Cutting Board - Objet d´Art ?

My cutting boards are simply plain, wood ones - nothing special at all. I would eventually like to get a nice, durable maple cutting board or block, but that might be a ways off.

I have one big end-grain-butch-block-style cutting board, it's heavy as heck and doesn't get much use except sitting next to the stove playing "catch all" for my utensils and pot holders, etc. while I'm cooking. It's just too cumbersome to drag out and use, let alone trying to clean it after use.

I end up using cheap old plastic ones most of the time.

There are many advantages to plastic cutting boards. And if you run a commercial kitchen you have to use them.

Other than being light and portable, and dish-washer safe, I can't really think of any advantages of plastic boards.

The disadvantage is (supposedly) that meat and juices can get trapped in the microscopic pores of the plastic and stay there forever, contaminating anything that comes in contact with the board. I'm a little skeptical of this one though, since it seems to my feeble mind that it it's stuck in there so good that scrubbing and a run through the dishwasher can't get it out, how is it going to get out to contaminate food?

Anyway, they say the same thing happens with wooden boards, but there's some natural anti-biotic property to the wood that kills the germs. Again, I'm skeptical on that one.

I just use what I have around.

Plastic boards work much better in a dishwasher/sanitizer, can be cleaned with bleach, etc. -- which is why they get used in commercial kitchens.

It's not so much the hardness, but rather the presence of silica in bamboo that some feel can prematurely dull knives.  The same is true for many tropical hardwoods, such as teak.  I haven't noticed any such effect.

Daikon,

Lupinus,

Lupinus,