The kitchen is the place where you can show the warmth and coldness of your home. We can often heat up the family atmosphere through food, and we can also share food to bring friends closer together. When cooking, we reach for the cutting board almost as often as we do the whole process, and the cutting board needs to provide a sturdy, flat surface to handle ingredients, from handling a turkey to chopping garlic, while also protecting the countertop from scratches. Some trays can even be used as a direct substitute for dinner plates to present food.
Such an essential tool, how should we find the ideal, suitable material so that we can use it with peace of mind and save the trouble?
Currently on the market cutting board materials are: plastic, wood, bamboo
According to the review of a variety of information, I summarized the following factors to consider.
Chopping boards size
Just based on the size, the first thing to take into account is the size of your kitchen and the available area of the countertop. Based on these data consider the width, length, and thickness of the cutting board.
For most home chefs, the size usually bought at the mall is 10-12 inches * 16-20 inches, a size that makes it easy for you to handle a cabbage or a whole chicken at the same time
If the cutting board is too small (4 inches * 6 inches 5 inches * 7 inches) it can be very convenient to deal with some fine and delicate ingredients, but also allows you to easily store, one-handed movement to the sink for clean, but you imagine dealing with a roast chicken on this small cutting board, it will lead to your countertop everywhere full of greasy stains, additional cleaning tasks will affect your mood of the day.
Everyone dreams of a cutting board with a large cutting surface (18 * 24 inches, 20 * 30 inches) you can cut any ingredients at home like a chef, as small as handling garlic, large enough to handle roasts, and ham.
But too large a size can also lead to taking up too much operating space and even affect the neatness of the entire kitchen countertop, and because it is too bulky so you can easily move it to the sink for cleaning.
So in the premise of struggling with the size of the cutting board, you may want to consider in advance the recipes that your family eats from time to time, as long as the size of the cutting board can help you easily prepare dishes, he is the perfect fit, of course, if conditions allow, you can even have more different styles of cutting boards!
Chopping boards style
1. Distinguish according to the shape
1.1 Rectangle
The rectangle is the most popular cutting board shape, according to the different lengths, widths to change the shape, you just need to match the operating surface space, you can operate with your hands, and rectangular corners on all sides of the rounded treatment, visually softer, but also do not have to worry about cutting, your hands are cut by sharp corners.
1.2 Round
The round has two forms of presentation, one is used as a tray, as a display of food, and the other is thick, stable used to deal with meat, and bones, to prevent you from making large movements on the cutting, and cause the cutting board to slide, reducing the risk of injury.
1.3 Square
A Square cutting board is suitable for dealing with some vegetables, such as mushrooms, onions, peppers, etc. If you have enough operating space and storage space at home, you can additionally choose this shape to deal with cheese and vegetables, and fruits.
1.4 Special shape
This kind of cutting board often represents your unique personality, and can be animal-shaped, with natural elements of the shape, it will embellish your kitchen, but also the party of friends, Christmas, as a decorative food tray. This shape of the cutting board, although not practical, but very popular with young people, after all, we all like to hear: Hey, you are really unique. No matter what style of cutting board, we can produce and process.
2、Distinguish by function
2.1 With Handle
Cutting board with handle, its existence is to allow us to better grip, so easy to move, so the size of this cutting board is not very large, can be easily hung, I prefer to call him a bread cutting board, he is suitable for preparing some breakfast, cutting bread, the baguette is also suitable for afternoon tea tray, the use of a variety of scenes.
2.2 Juice groove
When cutting fruits and vegetables, the juice will spill out from the food, if you buy a juice groove along the outer edge, it does not need to be very deep, it will concentrate the juice flowing out and ensure the neatness of the countertop.
2.3 With bracket
If your countertop is not high enough, or perhaps you just had some surgery is not convenient to bend over, then it is suitable for this kind of cutting board, with the function of padding, and can be folded for easy storage.
whether the surface of the cutting board is hard and resistant to wear and tear
The degree of resistance to wear and tear of the cutting board depends on what material is used. The popular materials on the market are wood, plastic, bamboo, marble, and silicone.
