Why do granite and glass kitchen cutting boards exist?

You might want to hold off until you read the historical accounts of all the civilizations that perished using this practice. ;)
 
mossyoakpenn said:
So, let me get this straight…. I could buy a wooden cutting board and slap a juicy piece of raw chicken on there and cut it up and not have to worry about the germs from it?
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Some woods have antibacterial and anti fungal properties. In addition some claim that with end grain boards bacteria gets sucked deeper into the board and die out due to lack of moisture. I am not sure about this and I wouldn’t leave a dirty board and hope for the best. Wash your boards properly if you don’t want to get sick.
 
My comment was half sarcastic. I’ve always wondered about wooden cutting boards because I was told to use glass for meat and anything else for vegetables. Reason being, was the germs from the meat getting pulled into the cutting board, if its wood the germs go into the board, if it’s glass they don’t. And I didn’t think that you could wash a wooden cutting board all the time without ruining it.
 
Unlike wooden boards, which have one common disadvantage - absorption of odors and flavors, glass products do not have this quality. Therefore, they are convenient for cutting fish and meat. The surface has a protective antibacterial coating. In addition, the glass board looks very aesthetic.

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I know this started a bit ago, but I wanted to jump in with some additional thoughts.
I grew up in a house with wood cutting boards, did community butchering on the same big raw table tops almost every year, stuff like that. I'm pro-timber in general.
Woods being generally anti-microbial is not so much that they kill what's on them, its that it's less likely that colonies can form. So you have some chicken with a little side of e. coli, cook it well and the chicken is fine, but if you just gave the cutting board a quick pass, that little remnant of bacteria is going to be a major problem six hours from now. All else being equal, the washing you give the wood board does more than it does on a plastic board.

But that's bacteria. I'm a fan of glass and plastic cutting boards for two reasons, I don't care about bacteria, most of my food is pretty fresh, well cooked, and its generally not what'll make me sick. You pretty much cannot wash the gluten out of a wood board, or a plastic one. A glass one you can, and the plastic one is no big loss if I have to bin it. So for me at other people's houses, I prefer they use their knives on a cleaned glass board, and I'll use mine on a plastic one. (I could use a wood one, but it's a lot of effort to maintain) That same concern could also be for someone with a peanut allergy, though its less likely that peanuts are going to get soaked into a board, unless you oil it with peanut oil, but I do know a couple of people with shellfish allergies that won't risk a wood board if its ever been in contact with shellfish, the risk is just too high.

As for bamboo, it's all just marketing trash, but in reality, you can make decent (not brilliant, but decent) cutting boards for really cheap out of bamboo with a lower square milage of forestry than you can hardwood boards. I wish they would just focus on that rather than the weird "but it's Asian" thinking that cooking companies use. yeah, it kills edges, so do bones.

As for carbon steel knives in commercial kitchens, and cast iron, cast-iron is the bane of my existence because I love it, but guess what gets hidden in the seasoning? And unless a place is high-end enough that the chefs are cleaning their own knives, dish machines kill knife edges with the chemicals they use, so stainless is the only thing that even stands a chance. So I can see why poorer knives get picked. I had a paring knife get turned serrated because it got left laying on a steel rack with sanitizing solution on it, and the edge corroded away at every contact point, might have been half an hour, not longer. Good thing it was cheap. When the consequences are a few bucks, I don't care. If the consequences are a bad night with a rumbly gut, I care a little. If it's two weeks of misery or an epi-pen, then I care all the way.
 
I use plastic cutting boards as they are easily to clean, cheap, disposable/replaceable, and easy on knives at least comparative to all modern commonplace options.

I personally don't see a big reason for carbon vs stainless in the kitchen and if they are provided by the business then I completely understand going stainless. For cast iron to me those are for special purposes and business where you really only cook 1 thing in that cast iron it is never used for any other thing it lets it keep its seasoning and simplifies much of the maintenance of it. I personally prefer stainless pots & pans over any not stick or cast iron for general use everyday cookware. Stainless pots and pans are so easy to maintain and for sticking issues a properly oiled/greased stainless will have little to no problems with food sticking.
 
gadgetgeek said:
I know this started a bit ago, but I wanted to jump in with some additional thoughts.
I grew up in a house with wood cutting boards, did community butchering on the same big raw table tops almost every year, stuff like that. I'm pro-timber in general.
Woods being generally anti-microbial is not so much that they kill what's on them, its that it's less likely that colonies can form. So you have some chicken with a little side of e. coli, cook it well and the chicken is fine, but if you just gave the cutting board a quick pass, that little remnant of bacteria is going to be a major problem six hours from now. All else being equal, the washing you give the wood board does more than it does on a plastic board.

But that's bacteria. I'm a fan of glass and plastic cutting boards for two reasons, I don't care about bacteria, most of my food is pretty fresh, well cooked, and its generally not what'll make me sick. You pretty much cannot wash the gluten out of a wood board, or a plastic one. A glass one you can, and the plastic one is no big loss if I have to bin it. So for me at other people's houses, I prefer they use their knives on a cleaned glass board, and I'll use mine on a plastic one. (I could use a wood one, but it's a lot of effort to maintain) That same concern could also be for someone with a peanut allergy, though its less likely that peanuts are going to get soaked into a board, unless you oil it with peanut oil, but I do know a couple of people with shellfish allergies that won't risk a wood board if its ever been in contact with shellfish, the risk is just too high.

