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We need some new chopping boards. I've never really liked plastic ones as they go grubby really quickly. Also they obviously shed plastic into your food.
What are the other options beyond wood (wood being the obvious choice)? Metal? Bamboo?
I've seen some that look like MDF (epicurean)... not sure I fancy these as there's going to be quite a bit of whatever is bonding the wood fibres present, i.e. are these any better than plastic?
Just use wood. It's the best option by far.
Just use wood
Does that include Bamboo?
We've got a big thick bamboo board with a lip which hooks over the work surface so it stays in place really well. It looks good so sits there all the time, no need to pack it away. I would never go back to plastic.
What you want is an end grain wooden board. I want one of those too and hopefully Santa is listening…?
an end grain wooden board
Yes I think so. I'd also like something kept specifically for meat/fish too. Possibly not wood
IKEA do some great wooden boards.
Speaking as someone who is incapable of making simple decisions without asking STW, I think you're overthinking this. Nip to B&M and get something of a convenient size which isn't glass.
Plenty of good ones at John Lewis or check out TK Maxx.
For breakdown of bones or cutting meat just get a thicker chopping boards.
For Fish you can use medium thickness chopping boards.
For veg or fruits, just by the lightest one like Epicurean Cutting Board (Made from recycled wood fibres).
Well I've seen ads for titanium chopping boards on the internet. One of their 'selling' points is that they will not blunt your knife as they are softer than steel, so I don't know how that works, isn't titanium harder than steel?
Just get a nice wood one and a separate plastic one for raw meat.
Just get a nice wood one and a separate plastic one for raw meat.
Why on earth would you want a plastic one for raw meat?
isn’t titanium harder than steel?
Shirley you're thinking of tungsten....
To ensure you have full distribution and growth of bacteria right ?
To ensure you have full distribution and growth of bacteria right ?
I have a plastic board that I use for most of my cooking, plus several other plastic boards for bread or secondary things. I scrub it with detergent and rinse it between each use (i.e., if I cut chicken, I scrub it immediately, then I cut onions and scrub it, then I cut potatoes and scrub it, then I cut carrots and scrub it.) Each night I scrub it again and pour boiling water over it and hang it up to dry. I've never had food poisoning from freshly cooked food (waking up drunk and microwaving leftovers of unknown age is another story.) A wooden cutting board won't make any difference to food poisoning if you don't constantly clean it when you're cooking.
"I have a plastic board that I use for most of my cooking, plus several other plastic boards for bread or secondary things. I scrub it with detergent and rinse it between each use (i.e., if I cut chicken, I scrub it immediately, then I cut onions and scrub it, then I cut potatoes and scrub it, then I cut carrots and scrub it.) Each night I scrub it again and pour boiling water over it and hang it up to dry. I’ve never had food poisoning from freshly cooked food (waking up drunk and microwaving leftovers of unknown age is another story.) A wooden cutting board won’t make any difference to food poisoning if you don’t constantly clean it when you’re cooking."
Steady on! That's a bit OCD!
I use an old Teak chopping board, with a lovely patina, that gets washed after I've chopped all the meat and veg for a meal. No need to clean it after every carrot! they're all going in the same pot...
I've never had food poisoning either!
Just get a plastic chopping board - pro ones don't get plastic bits in your food, and they're colour coded for different foodstuffs...
alternatively, a wooden one is fine. No need for endgrain on display unless you're doing some serious chopping with a big cleaver, or you like a heavy 2" thick board on which to peel your grapes
Shoot me down if it’s nonsense, but don’t wooden boards have natural anti bacterial properties?
Yes.
isn’t titanium harder than steel?
Steel's hardness is variable depending on what heat treatments you've used making what ever steel object you're making - which is why try can cut, file and drill steel with steel tools. And with a bit if care you can drill and cut titanium with steel tools too.
A good place to look for wooden chopping boards is larger Chinese supermarkets - you can sometimes get boards made of a big single slab of endgrain for a few quid
if I cut chicken, I scrub it immediately, then I cut onions and scrub it, then I cut potatoes and scrub it, then I cut carrots and scrub it.
I can sort of understand cleaning after chicken, (I wouldn't personally, the cooking temp of the veg will kill any germs, and I'm not using them all day) but why would you waste your time scrubbing between different veg? That's crackers.
Personally, I just have a collection of plastic IKEA boards.
