Cutting boards...

Hello,

Just curious what type of cutting boards everyone uses to cut meat and veggies. I have been using the plastic kind and the grooves that my knoife makes is starting to gett deeper and stained with the green from veggies. I was thinking that I am either using the wrong kind of knife or the wrong kind of board. Any help would be appreciated.

All cutting boards can be damaged by knife use. Sounds like your best bet is to get a new cutting board. A wooden cutting board could be planed and sanded to remove the grooves. But, unless you have access to the tools, its probably cheaper to buy a new board.

I'm a fan of plastic cutting boards. I like the fact that they are dishwasher safe. I recently got a couple of Kitchen Aid cutting boards with some rubber corners that keep the boards from sliding around. I really like them. When I use my larger wooden boards, I use a sheet of non-skid shelf paper to hold the board in place.

For veggies and the like I don't use anything but wood. I'll use plastic for raw proteins since it can go into the dishwasher. Personally, my favorite material is a good, heavy butcher block. I've made it clear to the bride to be that when we buy a house the first thing to be installed is a large BB counter top. In the meantime, last week I got to have a load of fun registering for kitchen stuff at BB&B. Of course I included the largest BB cutting board they offered.

Flip

I just wrote two columns on cutting boards for CHOW. One on plastic http://www.chow.com/stories/10452 - and the other on wood http://www.chow.com/stories/10467

At home I use The Gripper by Architec for light everyday use - if I'm going to be breaking down a lot of product then it's my Boos block.

I've gotten friendly with the guy who owns the Butcher Block Factory Outlet at the end of my block. He'll custom cut any size/thickness/wood you want. I had an inch-thick board cut to fit the top of my cube freezer--he even routed (sp?) a juice/liquid trough around the edges for me.

I'm also a fan of the plastic cutting boards. You can get uber-cheap ones at Wal-Mart and most Chinese markets. Just toss 'em when they start getting funky.

Butcher Block Factory Outlet
555 W 16th St
Chicago, IL 60616
(312) 666-9144

I have a few plastic boards and i used to have nice hunk of a board made of oak or maple -- i always forget which.

However, i was given a very fine bamboo board about a year ago and it's incredibly nice -- it also seems to really hold up to knife work and and wear and tear.

Plus it's good for the environment!

Mostly I use plastic boards. I have a couple of thicker ones that have gotten stained over the years and I should probably discard (one got melted on one corner when it got shoved onto the cooktop and doesn't lie flat anymore), and some thin flexible ones I like a lot, but my favorite knife (a Shun "Alton's Angles") tends to cut right through it when I do fine chopping and mincing.

I also have this massive 15" square, 4" high block made of laminated bamboo that's a joy to use -- impenetrable and heavy. It also raises the countertop up to a more comfortable level for me. I tend to put one of the flexy mats on top of it when I cut proteins. Its biggest downfall is its weight and the fact that it has a gutter routed around the edge, meaning that I can't sweep crumbs, chopped herbs, etc, off the surface.

JoelF wrote: It also raises the countertop up to a more comfortable level for me.

Maybe this is why I've always preferred the butcher block? At the restaurant I'd always stack at least 2-3 boards on top of each other to prevent a hideous back ache.

Flip

Flip wrote:

JoelF wrote: It also raises the countertop up to a more comfortable level for me.

Maybe this is why I've always preferred the butcher block? At the restaurant I'd always stack at least 2-3 boards on top of each other to prevent a hideous back ache.

Flip

A common trick is to place a cutting board on top of a hotel pan - damp towel on the countertop, hotel pan, damp towel, cutting board.

Louisa Chu wrote:

Flip wrote:

JoelF wrote: It also raises the countertop up to a more comfortable level for me.

Maybe this is why I've always preferred the butcher block? At the restaurant I'd always stack at least 2-3 boards on top of each other to prevent a hideous back ache.

Flip

A common trick is to place a cutting board on top of a hotel pan - damp towel on the countertop, hotel pan, damp towel, cutting board.

I've done that too, but instead of the damp towels we had rubber mats to keep the pans and boards in place. To this day I always place a tamp towel under my boards to keep them in place.

Flip