As for bamboo, it's all just marketing trash, but in reality, you can make decent (not brilliant, but decent) cutting boards for really cheap out of bamboo with a lower square milage of forestry than you can hardwood boards. I wish they would just focus on that rather than the weird "but it's Asian" thinking that cooking companies use. yeah, it kills edges, so do bones.

As for carbon steel knives in commercial kitchens, and cast iron, cast-iron is the bane of my existence because I love it, but guess what gets hidden in the seasoning? And unless a place is high-end enough that the chefs are cleaning their own knives, dish machines kill knife edges with the chemicals they use, so stainless is the only thing that even stands a chance. So I can see why poorer knives get picked. I had a paring knife get turned serrated because it got left laying on a steel rack with sanitizing solution on it, and the edge corroded away at every contact point, might have been half an hour, not longer. Good thing it was cheap. When the consequences are a few bucks, I don't care. If the consequences are a bad night with a rumbly gut, I care a little. If it's two weeks of misery or an epi-pen, then I care all the way.
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What is it you are cutting on a wooden board that has gluten in it if you are gluten free? Or are you cutting bread for others. Easy solution is to use a different board in that case. It would be interesting to know how much gluten is actually left on the board, it can't be that much. Glass cutting boards are just a bad idea for knives. The best solution for people who are afraid of cross contamination between meats and veggies is to use 2 separate boards. Use plastic board of some sort for meats, fish and stick it into a dishwasher. Use another board for anything else.
 
ace said:
What is it you are cutting on a wooden board that has gluten in it if you are gluten free? Or are you cutting bread for others. Easy solution is to use a different board in that case. It would be interesting to know how much gluten is actually left on the board, it can't be that much. Glass cutting boards are just a bad idea for knives. The best solution for people who are afraid of cross contamination between meats and veggies is to use 2 separate boards. Use plastic board of some sort for meats, fish and stick it into a dishwasher. Use another board for anything else.
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It's less about what I'm cutting and more about what others are doing or might set down on the board. As for separate boards, it's good in theory but any system that requires everyone to remember to get it right is going to fail at some point. It's also a factor of my house vs other people's, there is a practical limit of how much can be set aside for occasional uses. As for how much gluten gets left on a board, it would be hard to test, but when the reaction threshold for most people is in the PPM range, any is more risk than it's worth. Additionally, unlike bacteria that you can just rely on some chemicals/ heat/ time to kill, it needs to be removed.

Separate boards, or handwashing them between foods has always been enough for me, regardless of what the foods are. I would agree that glass boards are not ideal, and in general are not needed for most people. I'm just not in the situation of most people, so I thought it would be useful to share why someone might want to consider the other options.
 
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mossyoakpenn said:
So, let me get this straight…. I could buy a wooden cutting board and slap a juicy piece of raw chicken on there and cut it up and not have to worry about the germs from it?
Click to expand...

You should always treat anything that's touched raw meat as a potential source of contamination that needs to be managed. Having said that, wood is no more problematic than any other cutting board material when it comes to microbial contamination risk. The best thing to do is to use separate surfaces for meat.
 
I only use wood and plastic cutting boards and have never had a problem.

That said, I'm very particular about thoroughly cleaning them shortly after use.
 
Different boards for different foodstuffs, that's how you deal with cross-contamination. Last time I looked at the research, wooden boards are much more hygienic than plastic, which traps the moisture - and free water is key for any bacteria to survive. Glass can be sterilized, of course, but it's hell on knives and at worst can have pieces break off. None of the kitchens I worked in had any glass boards. I have some plastic boards, mostly the thin sheet type, fairly hard and semi-disposable. I do disinfect them periodically. And you can have a sheet of paper on top of any board when processing meat. I've used walnut oil for wooden boards, since it's a drying oil. Either very light coats as is, but I also have an oil-wax mixture (with purified beeswax and carnauba). I use that on cast iron as well. I wouldn't use most vegetable oils, because of the tendency to go rancid.

As to why hard boards exist... design/fashion, mostly. I have one glass board, but I only use it serve stuff. It has a vegetable elvis design:

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Anyone have a titanium cutting board? For sterilizable materials, I might rather have that than glass.
 
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So I read end grain wood cutting boards are better than edge grain, well generally. Ordered one during Xmas from the big river site for $70ish after discount. To my surprise, there is no factory packaging. The board was put loosely in a cardboard box. You figureed it out. Yep - one corner got bumped on the way. Returned for an exchange. The second one got the same issue, Plus a bad piece of wood on one edge. Returned for a refund.

Where do people buy end grain wood cutting boards? At what price point will I be able to get a reasonably good one?
 
I will say when I look for them anything I have found for less than $150 range have gotten poor reviews with complains of splitting and easily damaged. granted people might be tossing theirs in a dishwasher and the heat and water are not good for the wood or the glue holding it together. I found one locally for cheap, like $40, and even just simple hand washing warped it and eventually it also started splitting I was really disappointed with it.
 
Who promotes glass and granite cutting boards? The Knife Sharpeners Guild, of course!

Just kidding. Never cut on glass or granite unless you want to sharpen your knives every day. Wood is fine if washed with hot, soapy water. High density polyethylene best for cleanliness and blade preservation.
 
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