Cutting board

Cutting board
A wooden chopping board with a chef's knife.

A cutting board is a durable board on which to place material for cutting. Common is the kitchen cutting board used in preparing food; other types exist for cutting raw materials such as leather or plastic. Kitchen cutting boards are often made of wood or plastic. There are also cutting boards made of glass, steel or marble, which are easier to clean than wooden or plastic ones such as nylon or corian, but tend to damage knives due to their hardness. Rough cutting edges — such as serrated knives — abrade and damage a cutting surface more rapidly than do smooth cutting implements.

Contents

Sanitation and care

Regardless of the material, regular maintenance of a cutting board is important.

  • Sanitation with cutting boards is a delicate process 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.
  • To remove odors, rinse the board and then rub with coarse salt and let stand for several minutes. Wipe the board and then rinse it clean. This procedure will also smooth out minor imperfections in the wood.
  • Wooden boards should never be placed in the dishwasher, or left immersed for long periods, as the wood or glue may be affected.
  • 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 oils 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, causing the board to smell and your food to pick up the rancid taste.
  • To prevent cracking, cutting boards should be treated when they start looking dry. A standard recommendation is 5-7 times a year, or as needed.
  • When heavily or deeply scored, wood or plastic cutting boards should be resurfaced, as scoring can harbor 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, as it leaves in the surface residual abrasives which will dull knives. Resurfacing a plastic cutting board is more difficult and replacing it is recommended instead.

Materials

A knife edge is a delicate structure and can easily be blunted by too abrasive a surface. Alternatively, it can be chipped if used on a surface that is too hard. A good cutting board material must be soft, easy to clean, and non-abrasive, but not fragile to the point of being destroyed. Hard cutting boards can, however, be used for food preparation tasks that do not require a sharp knife, like cutting cheese or making sandwiches.

Wood

Chicken with lemons on a large wooden cutting board

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 natural anti-septic properties.[1]

Hardwoods with tightly grained wood and small pores are best for wooden cutting boards. Good hardness and tight grain help reduce scoring of the cutting surface and absorption of liquid and dirt into the surface. Red oak for example, even though a hardwood, has large pores, so it retains dirt even after washing, making it a poor choice for cutting-board material.

Teak's tight grains and natural coloration make it a highly attractive cutting-board material, both for aesthetic and durability purposes. Teak, a tropical wood, contains tectoquinones, components of natural oily resins that repel moisture, fungi, warping, rot and microbes.[2]

Wood boards need to be cared for with mineral oil to avoid warping, and should not be left in puddles of liquid.

Care must be taken when selecting wood, especially tropical hardwood, for use as a cutting board, as some species contain toxins or allergens.

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

Plastic

While plastic is theoretically a more sanitary material than wood for cutting boards, testing has shown this may not be the case.[1] The softer surface of plastic boards is scored by knives, and the resulting grooves and cuts in the surface harbour bacteria even after being well washed. A plastic surface can also ruin the sharp edge of the knife. However, unlike wood, plastic boards do allow rinsing with harsher cleaning chemicals such as bleach and other disinfectants without damage to the board or retention of the chemicals to later contaminate food.

Plastic boards are usually called PE Cutting boards, PE being a shorthand for polyethylene, the material of which these boards are made.

Semi-disposable thin flexible cutting boards also ease transferring their contents to a cooking or storage vessel.

Rubber

A recent trend has seen thick solid rubber pads used as cutting boards in the Sani-Tuff line popular in restaurant kitchens. They are about as expensive as well-made wood boards, they can take chemical disinfectants, and they are very heavy for their size, so they tend not to slip. Proponents claim remarkable self-healing properties, the same knife protection as good plastic or wood boards, and an inability to harbor significant amounts of moisture or bacteria.

Glass

While glass looks like an easy surface to keep clean, glass cutting boards can damage knives because of the high hardness of the material. Cutting on glass tends to dent, roll or even chip knife edges in a rapid manner. Additionally, if used for chopping instead of slicing, glass can shatter or chip itself, contaminating food.

Steel

Steel shares with glass the advantages of the durability and ease of cleaning, as well as the tendency to damage knives. Depending on the exact steel and heat treatment used, at best a steel cutting board will wear the edge on knives quickly; at worst chip, dent, or roll it like glass.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Ak N, Cliver D, Kaspari C (1994). "Cutting Boards of Plastic and Wood Contaminated Experimentally with Bacteria". Journal of Food Protection 57 (1): 16–22. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iafp/jfp/1994/00000057/00000001/art00003.  PDF fulltext
  2. ^ "Equipment: Cutting Boards". Cook's Illustrated magazine. 1 September 2011. http://www.cooksillustrated.com/equipment/overview.asp?docid=31381. Retrieved 10 September 2011. 

External links


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • cutting board — cutting boards N COUNT A cutting board is a wooden or plastic board that you chop meat and vegetables on. [AM] (in BRIT, usually use chopping board) …   English dictionary

  • cutting board — cutting ,board noun count AMERICAN a flat piece of wood or plastic used for cutting food on …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • cutting board — n BrE a piece of wood or plastic that you cut meat or vegetables on = ↑chopping board …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • cutting board — noun a wooden board where meats or vegetables can be cut • Syn: ↑chopping board • Hypernyms: ↑board * * * noun : a board on which material (as leather or cloth) is laid for cutting * * * a board used as a firm surface for cutting food, cloth,… …   Useful english dictionary

  • cutting board — noun Date: 1639 a board on which something (as food or cloth) is placed for cutting …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • cutting board — a board used as a firm surface for cutting food, cloth, leather, etc. [1815 25] * * * …   Universalium

  • cutting board — noun (C) AmE a large piece of wood or plastic used for cutting meat or vegetables on; chopping board BrE …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • cutting board — n. chopping board, plastic or wooden board on which meats and vegetables can be cut …   English contemporary dictionary

  • cutting board — cut′ting board n. cvb a board on which something, as food, cloth, or leather, is cut • Etymology: 1815–25 …   From formal English to slang

  • cutting board — a piece of wood used for cutting up fish or bait and protecting expensive boat gunnels …   Dictionary of ichthyology

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