No, I was thinking of titanium, but apparently I was wrong 🙂
Steel is typically 'harder' than titanium. Titanium has a higher tensile strength to weight ratio. (AIUI)
I’ve been overthinking this subject for a while, as I’ve worn into the centre of the my main wooden one we have, so it’s no longer flat, & there a lots of advise on YT. Plastics encourages bacteria to hide in the groves you create but can be throw in the dishwasher, bambo blunts you knives, & lets not even talk glass. As for wood, end grain maple is top end, but there lots of oak or walnut ones around too, at much more reasonable prices, but I don’t know how the compare. Still overthinking it…
I’ve got a wooden board I’ve had for years, a mate used to work in the packing shed at Westinghouse Brake & Signals, they had lots of quality hardwood available for packing the high-end equipment. My board is a chunk of European Beech; it’s 20” long, just shy of 12” wide, and 1 1/4” thick - it’s not something you’d want to drop on your foot!
I’ve got another smaller square one made from cubes of end-grain bamboo, which is handy, and a couple of thick plastic boards from IKEA, which could do with replacing, really. It’ll give me an excuse to have a trip around the Bristol branch, get lost in the maze and try the meatballs in the café.
Apart from anything else, a big, solid wood board is a very good thing to put dishes and pans on that are straight from the oven; not really something you’d want to do with plastic ones… *raised eyebrow emoji*
Steady on! That’s a bit OCD!
A bit?! It's completely batshit crazy 🙂
Wood. Kind to knives. I believe it’s anti bacterial too. How often do you wash the wooden breadboard ever been poisoned by it?
no doubt someone will claim that’s fake news.
Beech has typically been used for Treen, (chopping boards, spoons etc) for yonks. Yes, it has anti-microbial properties. And it won't dull your knives unduly, like those nasty glass boards. Just don't dishwasher it (spoons yes, chopping boards not so much). Bonus, it's not plastic, and since the decline of furniture making in the UK, there are lots of Beech trees available.
I've got one of these These from IKEA. It must be at least 10 years old and the price hasn't changed in all that time!
It will soak up water if the worktop is wet but I just prop it up on its lip to dry and it doesnt warp.
why would you waste your time scrubbing between different veg? That’s crackers.
Because I often use half a carrot or half a lettuce and then wrap the rest up and put it back in the fridge. Veggies can spread bacteria. Potatoes are covered in dirt and lettuce grows in soil. If lettuce is harvested by cutting it with a knife that has touched soil, bacteria can get inside the lettuce and grow there. Then, if you use that lettuce in a salad with cold meat or cheese, etc., you have a perfect incubator for a bout of food poisoning. Same with that carrot that I cut in half and put back in the fridge, if my knife or cutting board was dirty, bacteria can grow inside the carrot and then infect a salad if I put raw carrot on it.
The basic rule is that any food can be infected and spread bacterial to other food. So, just give your cutting board and knife a quick scrub and rinse between every use. It takes about 2 seconds and it stops any infected food spreading bacteria to other food. Keeping your kitchen clean is going to do a lot more for your safety than any nonsense about anti-bacterial cutting boards.
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/ss/slideshow-food-poisoning-most-common-foods
In an attempt to limit the number of dancing girls / only fans pages on Instagram. I took to searching for carpentry videos. My Instagram is constantly littered with fancy pattern end grain chopping boards. If you want one that looks super ornate, that's my search suggestion
https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/food-poisoning/ss/slideshow-food-poisoning-most-common-foods
Not sure I am going to take advice from a website that insists eggs should be in the fridge.
Not sure I am going to take advice from a website that insists eggs should be in the fridge.
Not sure I'm going to take advice from an internet rando who doesn't know basic stuff about storing food.
Store bought eggs should be kept in a refrigerator. They are washed, so that removes the protective coating that fresh eggs have. Fresh eggs don't need to be kept in a refrigerator if they haven't been washed. If you're not sure, best to keep them in the fridge.
Store bought eggs should be kept in a refrigerator. They are washed,
No they're not. In the UK, anyway.
Store bought eggs should be kept in a refrigerator. They are washed, so that removes the protective coating that fresh eggs have
Where you buying your eggs. ? The USA ?
That website is U.S. based. If you buy eggs in a supermarket in the U.S., store them in a refrigerator. If you don't know whether the eggs you buy are washed or not, keep them in a refrigerator.
That website is U.S. based. If you buy eggs in a supermarket in the U.S., store them in a refrigerator.