–Wood is divided into hardwood and softwood, most will use hardwood, such as maple, and acacia wood to make cutting boards, if you go on the wooden cutting board to chop bones, handling chicken, may leave scratches on the surface, and the good thing is that you can use sandpaper sanding, let him recover as before, so this is the reason for the popularity of solid wood cutting boards
Plastic cutting boards, once you cut on them, the scratches will always be there, and more scratches mean it will leave room for bacteria to grow.
–Marble doesn’t leave scratches easily, which is a great thing, but the only problem is that it dulls your knife
-Bamboo boards are an alternative to wood cutting boards and have the same characteristics as wood cutting boards and are inexpensive, but bamboo cutting boards are not as heat resistant as wood.
Silicone: The silicone surface is wear-resistant and can also cushion the cutting board to protect the knife blade.
Using a cutting board will definitely have its life, never have the idea of using only such a cutting board for 10 years, or you will never be able to choose the right and perfect chopping board.
Non-slip cutting board
When you prepare ingredients in the kitchen, the process if you have to spend time adjusting the angle of the cutting board, will certainly affect your overall cooking efficiency, so increasing the friction between the cutting board and the countertop is also an important factor in the selection of cutting board, but the current user experience on the market has become more mature, no matter what material cutting board will be in the four corners of the press silicone cover, or on the bottom surface plus four silicone pivot points.
If you ignore this detail because you like the shape or material of the cutting board, there is no need to worry, you can put a wet towel on the countertop and then carry out the cutting action.
whether the cutting board is antibacterial
Diseases come from the mouth, among the bacteria that easily cause food poisoning, Salmonella, Listeria, and enterohemorrhagic E. coli are easily hidden in various cutting boards, Dr. O. Cliver of the University of California, Davis, U.S. Department of Agriculture, pointed out that cutting boards made of plastic may seem like a correct and suitable choice because they are non-porous materials that do not absorb liquids
but in the process of use, because the surface of the easily scratched Gradually become rough and difficult to clean, even if you can use the dishwasher, the scratches are suitable for bacteria to hide and grow, but on the contrary, they amazingly found that in the same contaminated and scratched wooden cutting board, over time, 3 minutes on the wooden board 99.9% of the bacteria have died, while the plastic cutting board is not.
You can jump to this link to see a report of the results of the experiment for plastic and wooden cutting boards
《Cutting Boards of Plastic and Wood Contaminated Experimentally with Bacteria》
But in the end, in order to easily exchange between cutting different foods without cross-contamination, I recommend that you have at least two cutting boards, one for vegetables and one for raw meat.
Whether the cutting board is easy to clean
1、whether it can be put into the dishwasher to wash
Whether the cutting board can be cleaned in the dishwasher is also a very important factor, after all, this can reduce your time doing housework to do other more meaningful things, the existence of dishwashers in addition to freeing hands, more importantly, with sterilization function, can be more at ease!
Plastic and composite material cutting board are directly into the dishwasher cleaning, but if the wood material, is not suitable, will reduce the life of the wooden cutting board, early cracking and warping.
2、How to clean and disinfect
Soak cutting boards in soap and hot water between uses, dry them with a clean rag and place them in a ventilated location to avoid moisture and bacterial growth, this practice applies to cutting boards of any material.
If my words don’t give you a visual, then watch the video I found for you on YouTube.
The way to maintain cutting boards
1、If your cutting board is made of wood, then you need to polish it with olive oil on the surface after using it for a period of time, such as a month, which helps crack and warp
2、for deeper scratches, if it is made of plastic, then I suggest you replace another one because scratches will lead to residue left behind, which will be harmful to health for a long time, if it is made of wood, then you can buy your own sandpaper to sand smooth, and then apply olive oil for maintenance
From the bottom of my heart, I hope this article will reduce your time in choosing a cutting board and will allow you to make a quick decision
