Is your Cutting Board Trashing your Knives?

Mine was.

My husband, Scott, and I moved into our home about two years ago. The kitchen had recently been updated with Corian counter tops and a snazzy stainless fridge (even if the door is on backwards...) and the previous home owners had some of the extra Corian cut into cutting boards. I thought this was great - I can leave my cutting board out and it looks nice! ...And then I spent the next two years crabbing about how my knives were always dull.

I am embarrassed to say that it took two years for it to dawn on me that it was the Corian cutting boards that were trashing my knives. If I could have kicked myself in the butt I would have, I know better!

So What Kind of Cutting Board Should I Get?

Wood

Pros

• Certainly your best option if your goal is to keep your knives at peak performance
  

• Wood provides a good "grip" for your food & knife so it makes cutting a breeze - you aren't chasing the onion you are chopping around, you now have the ability to mince it up effortlessly.
• Naturally inhospitable to bacteria
• Applying a coat of Mineral Oil will refresh the look of your board to new
• Deep grooves can be sanded and refinished making a wood board a one-time purchase
  

Cons

• They can't go in the dishwasher or soak in water
• You should have a secondary board for raw meat
• Expensive

Plastic

Pros

• Dishwasher-Safe
• They come color coded to help prevent cross-contamination
  
• Most cost effective

Cons

• Sharp knives can gouge the surface and create space for bacteria to hang out and multiply
• Plastic is a poor conductor of heat & may not get to the proper temperature to sanitize
  

Bamboo

There are two types of bamboo cutting boards; end-grain & edge-grain depending on which way the grain of the bamboo runs.

Edge-Grain are the boards that look striped and End-Grain more often times look like a checker board.

Keith McDuffee from http://www.cliqueclack.com does a great job explaining the difference:

So, why are end-grain boards better than edge-grain, besides in looks and durability? Think of how a tree’s fibers run. A long board of wood is cut to the length of the tree, not through its width. The fibers of the tree run vertically, and thus vertically within the long piece of wood. It’s much easier to take anax and chop the length of a log of wood rather than across it, since you’re splitting down through the fibers of the tree.

In an edge-grain board, your knife is cutting down at the wood grain as though you’re trying to chop down a tree. With end-grain, you’re coming down through the wood fibers as thoughsplitting with an ax (thoug h, of course, without the splitting). End-grain’s easier on your knives because of this, and because you’re not actually cutting the wood and are instead splitting the fibers, the board lasts longer.

Glass/Marble/Ceramic/Corian

Pros

• They look pretty on your counter

Cons

• These will dull even the highes quality knives in a very short amount of time
• Glass especially, is a safety hazard. The surface is very slippery and the chance of cutting yourself increases greatly. But on the bright side, your knife will probably be so dull it might not cut through your skin!

In the end Scott surprised me with a beautiful Walnut Boos Cutting Board for Christmas (the one pictured next to the section on wood boards). It's 18x24 inches and I am in love! It looks stunning out on my counter and just about everyone who walks in makes comment about its beauty right before they say "you don't actually use that beautiful board, do you?!" I assure them it sees a whole lot of action, but with a little bit of oil each week you'd never know it!