Size
The size of a cutting board is pretty important. Small cutting boards are convenient for clean up and cutting small things quickly (for example a garnish or some cheese). However, every kitchen should have at least one large cutting board. How large? As big as your sink. It's important to be able to wash your cutting boards thoroughly, so it's important that the cutting board fits into your sink. When buying a cutting board, the bigger the better (as long as it fits in the sink). Why? The larger surface area gives you more space to work with. It helps with posture too. You won't be cramped up trying to fit everything on the board, move the food into position, and drive the knife at the same time.
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Once an appropriate size of cutting board has been chosen, the question of buying plastic or wood comes up. Which is better for the knife? Which is safer? What's the best value? These are some questions that come up when choosing between these two materials. We'll try to address them here.
Surface
Most wood boards are made of a hard wood like maple or pine which may give your kitchen a much more attractive look than plastic boards. A good, sharp knife will cut into a wood board to some degree, so be forewarned that the cutting surface of your elegant wood cutting board will look worn, especially if you are heavy handed. The grain of the wood also helps keep the food from slipping.
A plastic board will usually have a roughened surface to aid in keeping food from slipping off. Most people would say that a plastic board's appearance leaves much to be desired, but it's size, shape, and weight make it extremely handy around the kitchen. Unfortunately, no matter what a manufacturer claims about how gentle the plastic is on knives, there is no substitute for cutting on wood to keep your knives in tip top shape.
Because plastic boards are nonporous and nonabsorbent, it is easier to clean off stain causing fluids than from a wood board. Simply scrub and rinse. Of course, don't let juice from freshly chopped beets stay on your board and dry for cleaning the next day - stains will occur. However, most sharp knives will eventually carve grooves into the plastic surface where stains can form and bacteria can collect. The small fissures make it very difficult to properly clean the baord without giving it a bleach washing.
A properly oiled wood board will also help resist staining to some degree, but prompt washing is always the best policy to follow.
Oiling a wood board once every couple of weeks is a great way to maintain the board. Oiling protects the board from soaking up too much moisture and cracking or warping. It also protects against the absorption of some bacteria. Use an edible oil that has no taste, but don't use vegetable oil because it will turn rancid over time. Mineral oil is a popular choice. Wood boards can also be sanded to return the surface to a smooth finish. Beware that after sanding the board should be washed, dried, and set out for several hours to eliminate bacteria that may have been released from the interior wood.
Grooves
Grooves are often carved into the edge of the cutting board to catch juices.
Cutting boards with large grooves serve better for carving than for cutting. I recommend having a seperate carving board for carving and serving than the board you normally use for slicing and chopping for preparation.
Feet
Some cutting boards have feet. This limits your cutting surface to one side of the board. With wood boards, feet are not necessary since placing the board on a wet towel or shelf liner will firmly cement the board to the counter. Depending on the weight and texture of the board, this trick can also work on plastic boards. Often, wood boards with feet work well as attractive carving boards or cheese boards.
Over the sink boards
For the space limited kitchen, manufacturers offer both wood and plastic boards 
that can be placed or hooked over the kitchen sink. Over the sink boards also make clean up easy when dealing with messy fruits or vegetables that make produce a lot of juice, like tomatoes.
Bacteria
It is often said that plastic is easier to clean than wood, but this is not necessarily the case. Foods that stain are much easier to clean off plastic, but if you're concerned about bacteria, plastic may not be the material you want to choose to use.
Plastic cutting boards have a nonporous surface that provides no place for bacteria to dwell. However, bacteria can just as easily live on the surface and after using the board for a while, your knife will probably chew up the fine surface of the board providing plenty of hiding spaces for bacteria to survive even through vigorous washing. This is troublesome to deal with and it is wise to scrub the cutting board down immediately after using. What
about those plastic boards that have built in antibacterial chemicals? These only serve to inhibit bacterial grown that causes stains and odors - they do little to kill food-borne bacteria. If they did, you'd be ingesting poison agents every time you used your cutting board. Vigorous scrubbing with hot water and soap and an occassional cycle through the dishwasher is probably your best bet when it comes to plastic. (Be careful, some low quality boards may warp in a dishwasher.) Unfortunately, even a dishwasher's high temperatures may not be enough to kill all the bacteria. You're sure to kill the vast majority of them, though. Pouring bleach (diluted in water) over the board is also a good way of purging the board of bacteria. Once you've got the board clean, keep it dry. A few hours of complete dryness will kill the remainder of the bacteria. Make sure you prop up a corner of the cutting board if you're leaving it on the countertop so moisture won't be sandwiched under the board.