Which is not relevant to the vast majority here. In the UK, eggs do not need to be stored in a refrigerator, contrary to your previous post.
This site is on the internet, so people access it from all over the world. The safest advice for storing eggs is to keep them in a refrigerator, it doesn't matter where you live, if you keep your eggs in the fridge, they will last longer than if you don't.
This site is on the internet, so people access it from all over the world.
Sigh. Let's look at what you said:
Store bought eggs should be kept in a refrigerator. They are washed,
This was an unequivocal statement which is untrue in the UK. You could just admit your error rather than doubling down.
Wow some serious paranoia on here. The bigger danger than being exposed to some soil bacteria is removing all exposure of bacteria from your life. Your immune system needs constant exposure to things to stay strong. I've never overly worried about washing veggies, only wash if they actually have visible mud on them coz no-one wants grit in their dinner. I never have stomach or digestive issues and very rarely get the bugs that others seem to come down with annually.
Meat is another matter. I use scissors to cut meat in the container I bought it in and wash them immediately.
Eggs in the fridge? As as already said not in UK.
I've an old, slightly manky plastic chopping board plus some very heavy wooden ones and this thread has inspired me to get a nice light wooden or bamboo one to replace it.
Whatever, dude. If you think that a website telling people to put eggs in the fridge is giving bad advice, you shouldn't be giving people advice about food hygiene. Putting them in the fridge is always the safest thing, doesn't matter where you live.
Whatever, dude. If you think that a website telling people to put eggs in the fridge is giving bad advice, you shouldn’t be giving people advice about food hygiene.
I don't think we need pay any attention to someone who thought that UK eggs are washed.
"I don’t think we need pay any attention to someone who thought that UK eggs are washed."
And returns individually wrapped half carrots to the fridge...
seriously bonkers!
If lettuce is harvested by cutting it with a knife that has touched soil, bacteria can get inside the lettuce and grow there. Then, if you use that lettuce in a salad with cold meat or cheese, etc., you have a perfect incubator for a bout of food poisoning. Same with that carrot that I cut in half and put back in the fridge
Hang on. If you're putting already supposedly bacteria-laden halves of veggies back in the fridge then scrubbing a chopping board seems somewhat fruitless.
If you don’t know whether the eggs you buy are washed or not, keep them in a refrigerator.
But you do know whether the eggs you buy are washed or not, it's illegal in the UK/EU. We inoculate our chickens, the US does not choosing instead to wash eggs, hence the differing storage requirements.
I don’t think we need pay any attention to someone who thought that UK eggs are washed.
Maybe step away from the internet for a moment and have a look in the kitchen at what it says about storage on a box of eggs 🙂
scrubbing a chopping board seems somewhat fruitless.
The point is to stop bacteria spreading from one food to the others. Some people use a separate cutting board for different foods for that reason. If you just wash your cutting board and knife, that's not necessary IME. Everyone knows that raw chicken is risky, I think it surprises most people to learn that raw veggies can be a problem too. If you put them in a salad with cheese, fish, meat, etc., you're creating a perfect incubator for food poisoning.
Is anyone else bemused that a mountain biker appears to be terrified of dirt?
Dirt's great fun, as long as it's outdoors. When you mix it with your food and get food poisoning, much less fun. An anti-microbial cutting board isn't going to help at all if you don't wash your hands after digging around in the garden and then cook dinner.
Maybe step away from the internet for a moment and have a look in the kitchen at what it says about storage on a box of eggs 🙂
I've just checked and it says nothing about them being washed which if you look back was the error I corrected. I have no objection to people storing them in the fridge if they so wish, though in my experience you need to adjust cooking times.
When you mix it with your food and get food poisoning, much less fun.
It's a fair point: beware of those carrots!
The basic rule is that any food can be infected and spread bacterial to other food. So, just give your cutting board and knife a quick scrub and rinse between every use.
Struggling to see the logic of washing the board between every food item (cooking must take ages!) yet still using the same board for raw meat. Good food safety as seen in a professional kitchen would be red chopping boards and knives for raw meat, green for raw veg, blue for raw fish, and white for cooked. I'm on my second set of coloured boards but they do get rough after a couple of years so considering changing to a couple of wood ones or cheaper white ones. In addition, it would be safer to put the raw meat board to one side, finish meal prep and wash it last after the other stuff. Your method of washing the raw meat board during cooking is likely to just be splashing raw meat over the sink/taps/washing implements, this is why it's not advised to rinse your Sunday chicken in the sink before cooking it.
