What Is A Chopping Board?

A chopping board can also be called a cutting board. It’s a durable block of different materials that you can use to cut up things on. These chopping boards are made from several different materials like wood, steel, glass, plastic, marble, and even corian. Normally they are used to cut up meat when you are preparing it for eating. But there are other reasons people use a chopping board.

The reason there are so many different materials is that some of them are simpler to clean. While some of the other types of material will sustain a lot less damage as you cut on it. Whichever type of chopping block you have though you need to make sure that you clean it and perform other maintenance on it so it will last longer.

Since bacteria can thrive so easily on a chopping board, see they love those grooves in the material that happen when you cut. You should try and always use one chopping board for your raw meat, and a totally different one that you cut vegetables or anything else on.

To clean up the board you need to dilute bleach and clean the board thoroughly. In order to get the smell out of the chopping board you need to get coarse salt and rub it onto the board. After a few minute wipe the salt off and rinse the block. With this step it’s going to help smooth the block out when there are imperfections if you have a wood block.

With a wood block make sure that you never put it in your dishwasher or kept it in water for a long time. You’re going to affect the wood and even glue if you do that. Get a light mineral oil and apply it to your chopping board. It will help preserve the block for a longer time. Make sure that you’re using food grade oil though. Some examples would be linseed oil, poppy seed oil, or Tung oil. Make sure if you use linseed or Tung that it says its food grade, because many on the market may not be.

You don’t want to use regular olive or vegetable oil because after sitting for a while they will go bad. That will leave a smell on your block, and also come off on the food that you cut on it, making them taste bad too.

If your board looks like it is drying out, you need to make sure that you treat it. This should be done about five or seven time each year, or more if you notice the board drying out. You can resurface a wood or plastic block. This should be done if you see a lot of deep scoring in it, plus it will take care of bacteria and mildew that could be on a plastic board. With the wood block you can use a plane or scraper to get the resurfacing done. Don’t use sandpaper though, it may leave a residue on your block. In the case of a plastic chopping block it’s suggested that you just replace it since the process to resurface is difficult.

So when you try to decide on what type of chopping board you want, how do you pick the right one? The different materials all have pros and cons that make them better or worse for certain situations. Here are some of the reasons why you may or may not pick certain ones.

With a wood chopping board you have a bit of an advantage to the wood over plastic. Not only will the wood heal up a shallow cut by itself, but the wood also may have anti-septic properties to it. A wood block should be made of a hard wood. The grain should also be tight, because that will help to cut down the scoring that will be caused when you cut items on it. An example of what you should use is a maple wood, red oak is a very hard wood, but since there are larger pores on it, it’s not a good choice.

Some other tropical hard woods will have allergens or toxins in them, so you need to be very careful when you pick them out. Bamboo is a very good choice for a chopping board, though it’s a grass not a wood.

In most cases plastic is a lot more sanitary than your wood choices out there. However, after many tests that have been run it may not be the case in chopping board. Those little scores that are left on a plastic block after cutting can hold bacteria, and they may stay there after washing. But you can use a bit more chemicals to clean these blocks than the wood alternative.

Normally a plastic board will be termed a PE, which is a short of polyethylene or the material that these are normally made of.

Another choice you have is glass, which is a bit simpler to clean. Not only that but as you can place them in the dishwasher, and you will not get cuts in the block either. But you may have a problem with chips to your knife edges. Plus the fact of having something glass that may fall to the floor and break apart. Well you can see the main disadvantage to it right there.

Steel is easy to clean like glass, throw it into the dishwasher and you have a clean device again. But it may damage knives because of its hardness. So really it will depend on whether you want to replace knifes or get the sharpened often.

Finally there is the material of marble. This shouldn’t really be used for cutting though. You can use it for a serving board or even rolling out dough. If you cut some foods on this you may find that it will dissolve after an amount of time. Plus the properties of the board are much like that of glass and steel.

Many choices you will have for a chopping board, consider them carefully and get your choice.