Wood cutting boards deal with bacteria in the opposite way that plastic boards do. Wood boards actually absorb the bacteria into the wood. After the surface of the wood has been cleaned and dried, the bacteria near the surface dies. It turns out the wood near the surface forms a hostile environment for bacteria to live in. There are lots of bacteria living in the cutting board, but about 1/8 in. below the surface. This is deep enough that a heavy handed chop into the wood is unlikely to release bacteria (unless the wood splits). If your cutting board fits in your microwave oven, heating up the board in the microwave for 30 sec. or so will completely cleanse the board of bacteria, inside and out. As with plastic boards, prop a corner up to keep moisture from collecting.
Price
In general, plastic cutting boards are less expensive than wood cutting boards. For $10, you can purchase a set of cutting boards for cutting poultry, fish, and meats, or you can divide them up by size. For the same $10, a set of three wood boards will be servicable, but noticably lower quality. A good wood board can run upwards of $100, although a $10-20 board should make a great cutting surface. If you have expensive knives and don't mind oiling every couple weeks, then get a modest wood carving board. If you're on a budget, like the convenience of multiple cutting boards, and can stand dealing with vigorous scrubbing and the occassional bleaching, then plastic is the way to go.
Bamboo
A "new" entry in the cutting board market are bamboo boards. Bamboo is an extremely hard grass that is easily grown and naturally replenishing resource. It doesn't have to be replanted after chopping down and is strong, durable, and pretty. Boards constructed of bamboo are fast (the hard surface makes it easier to work the knife) and durable. The boards absorb less liquid than maple wood and are typicaly easier to wash since the knive cuts won't be as deep or plantiful. Like other wood boards, they should not be soaked in water or placed in the dishwasher. The downside of bamboo boards is cost. Currently, the most expensive cutting boards that I know of, bamboo boards will run almost $200 for a large board. Browse Totally Bamboo for typical prices and a decent selection of boards and dishware.
Go to this site for a sampling of the cutting boards available for mail order from amazon.com.
PS - You misspelled fissures. :-)
Yes, I did fail to mention that one popular usage model is to have a poultry board, other meats board, and vegetable/other board. Proper usage of the multi-board scheme can reduce the chances of cross contamination (where foods that need to be fully cooked come in contact with foods that do not get cooked to high temperatures).
It is also possible to use one board and vary the order of your ingredient preparation such that cross contamination is no longer an issue. Chop vegetables/uncooked items first. Then prepare meats and, lastly, poultry. Clean and scrub the board well and allow it to fully dry.
The main thing is choose a system that works for you and be diligent about avoiding cross contamination.
I use Granite myself!
I had a Bakers Rack & Cutting Board made while
stationed in Naples, Italy.
If anyone heads that way, see Ciro in Pozzuolli, Italy, he is awesome!
I believe is good blades 7 boards for all my recipes!
I look forward to seeing more of your BLOGS!
M~A
http://www.duhhhmoment.blogspot.com
http://www.mylifeasalizard.blogspot.com
I still use a bleach/water spray bottle on all my cutting boards and food preparation surfaces, both before and after, and in ten years have never had a problem. The nice thing is the bleach also takes out stains, which on a white counter top is very helpful. Also the smell reminds you of which surfaces you have cleaned or have missed.
http://my.execpc.com/~mjstouff/articles/vinegar.html
My favorite cutting board is a 12by18 by 3/4 inch solid piece of Padouk. I have had mine for at least 20 years and use it daily. It's a beautiful dark wood that doesn't show stains and being quite dense, it doesn't get cut up as much as Maple. Extremely hard to find, but well worth the search.
