Kitchen Cutting Board

Do the people that think plastic boards are kinder on knives use end grain or cross grain boards?
End grain are far less harsh on the edge that a plastic board from the ones I've used. I think ours is rubber wood
 
It's important to always wash with hot soapy water immediately after use and never soak wood in water. I also have a separate one for using a cleaver since that really chops up the wood. If you had the room you could also get a butchers block.That's hard maple end grain and will last forever . You wash and scrape it .
 
Andy_L said:
Do the people that think plastic boards are kinder on knives use end grain or cross grain boards?
End grain are far less harsh on the edge that a plastic board from the ones I've used. I think ours is rubber wood
Click to expand...

I use cross grain. I know that end grain is less harsh on edges, and that it looks better, but end grain is prohibited for commercial use in my area because it gives bacteria more places to hide. I don't cook commercially, but would rather not take chances with raw meat.
 
Whatever type you use, it is very common for people not to get them sanitary. You need to scrub the surface with hot detergent to remove oils and grease then you need to soak the board in a strong disinfectant like bleach. Surface grease and oils protect bacteria imbedded in board cuts from disinfectants. Hot detergent exposes the germs, but can't kill them or get them out. Dilute bleach solution will kill bacteria, but it takes some time to penetrate to a sufficient depth to get them all.
 
I prefer the looks of wood, particularly the bamboo that I've seen recently. I never had seem much bamboo before and now I'm seeing cutting boards, flooring, etc.

However, I go with plastic. I'd never use the hard ones like marble, corian, etc. I have several cheap plastic ones so I always have one handy and toss them in the dishwasher when done with them. I'd like to have some reason other than laziness for using them, but that's the real reason. Same reason I have stainless steel kitchen knives instead of carbon steel :rolleyes:
 
I mentioned earlier that I expect bamboo to be abrasive due to its silicate contents. I pulled this from a website:
"The chemical constituents of bamboo are known to vary greatly depending on species, position within the culm and the age of the culm. In very general terms bamboo consists of 50-70% hemicellulose, 30% pentosans, and 20-25% lignin (Tamolang et al. 1980, Chen et al. 1985). 90% of the hemicellulose is xylan with a structure intermediate between hardwood and softwood xylans (Higuchi, 1980). The structure of the lignin present in bamboo is unique, and undergoes changes during the elongation and ageing of the culm (Itoh et al. 1981). Bamboo is known to be rich in silica (0.5-4%), but almost the entire silica content is located in the epidermis layers, with hardly any silica in the rest of the wall. Bamboo also has minor amounts of resins, waxes and tannins. However, none of these have sufficient toxicity to impart much natural durability to the culms. Laboratory tests have indicated that bamboo is more prone to both soft rot and white rot attack than to brown rot (Liese, 1959)."

Here is a link to the webpage which has interesting bamboo lore:
http://www.inbar.int/publication/txt/INBAR_Technical_Report_No16.htm
 
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