Eggs...They have a natural coating and to encourage clean farms it's illegal to wash all the shit off them. The coating protects and you'll notice they are not in the fridge at the supermarket.
The US wash them in chemicals so it doesn't matter how the chickens are kept, hence the coating is washed off, the shells become porous and they have to be refrigerated.
i've got three boxes of eggs in the fridge right now, makes the fridge more efficient than leaving space to try to cool..
but back to the point. Wooden chopping board for home use.
MrsAlias wont let me bin the plastic one, it melts if you put something hot on it, it visibly cuts up if you actually cut anything on it... still its better than the glass one we used to blunt all things sharp for several years
It’s a bit confusing about eggs. A well trained cook friend of mine explained that if they’ve been refrigerated then they must continue to be refrigerated. Interesting point about washed v unwashed.
Our local supermarket doesn’t keep them in a fridge fur sale. they look clean too.
webMD will be another of those sites all about traffic. An article about food poisoning from cutting veg is likely to quite a click grabber.
At which point into the cooking process should we be changing from the raw meat spatula to the cooked meat spatula ?
Pffft – if you’re not meant to keep eggs in the fridge then why do fridges come with egg holders? 😉
Thats for once you have hard boiled them
I got two of these. They ll last longer than I will
https://www.jkadams.com/products/small-maple-reversible-prep-board-12x8
Mainly because I am in my 60s but also I don't keep eggs in the fridge .
A nice big end grain board is best IMO. My mate works in carpentry and knocks them out as a side gig and made me this.. I think it's made from beech but can't remember.
It looks a bit patchy in the pic as is was new then and I was putting oil (food grade mineral oil) on it
Cooking prep, do all the non meat things, then any cooked meat things then any raw meat things.
Eggs live on the worktop.
In the nicest possible way, I don't care where other internet users keep their eggs.
Are end grain boards glued together? If so is wood glue food safe?
"I should hope so! It’s not like they are a new thing and they’ve got to be stuck together with something."
Traditional butcher's blocks made from 2x2 sycamore are not glued. They are arranged in a grid inside a red hot steel framework, which squeezes them together, without the need for glue. They're about 6" deep and heavy as ****! Kitchen chopping boards will never be put through the same rigours, so are a bit overkill. It's nice to have a chunky great board on your worktop, but a bit overkill...
Everyone knows that raw chicken is risky, I think it surprises most people to learn that raw veggies can be a problem too.
You've lost your mind.
Raw chicken can carry salmonella. We deal with this by cooking the chicken. The risk is that we then prep uncooked food such as, oh, I don't know, as a random example, salad vegetables on the same board which picks up the chicken bacteria. Which is why we usually have separate boards.
If raw vegetables are a problem (are they?) then they're going to remain a problem regardless of how isolated they are from everything else. You're not going to get the shits because your uncooked carrots have picked up germs from your uncooked lettuce.
Everyone knows that raw chicken is risky, I think it surprises most people to learn that raw veggies can be a problem too.
You’ve lost your mind.
As they seemed focused on the US I wonder if the confusion is coming from the fact that salad crops in the US have been involved in scares over food poisoning due to salmonella. The US has some pretty ropey, intensive farming practices and so tend to suffer these issues. I would happily come in from gardening and then prepare some food assuming my hands weren't actually covered in mud. Heck I'll even pick and eat things straight from the garden whilst out there gardening. It's just not an issue.
Anyway I picked up a nice new acacia chopping board from home sense today so can ditch the plastic shedding ancient one I have.
I'm about to make a roast, I'll be sorting the chicken before I sort the carrots, spuds and cauli etc as it takes longer to roast, easier to just use a plastic board for the chicken and chuck it in the dishwasher, then do everything else on the main wooden board, just my opinion obvs.
I’m about to make a roast, I’ll be sorting the chicken before I sort the carrots, spuds and cauli etc as it takes longer to roast, easier to just use a plastic board for the chicken and chuck it in the dishwasher, then do everything else on the main wooden board, just my opinion obvs.
Yes that makes sense depending on what you are cooking, but the answer to that question is simply TWO end grain chopping boards!
The one on the left is my older ProCook board... I don't like it as its a bit small, and it skids around and its not very heavy and doesn't have feet.
I can tell my hand made one is much better, there's more care taken on the joints, and the colour of the blocks and shape of the grain has been matched in a pleasing way.