Rick
Much has been said about sanitary concerns when dealing with wooden cutting boards. Tests on end-grain rock maple cutting surfaces showed that bacteria didn't really like growing in that particular medium, however, as wooden chopping blocks and cutting boards are considerably higher priced than the best plastic boards, this frugal Engineer prefers the plastic for cutting and the wood for serving.
My favorite board is an over-the-sink farberware poly board with a little strainer-well in which to slide the trimmings. This board is perfectly sized to fit into the dishwasher (At least my undercounter 20-year-old Kitchenaid). I won't own a plastic board which will not fit into the dishwasher (Yeah, I'm lazy as well as frugal).
Remember, eschew stone, metal or glass surfaces for cutting...that is unless you're made of money and can spend your time and money having your blades resharpened more often than otherwise necessary and/or replacing them. If all you use are the freebees handed out at the local county fair or as a Wal-Mart Special, go ahead, use a hard surface.
A good set of knives should last you a lifetime. The plastic cutting boards will probably be replaced every five years or so, a good heavy end grain cutting board might be handed down to your grandchildren (Mine came from a Great Aunt)
I remain,
The Ol' Soldering Gunslinger
After a thorough scrubbing with a stiff bristled brush and/or stainless steel scrubber pads, we would flush the surface copiously with water. Then wipe the block down with clean towels and finally sprinkle the surface with salt. This pulled water out of the pores of the wood and sterilized at the same time. Once a week we oiled the surfaces well after cleaning and brushing off the crusted, dried salt.
I use this method on all my boards at home.
pseudolus the first
They are harder to find, and more expensive, but a better choice.
in this debate the free use of bleach is sure to poison people eventually, read the warnings on the bottle... they sure warn you seriously about using it around food. !!!
Also with cross contamination this is only a problem if you are storing food, even if it for only a few hours. But if everything is ending up touching each other in the pot, then it is quite silly to use different boards.
As stated bacteria cant live on the surface of most woods especially the end grain, and some woods (blackwood, Iorn wood, Huon Pine etc...) they cant even survive under the surface. Where as plastic is almost a farm for them.
Same debate over the use of rubber gloves in commercial kitchens... well washed hands are cleaner than the freshest rubber glove... except those sterilized ones the surgeons use...
wish the little old ladies of both sexes would leave the kitchen.....
Love to all
Cheers ray
However, plastic is still probably the better choice. The reason is that plastic is easier to sterilize. Dishwashing does indeed do a pretty good job of sterilizing the board. It is true that the heat is not enough by itself to kill bacteria effectively, as you state, but the heat is not acting by itself. The detergent contains bleach and other oxidizing agents (just smell it; it has a strong acrid odor like bleach) that kill nearly all bacteria. Further, the detergent physically removes both the bacteria and the tiny bits of food that can harbor them, just like washing your hands.
Dishwashing is not really an option for wood cutting boards unless they are not glued or laminated, as nearly all end grain boards are. The cycles of water and heat, then drying, would cause the wood to expand and shrink, eventually breaking the glue bonds, and causing the wood to crack.
So that leaves the inhospitality of the wood surface to take care of the bacteria. But how long does it take for bacteria to die on a wood board, even one washed with soap and water? Nobody knows, as far as I can tell. What if you cook often on it? Does that give enough time for the bacteria to die?
True, you could wipe the board with with bleach to immediately kill bacteria, but that is stinky and a little hazardous to your health (it releases free chlorine), and a pain besides (if you are civilian like myself, you might wear street clothes to cook, not cooking whites like professional chefs do.)
Wiping it with salt might kill some bacteria, but it probably does little for bacteria spores, which are dormant bacteria encased in a tough shell. In any case it is certainly less effective than being doused with a hot solution of detergent and bleach and other oxidizing agents.
So because plastic has a more effective, more immediate sterilizing method available to it, it is the better choice.
Karl
Unless you are dealing with seriously contamined food, I don't think bleach or disinfectant are necessary.
Stephan
P.S.: Some of my recipes are now available in English.
