Kitchen "CUTTING BOARDS"......Wood or Plastic or Latest Thingie..??

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The government made the commercial places go to plastic. Then it came out that wood has antibacterial properties that plastic doesn't have. Plastic holds bacteria in all the cuts that develop when you use it.
 
I use Bamboo and wash/dry immediately after each use.

I've tried the flexible ones, but if you store them on edge, they will warp. If you store them flat, they take up way too much space.

I've tried the thicker plastic ones and they seem to work, but I just prefer the organic nature of wood.

YMMV...
 
I don't use either, I pull a ceramic plate and use that for cutting... and the plates get rotated, so there's never too much wear on any single plate. Works well enough, and I go easy with the knife at the bottom of the cut... I'm not out to scar the finish, just cut the veggies or whatever. :confused:
 
I use the hard plastic ones. Don’t like the thin flexible type. I used to use wood, don’t remember why I switched.

The plastic ones last me about a year. Then they get transferred to duty in the shop or tool room, or anything else I can think of.

I use a mouse with my laptop, dislike the touch screen. I put an old cutting board in my laptop bag for the mouse, with a pad glued to it. Even has a handle...

Computer (5).jpg
 
We have used the thin flexible ones forever, but a couple years back out a rolling cart 'island' in the middle of the kitchen that's got a granite section we use for cutting veggies. Now the plastic cutting boards just get used for meat.

@Wingnut in college I used to cut on ceramic plates until I got yelled at in a cooking class for 'ruining' the knives. I suspect our granite use dulls the knives more quickly as well, as I do have to sharpen them fairly frequently...
 
TeeJ said:
@Wingnut in college I used to cut on ceramic plates until I got yelled at in a cooking class for 'ruining' the knives. I suspect our granite use dulls the knives more quickly as well, as I do have to sharpen them fairly frequently...
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Yes, people will yell at you if you use ceramic or granite for cutting, because supposedly it does dull the knives.

I have a collection of cutting boards: wooden, plastic, flexible plastic. I really have too many, and need to pare them down.

When I was teaching, and we did the play of Stone Soup and ate vegetable soup that we had made, we found disposable cutting boards in a pack of 10, if I remember correctly. The children each brought vegetables to prepare in class and the day before the play, we set up a large table for preparing them. Those cutting boards went into the trash after we used them and they were really not good for reuse. The day of the play, I cooked the soup in two large pots, starting them first thing in the morning. One mother thought we should have prepared the vegetables after the play, let it cook and then all the families who came could eat. And what were we going to be doing while the food was cooking and there was a crowded room full of people? It took those pots almost two hours to heat up and cook the veggies because of the size. That was what the play was for, to entertain those who came. The children loved the soup, and some parents were amazed that their children would eat it, all vegetable soup.
 
I worked in a restaurant for a while. I use restaurant-grade plastic cutting boards at home, and toss them in the dishwasher.

I love wood, and I do have a small wood cutting board, but it only gets used for fruits and veggies. No meat.

By the way, if you have trouble with your cutting board sliding around while you’re working, put a damp towel underneath it. Voilá! No more sliding.
 
We have wood and the poly plastic since it can be sanitized better than wood. Those are good for raw meat and butchering.

I got our wood ones from Boos Boards. I have a carving board and a fruit and veg board.
 
Wood is porous, so that's a "no" for us, since food is wet/moist. We used to use wood, never died from it, but we don't use it any more. Same with knife blocks - our old ones were wood, but we use plastic now. We use rigid plastic cutting boards, washed with soapy water by hand immediately after use, then into the dishwasher they go. I realize wood is traditional, but so is salmonella.
 
Haertig said:
Wood is porous, so that's a "no" for us, since food is wet/moist. We used to use wood, never died from it, but we don't use it any more. Same with knife blocks - our old ones were wood, but we use plastic now. We use rigid plastic cutting boards, washed with soapy water by hand immediately after use, then into the dishwasher they go. I realize wood is traditional, but so is salmonella.
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Wood boards require oiling and waxy butters to be applied before you use for the first time and every so often to maintain their waterproof-ness. Our wood boards are for produce and the other is for cooked meat only. Raw meat is cut on the poly plastic board that can be cleaned with bleach.

