Cutting board

A wooden chopping board with a chef's knife.

A cutting board, also known as a chopping board, is a kitchen utensil (see list of food preparation utensils), used as a flat surface on which to cut or slice things. Cutting boards are often made of wood or plastic. There are also chopping boards made of glass - which are easier to clean than the wooden or plastic ones, but are damaging to the knives.

Sanitation and Care

• Sanitation with cutting boards is delicate, because bacteria can reside in grooves produced by cutting, or in liquids left on the board. For this reason, it is often advised to cut raw meat on separate cutting boards from cooked meat, vegetables or other foods.

• A very dilute Bleach solution is best for disinfecting cutting boards.

• Wood boards should never be placed in the dishwasher, or left immersed for long periods.

• A light food grade Mineral oil is a good preservative for wooden cutting boards as it helps keep water from seeping into the grain. Alternatively, one may also use a food grade drying oil such as poppyseed oil, tung oil or linseed oil. The first two dry much faster than linseed. Note that most commercially available linseed and tung oil are not “food grade” as they contain metallic driers. In general, edible savory vegetable or olive oils are not recommended because they tend to go rancid and cause the board to smell and your food will pick up that taste as well.

• Cutting boards should be treated when they start looking dry to prevent cracking. A standard recommendation is 5 times a year, or as needed.

• When heavily or deeply scored, wood or plastic cutting boards should be resurfaced as scoring can harbor excessive bacteria, or mildew in the case of plastic boards. Wood can be easily resurfaced with various woodworking tools, such as scrapers or planes. Sandpaper is to be avoided however, as it leaves residual abrasives in the surface, which will dull knives. Resurfacing a plastic cutting board is more difficult and it is recommended to just go out and buy another one.

Materials

In choosing your cutting surface, there are pros and cons to each depending on your application.

Wood

Wood has some advantages over plastic in that it is somewhat self healing; shallow cuts in the wood will close up on their own. Wood also has an advantage over other materials because in general, it has a natural anti-septic property. Hardwoods, are tightly grained wood with small pores, such as hard Maple are best. Good hardness and tight grain helps reduce scoring of the cutting surface and seepage of liquid and dirt into the surface. Red Oak for example, has large pores so it retains dirt, even after washing, making it a poor choice for cutting board material.

Care must be taken when selecting tropical hardwoods for use as cutting boards as many contain toxins or allergens.

Although technically a grass, laminated strips of Bamboo also make an attractive and durable cutting board material .

Plastic

While theoretically more sanitary than wooden cutting boards, testing has shown this is not always the case. Mildew can even form in deep scoring. Semi-disposible thin flexible cutting boards take little skill to transfer their contents to container. Plastic allows a complete rinsing of cleaning chemicals such as bleach and other disinfectants.

Glass

Their main selling points are perceived to have easier cleanup, dishwasher safe and the fact that they are clear so the counter below shows through. While easier to clean than wood or plastic, glass cutting boards damage knives. Because they have a textured slip resistant surface, and are much harder than the steel of even the highest quality knife, they quickly destroy the edge of a knife. Serrated knives last longer, but are still heavily damaged. In short they are only suitable for use with cheap, poorly sharpened, unresharpenable serrated knives that are thrown away once dull. These boards are best suited for show with guests or using with a plastic salad serrated knife for salads.

See also

• Butcher block

External links

• Cooking For Engineers's Cutting Boards Article