What chopping board for use with a sharp knife...

I agree with Johnny; something about wooden boards soaking up whatever you've been chopping gets me feeling queasy.

Wooden boards for show, plastic boards for everyday use.
 
As shocking as it might be, wooden boards are actually more hygeneic. Bacteria can't live in wood. Some scientist types did an experiment a while back, spraying Salmonella, E.Coli and other harmful food-based bacteria on to various chopping boards (one new and one heavily used wood, one new and one heavily used plastic, glass). They monitored the growth of the bacteria. The bacteria on both wooden boards died within minutes. The bacteria on the other 3 boards just multiplied continuously. They then did the same again, but cleaned the boards after 5 minutes with an anti-bacterial spray. Afterwards only one board still contained harmful bacteria - the heavily used plastic board. The spray didn't get in to all of the little serrations and grooves that knives had put in to the board.

Wood is the most hygienic and also the kindest on your knives. The only downside is that they need to be looked after, seasoned regularly, or they start to smell after a few months.
 
I have a big wooden end-grain board by Typhoon that I use for all non-meaty stuff and some plastic ones for meats.

I'm not sure what people are on about with wooden boards going smelly or rancid. I oil mine evey couple of months with veg oil and clean it with the rough side of a washing up sponge after it's been used. It doesn't smell at all, doesn't hold onto flavours of things like onion or garlic, isn't stained and is hardly marked even after 7 years use with good sharp knives (globals). :confused:
 
I use one called Top Gourmet which is made from wood fibres (basically expensive recycled wood, genius by the sellers). It's knife and dishwasher friendly.

I also use a heavy bamboo board from JL and a set of plastic colour-coded boards from Lakeland Plastics for raw meat, fish, veg and cooked meat.
 
Wood most definitely.

Parents have had the same wooden chopping board for 20 years since it was brought back from Malaysia in hand luggage. Which would have been interesting since it's a 2.5" thick circular slab 50cm in diameter cut from a plank of rubberwood.

Meat one side, other stuff the other side. Hand cleaned and air dried every time its used. It has no smell.

I hate the way plastic boards take damage and hold stains, they look like crap in no time.

The wooden board still takes damage from knives but most cuts close up and it still looks great.

Also nice to have a very solid chopping board if you're using cleaver type knives.
 
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Jolteh said:
Most wood or plastic ones are fine. A big chunky wood one for most things and a separate plastic one for things like chicken is the way most people go.

Avoid glass/stone/steel etc.
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Pretty much this, endgrain boards are slightly easier on the knives but it doesn't make too much difference. These are really nice:

http://www.langtoninfo.co.uk/showitem.aspx?isbn=0096444404955

I have a mahogany, oak and bloodwood one and a few cheap plastic ones for raw meat.

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Richie said:
Bluntening?!?

ROFL, sorry I have nothing actually constructive to add but this made me chuckle :D
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Well 29 people knew what he meant :rolleyes:. Maybe you would like to play with those stickle bricks over in the corner there? Please, don't make too much noise whilst the adults have a conversation ;)
 
satchef1 said:
As shocking as it might be, wooden boards are actually more hygeneic. Bacteria can't live in wood. Some scientist types did an experiment a while back, spraying Salmonella, E.Coli and other harmful food-based bacteria on to various chopping boards (one new and one heavily used wood, one new and one heavily used plastic, glass). They monitored the growth of the bacteria. The bacteria on both wooden boards died within minutes. The bacteria on the other 3 boards just multiplied continuously. They then did the same again, but cleaned the boards after 5 minutes with an anti-bacterial spray. Afterwards only one board still contained harmful bacteria - the heavily used plastic board. The spray didn't get in to all of the little serrations and grooves that knives had put in to the board.

Wood is the most hygienic and also the kindest on your knives. The only downside is that they need to be looked after, seasoned regularly, or they start to smell after a few months.
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Got a link for this?:)
 
Big wooden one myself (30cm x 50cm x 5cm) and then 2 plastic boards, one for meat and one for veg which are smaller cheap ones that can go in the dishwasher

- GP
 
Zip said:
Got a link for this?:)
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It was in an issue of New Scientist a while back (maybe a year or two?).

A quick Google search turns up a Wikipedia page relating to Cutting Boards;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_board

And from there, this source;

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/1994/00000057/00000001/art00003

That might be where the article came from. Not sure.

Abstract:
The microbiology of plastic and wooden cutting boards was studied, regarding cross-contamination of foods in home kitchens. New and used plastic (four polymers plus hard rubber) and wood(nine hardwoods) cutting boards were cut into 5-cm squares("blocks"). Escherichia coli (two nonpathogenic strains plus type OI57:H7), Listeria innocua, L. monocytogenes, or Salmonella typhimurium was applied to the 25-cm2 block surface in nutrient broth or chicken juice and recovered by soaking the surface in nutrient broth or pressing the block onto nutrient agar, within 3-10 min or up to ca. 12 h later. Bacteria inoculated onto plastic blocks were readily recovered for minutes to hours and would multiply if held overnight. Recoveries from wooden blocks were generally less than those from plastic blocks, regardless of new or used status; differences increased with holding time. Clean wood blocks usually absorbed the inoculum completely within 3-10 min. If these fluids contained 103-104 CFU of bacteria likely to come from raw meat or poultry, the bacteria generally could not be recovered after entering the wood. If ≥106 CFU were applied, bacteria might be recovered from wood after 12 h at room temperature and high humidity, but numbers were reduced by at least 98%, and often more than 99.9%. Mineral oil treatment of the wood surface had little effect on the microbiological findings. These results do not support the often-heard assertion that plastic cutting boards are more sanitary than wood.
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Plastic ones 3 quid after they are dirty they go in the dishwasher, after 6 months i bin them. Function over form.
 
Another tip for keeping an edge as long as possible on your knives is to store them 'upside down' in the knife block (if you use one, that is). This will prevent the edge from being rolled over :)
 
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