Before-and-after-applying-a-layer-of-oil-scaled.jpg
 
DW has her mothers wooden cutting board, she was healthy for 18 years, so why stop now.
We have a few white plastic ones too.
I got a 6"X 8" plastic board free with a knife & use it for small stuff, like one cuke or canned mushrooms.
Sliced mushrooms are to large, I chop them, so they spread out without overpowering the dish I am making.
 
I had a board I made in shop class out of strips of walnut and cedar laminated together (class assignment) ever few years I'd run it under a belt sander and slop the lard on it to re cure it. one day it just got gone and I never saw it again. no clue what went with it, nobody was around to "borrow" anything at the time. after that, I went to Teflon. I think I might have washed it once in a decade. a wet paper towel is all I ever used on it.
Next time I'm making it a bit long so I can skin fish. might even mount a clip board clip on it.
 
I did some site searching this week. People talking about refurbishing plastic cutting boards.

The concensus seems to be using a hand sander, start with 80grit sandpaper then go to 30grit.

That's what I did, here are before and after photos. Except I didn't have any 30grit only 80grit paper.

Sanding got most of the scars and stains out. But it is a little more slippery, smoother than the factory finish. The results were impressive, more than I expected. Next trip to town I'll get some 30grit paper which will make the surface rougher. And take out more of the deeper knife scars.

Before

Cut board 01 33a.JPG



After
Cut board 01 34a.JPG
 
Around here, many restaurants replace their cutting boards annually.
We get their old ones and do what Peanut did. Mrs. Zoom did the refinishing so I don't know what grit she used.
We now have 6-8 plastic cutting boards that are freshly refinished. Most are 4-6 feet long. A bit to big for daily use but I will say, we're using 3 of them pretty regularly.
 
Update on sanding. 60grit was the roughest sandpaper I could find locally. 60grit did the same job as the 80grit. Left the board too smooth and slippery.

I had to order 36grit online. It does a great job, leaves the board a little rough. It's quicker too. Just like new but a little thinner.

20221231_ 36grit.jpg
 
Peanut said:
I use the hard plastic ones. Don’t like the thin flexible type. I used to use wood, don’t remember why I switched.

The plastic ones last me about a year. Then they get transferred to duty in the shop or tool room, or anything else I can think of.

I use a mouse with my laptop, dislike the touch screen. I put an old cutting board in my laptop bag for the mouse, with a pad glued to it. Even has a handle...

View attachment 92409
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That is brilliant
 
I have several plastic and flexible that I use daily. Sometimes I just use a paper plate for slicing an onion or something and then I will use the plate to leave the onion in until I put it in the pan. I have a large wooden Paula Deene board that I use to roll out my bread dough and that keeps the board well oiled.
 
I recently bought these from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GP2MTXW?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
I would not recommend them.

The pros: The sizes are good. They have a groove around the edge to contain juices. They are cheap.

The cons: They don't hold up to slicing something with a knife very well. Which is their primary purpose. All cutting boards are going to get scarred up over time. But these took some pretty bad hits on the very first use (slicing a London broil). There were actually little curls of plastic that got shaved off. I expect cut marks and discoloration over time. But actual itsy-bitsy pieces of cut off plastic? No. So quality, and I assume durability from what I've seen, are not strong points of these cutting boards. What I am hoping is that over time as I get more an more cut marks that crisscross and overlap, then I won't see the new cuts and puckered up curling plastic like I do now. It's not like every cut results in a plastic shard. Mostly you can see and feel the puckered up plastic as you run your hand over the board, and the natural tendency is to want to peel that errant plastic off. Which you can do. At least the description says "food grade plastic". So I guess that means you can safely eat it. Which you will probably do on occasion. Of course, that description of "food grade" comes from China, which probably translates to "less than 3 lbs of lead and arsenic per cutting board".

The cutting boards work. I will continue using them. But I'm very glad that I didn't pay very much for them. Otherwise I'd feel totally ripped off. If I had to come up with a label for them, it would be "Chinese imitation cutting boards". I would not give them as a gift to anyone. Buy something a step up in quality for that.
 
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