Also...I'd love to see more vegetarian recipes on this site. Other than that, great job.
I've read (Healing With Whole Foods, by Paul Pitchford) that Hydrogen Peroxide is an acceptable alternative to bleach for soaking suspect vegetables of critters.
1/2 teaspoon Clorox per gallon of water (10 minute soak + 10 min rinse water soak)
or
1 tablespoon 3% Hydrogen Peroxide per gallon of water (20 minute soak)
The quick option is to spray the veggies directly with 3% HP, wait 2 minutes and rinse.
Washing your cutting boards with soap and water, as well as spraying them down with 3% HP seems like an acceptable option to addressing cutting board contaminants.
Any opinions on the matter?
Spraying your cutting board with 3% hydrogen peroxide should do a fine job of sanitizing. Wash the board first to remove any large particles and finish with a mist of hydrogen peroxide to sanitize. Many websites recommend the use of vinegar as well as hydrogen peroxide.
It should probably be noted that hydrogen peroxide is a bleach (also known as oxygen bleach), but milder than the bleach we are most used to (chlorine bleach).
LOL... as if!!!!
you all need a lecture on MICROBES!!!!!
hell... if that don't teach you anything... you all need to learn to make "sour dough" bread, using NO YEAST.... just the air you snort!
stop pouring expensive acids on your cooking boards, and stop wasting money on hard antiobiotic detergents, and/or boiling those cutting boards in water (and worrying about their material proprties), and stop pretending to be healthier by avoiding certain germs!!!
get a grip people.... you grab, itch, and snort more germs, everday, than your worst day of cleaning that ol'casserole dish!
pop quiz hotshots...
* Do you realize how much "bacteria" is in your body, serving a "job"?
* Do you realize how many people get deadly diseases when antiobiotics are used to kill off the healthy microbes (germs)?
* Do you know anything about antibiotic resistance?
sorry... i digressed.
go ahead... keep on crying about how the acids and antibitotics are not STRONG enough to protect your "sterility" from the big-bad-germs that are lurking to slit your throat in the common day kitchen!
... and by all means, please note the oxymoron!
sigh.
lol.... get a grip people!
LOL... as if!!!!
you all need a lecture on MICROBES!!!!!
hell... if that don't teach you anything... you all need to learn to make "sour dough" bread, using NO YEAST.... just the air you snort!
Sadly I agree wholeheartedly, the problem in commercial kitchens is the little old ladies of both sexes from the health department. - Apologies to real little old ladies -
Mind you I have worked in a few kitchens over the years that need a good scare from the health department.
strangely enough in an experiment two clean chopping boards were left in a kitchen environment for a month unused and untouched. the bacterial counts were close but the types of bacteria were very different - I now use wood only in my home kitchen, but plastic for the general public as than is demanded by the health department.
Suppress you immune system today
live in a sterile environment
So what experiments did you do and what were your results?
Speaking of wood though - pine is listed in the article as a hardwood, but in fact it is a soft wood. Actually it's the quintesential softwood (in the US anyway.)
I'm still not entirely sure what cutting boards sold as 'hardwood', but not explicitly 'maple', are made of. I think it's Luan usually.
gonna choose wood
I do know the facts ie. dull out your blade faster than wood..... but there are a few up sides. Clean up is very quick and bacteria is not absorbed by granite like wood. Also it does not stain. Another thing is there are over 260 colours of granite to choose from, so you can have them custom made to your kitchen. They also cost about the same price as a good quality wood board. But anyways I don't want to make this seem like an advertisement.
If you'd like more information please email me at jdoria@hotmail.com
Thanks for the time, and there were some very intresting comments in the posts previous.
The debate b/t wood and plastic continually sways from one side to the other. I prefer the combination of wood+good hygiene myself.
PS> To the previous poster (5/24/05) above raving his padauk cutting board. Padauk may not be the best wood for food contact, as it is mildly toxic. Most woodworking sources lean toward being extra cautious when working with this material.
The other main problem with glass or stone cutting boards besides dulling your knifes very fast is most have a super smooth surface which makes it harder to control what your are cutting, and therfor I feel they are less safe.
