton of research on different materials, and while microbes behave slighlty differently on different ones, there's little practical difference. Plastic and rubber can go in the dishwasher; wood can't. Wood and rubber can be sanded smooth; plastic can't. 

 

Nothing sanitizes itself. All of them can be well cleaned in hot soapy water, as long as they don't have deep knifegrooves. Sanitizing is about killing the majority of the microbes that remain after washing (killing all of them would be sterilizing ... you'd have to shrink-wrap the board afterwards, and it wouldn't be sterile anymore once you opened it in the kitchen). 

 

In practice, doing a good job washing is probably enough. Restaurants are required to sanitize. And it's a great idea if you might be making food for anyone who's immune compromised. I do it because it's a useful habit, and because its easy.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Today I took delivery of a Heiemon hinoki wood cutting board.  There is little information in English I can find on the care of hinoki wood.  Some Western sources say to oil an hinoki cutting board but that seems contraindicated.  I also worry about washing the board with detergent, since it would absorb the taste.

 

Rinsed the board thoroughly, dried it, and stored it on edge while awaiting information or enlightenment.

 

I will note that for the last year or two I've had an hinoki soap dish in the bathroom.  Everything -- metal, plastic -- mildews in the shower.  But not hinoki wood.  It looks as if I could eat from it.

[andiesenji]

I have several wood cutting boards of different types of wood - bamboo - and a chunk of olive wood.

 

I clean them all with coarse salt and half a lemon - then just wipe with a slightly dampened cloth.  

[jim loellbach]

I recently got rid of an Epicurean a few years old.  It was black, and I started noticing small black particles when I minced garlic, shallots, onions, etc.  It was enough to be noticeable, and I saw the board itself was very scuffed up from knife marks.  I was in the Container Store and I picked up one of these:

http://www.containerstore.com/s/eco-smart-cutting-board/d?productId=10029494&q=cutting%20board

 

I got the brown one. It's polypropylene with flax husks mixed in to make it (a little) greener.  Much softer material and nicer to the knife.  No warping yet, which was the best thing about the Epicurean (it stayed dead flat since I bought it). 

 

Anyway, it's a fine utilitarian cutting board, but after reviewing this thread and seeing the Boardsmiths, I want one!