At which point into the cooking process should we be changing from the raw meat spatula to the cooked meat spatula ?
I wash my stainless or wooden spatula half way through the cooking, but if you have a turbo wok furnace everything is dead. It is advisable not to use wood spatula for turbo wok furnace or you end up with firewood. My wooden spatulas are 50p each with the more expensive ones made of Olive wood (£3 to £7). The stainless steel spatulas are mostly Chinese style wok spatula.
I have many chopping boards (too many) but I only use two of them. One is my "super hard and heavy" (a tree truck segment weighing 5kg or probably more) chopping block for meat, and the other is Epicurean Prep Board for everything not meat or fish related. I used to rely on one chopping block only for everything but had to constantly wash it so decided a light prep board was much easier to wash. Because of the small washing sink, having a large chopping board is a hassle to wash.
All my chopping boards are end grain and I prefer them to be one piece without glue or piece together. Olive tree chopping bards are also good but trying to find the largest available can be difficult and they are expensive costing more than £40. I have one from TK Maxx which I bought it for £30 and it is large and heavy.
Professionals use polypropylene boards about 1" thick.Chefs, Butchers and the like
Reason is simply they can be sterilized in a dishwasher, where as wooden boards cannot, they'd fall to bits or warp or twist. Obviously you can wipe wooden boards down and use an antibacterial spray but its not really the deep sterilizing clean you'll get from a dishwasher.
Wooden boards need to be endgrain, as the cuts pretty much seal themselves. The cheaper non endgrain boards cannot reseal, and as you are cutting across the grain, the knife leaves permanent cuts that will harbour bacteria, which is why pros dont use that type and prefer polypropylene.
Polypropylene boards also do not absorb moisture or odours
They cost about £40 each for something 18"x12"x1" Colour doesnt really matter in a home kitchen, so what ever blends in best to your colour scheme. You can get he poly boards much bigger at 2'x18" right up to full block sizes at 6'x30"x4" costing a grand. It's pretty much industry standard these days
The only wooden boards I've ever used or ever seen in a pro kitchen or butchers shop were proper Butchers blocks made of maple and 8" thick.
im a time served Butcher and this is what we use and the reason for it. In fact in the trade the environmental health prefer we dump the old fashioned wooden blocks and go for the poly blocks instead
No need to waste money on gimmicky stuff, this type will last you years and be fit for purpose.
They cost about £40
If I recall I paid £50 for my end grain one.. that might have been 'mates rates' though.. its 18" x 12", and about 2" thick including feet, the wood itself is probably more like 1.75" if you don't count the feet.
We use plastic chopping boards and they go into the dishwasher with the rest of the utensils, pots & pans etc.
If a plastic chopping board starts to mark up badly, bin (recycling bin) and buy another - dirt cheap.
If a plastic chopping board starts to mark up badly, bin (recycling bin) and buy another – dirt cheap.
Believe it or not you can actually buy a chopping board plane. Does the same thing as a wood plane to remove deep cuts.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16640304/
im a time served Butcher and this is what we use and the reason for it. In fact in the trade the environmental health prefer we dump the old fashioned wooden blocks and go for the poly blocks instead
old school.
OP here, wood it is then....
I see we went via the eggs in fridge debate. The difference is due to how Salmonella is reduced. My understanding is, in the UK chickens are vaccinated against it so no need to wash/sterilise the eggs before sale. UK eggs can be kept out of the fridge. In the US they don't vaccinate and wash the eggs to kill/remove Salmonella instead. This means though that the eggs have to be refrigerated because the eggs are now permable and various bacteria can get inside.
If a plastic chopping board starts to mark up badly, bin (recycling bin)
Possibly wishful thinking that it'll actually be recycled...
My understanding is, in the UK chickens are vaccinated against it so no need to wash/sterilise the eggs before sale. UK eggs can be kept out of the fridge. In the US they don’t vaccinate and wash the eggs to kill/remove Salmonella instead. This means though that the eggs have to be refrigerated because the eggs are now permable and various bacteria can get inside.
Exactly this. Plus eggshells are semi-permeable and we package them in card rather than plastic, which is why we shouldn't put them in the fridge - they can absorb tastes / aromas from other foods.
Someone asked earlier 'why do fridges have egg holders then?' I'd guess that either it's one design for multiple markets, or there's a fear that customers will go "I'm not buying that, there's no egg compartment."