I do know the facts ie. dull out your blade faster than wood..... but there are a few up sides. Clean up is very quick and bacteria is not absorbed by granite like wood. Also it does not stain. Another thing is there are over 260 colours of granite to choose from, so you can have them custom made to your kitchen. They also cost about the same price as a good quality wood board. But anyways I don't want to make this seem like an advertisement.
If you'd like more information please email me at jdoria@hotmail.com
Thanks for the time, and there were some very intresting comments in the posts previous.
A granite cutting board will definitely dull your knives with the first contact of the blade on the stone, and as another poster mentioned, granite will stain, especially light colored ones. Silestone is more impervious to stain granite, but I would not use that either. The food would also tend to slide around a lot on stone surface if they were polished, and if it was not polished, the stone would stain and collect bacteria faster. Use wood or plastic boards.
Füri Clean Cut Hygienic Cutting Board System ($50 or so via online retailers)
Six color-coded flexible mats, and a very nice thick base.
-Phyxis (not affiliated, just stumbled on it)
gonna choose wood
I like wood best. Food tends to slide around on plastic boards. My boards are rock maple. It has an even grain, so the hardness of the wood is similar throughout the rings of the tree. Oak has definite hard/soft rings, which is very apparent if you do woodworking and stain a piece of oak. A cutting board should be hard enough not to allow the knife to cut into it and remove pieces and wear quickly or absorb fluids deeply into it (easily helped by oiling with mineral oil), but not so hard that it dulls the knife, which means granite, acrylic and glass boards are out. I have no idea if other woods you mentioned, like ironwood is good or bad. One other very tough wood you can check out, since you seem inclined to look at exotic woods is Ekki. It is very hard, tough, has an extremely high elastic modulus and is water resistant. The boardwalks at Disney/Epcot are made of it. You have to cut it with a diamond saw blade. It cannot be nailed, you MUST pre-drill all screw holes. It is naturally insect resistant (I hope there aren't wood boring insects in your cutting boards) and is possibly the toughest wood on the planet. Google it.
Love,
Bobette
at a nearby Vietnamese market, for quite a reasonable
price. But since it's a Chinese product with very little
text on the label, I have no idea what wood it is.
The wood has a noticeable odor. I don't love it but
I don't mind it. A friend likes it.
What I am wondering is, what sort of risk
does one run by using an unknown wood?
Assuming it is a toxic wood (Chinese products
on the cheap aren't exactly carefully tested for
product safety), how much would it actually
impart to the food?
Yeah, I'm thinking I'll bring it in to my local hardwood
store. But who knows when that will happen.
Any thoughts? Anyone ever have a problem with a toxic
cutting board or hear of one? Nothing I've found on Google.
Thanks!
I'll start with the Granites. For presentation purposes, they can't be beat, especialy for cheese or fruits, where you want the ability to allow people to do there own cutting. Who really cares about a dulling a cheese knife? I love to serve Brie en Croute (http://www.puffpastry.com/recipedetail.aspx?recipeID=23992&rc=1 for a simple recipe), which entails quite a bit of hacking away at to enjoy, and my nicely finished granite board serves admirably. Especially when it comes time to clean up all of the bits of cheese and pastry dough that would be hopelessly ground into a wooden board.
When my wife first brought home three flexible plastic boards she had bought for a dollar, I will admit to a certain amount of skepticism and disdain. I was quickly converted to their use, however. I'm not one to be overly sterile in my kitchen, but it is nice to have 10 or 15 of these boards stashed in a cupboard to be pulled out as needed. As I progress through various parts of a meal, they are tossed to the side of the sink for a trip through the dishwasher later, or straight to the trash if stained or worn. They excel for slicing veggies and such to be immediately placed in a saute pan, as mentioned earlier in this forum. They also fit perfectly in a cookie sheet with a 1/2" raised edge that I have, which is great for items with a lot of runoff, such as portioning a cooked rack of lamb, then sliding the plastic out to place the meat back in a warmer. Overall, a very versatile, and for the sterile-minded, disposable option.
And finally, my wooden board. They do require some care and maintenance. I do not recommend bleach, which is a fairly toxic substance to be spraying around food as much as a few have mentioned in this forum. A vinegar solution or a citrus cleaner works better, is better for the wood, and helps to prevent grease buildup. A good sanding followed by a thick coat of Mineral Oil (as a side note, Linseed is not an edible oil, causing immediate disposal of my previous board when my daughter first started to help in the kitchen) about every three to four months keeps it good shape. I haven't tried salt as previously mentioned in this forum, but it does sound like it's worth testing out. I started out with a 3" rock maple board, which is still over 2 1/2" thick after almost 7 years of sanding and heavy usage. This is my prefered board for any heavy chopping or cutting, especially with my good knives.
Well, this was a bit longer than I expected, but I wanted to point out that there's a good use for every type of board, depending on the situation.
They call it "Richlite", but it's essentially a similar material to what they are making decks out of these days...wood fibers mixed with a polymer. The thing holds up really well, and the knife marks don't darken up over time like wood does. Really, though, I can't stress the "dishwasher safe" part enough, either. I admit it, I'm lazy, and I love that board!
http://www.hi-tm.com/Documents/Cutboard.html
also check this:
http://whatscookingamerica.net/CuttingBoards/AllAbout.htm
So glad I found this site, and thank you all for your expertise.
Oh----I do have one more question----do products like "OxyClean" sanitize laundry and/or surfaces cleaned with it?
I work in management for Crate and Barrel and recently we were visited by our friendly Wusthof knife representative. He stated that Wusthof (a leading cutlery manufacturer since 1814) does not recommend using Epicurean cutting boards. He stated that if the wood composite is so strong as to not be damaged/grooved by your cutlery (as most epicurian manufacturers claim) then your knives are being damaged instead. Yes, you want a strong surface to cut upon, but don't get anything so hard that it damages your knife blades.
This is suposed to be a place to scientifically discuss all the weird science of cooking. I'd love to see any scientific references to the suposed "repulsion" of bacteria of wooden chopping boards as I'm quite surprised with that assertion.
I've been in several cooking courses and we always use polyethylene boards. Wood is forbidden by sanitary laws here in Spain and restaurants have to use a color coded polyethylene table for each type of food. Now, I don't know if polyethylene is the same as what you generally call 'plastic'...
Anyhow I'm confused. According to the mentioned study, a simple water wash of a wooden surface gets rid of 98.5% of bacteria whereas with plastic it's only 75.3% (things change when you use vinager though). That kind of brings back the question about what is actually called 'plastic' in terms of composition.
Does anyone actually have any experience of oiling with cooking oil and having it go rancid ? I thought that in theory oil can only go rancid when it is heated to past a certain temperature (different for different oils) and the molecules start to break down. I assume in practice no one actually heats the cutting board so this should not be an issue - or is my science all wrong ?
Does anyone actually have any experience of oiling with cooking oil and having it go rancid ? I thought that in theory oil can only go rancid when it is heated to past a certain temperature (different for different oils) and the molecules start to break down. I assume in practice no one actually heats the cutting board so this should not be an issue - or is my science all wrong ?
First, why can't you use mineral oil on your cutting boards??????????
Second, you can ONLY use mineral oil on cutting boards. Vegetable oils of any type will go rancid and smell, regardless of the temperature. Go to a pharmacy and get food grade/laxative mineral oil/intestinal lubricant, yes its all the same, and go to town oiling the board. Starting with a clean dry board, pour about one ounce on a 16x20" board and allow it to stand overnight, then wipe and allow the rest to naturally soak in. After that, with normal use, about one tablespoon spread out the same way once a week will keep your board in fine shape. Normal washing removes the oils, so weekly applications are necessary.
The board shattered into myriad pieces with a sound she described as "like someone threw a big stone through the window."
Fortunately she only had a small cut on one finger.
I helped clean up the mess - it was awesome - the pieces nearly filled a standard coffee can.
She had another board just like it in storage and that is now on the countertop - I'd surely like to avoid such a thing happening again.
Can anyone tell me why such a thing could happen?