Chopping boards - wooden or plastic?
- Thread starter felixthecat
- Start date
UnderOpenSky
baseline neural therapy
I've been sad enough to read knife forums over the last week and seen people be sniffy about them, but honestly these are serious geeks who spend insane amounts of money on knives so if they are cheap enough I may check one out anyway.
I don't have a bourgeois dish washer
Did they make ... cutting remarks?
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I do, but I don't think she'd appreciate me calling her bourgeois.I don't have a bourgeois dish washer
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Sorry, it was a JK moment.FFS
I am a fan of washing up.
No dishwasher or microwave in my kitchen.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
This is normally sat atop a butcher's block, which is packed away due to an impending house move.
It's double sided, with one side routed to catch meat juices.
It's quite large.
It's double sided, with one side routed to catch meat juices.
It's quite large.
Cid
Proper break this time
Yeah, I know the theory, but I'm not sure how well much of it holds up. It's more the musings of lifestyle magazines than proper research. The bacteria thing only really works if you wash them in the same way... I mean you can happily scrub a plastic board in hot, soapy water - should not do that with a wooden board. And some commonly used timbers are just ill-suited. E.g oak is loaded with tannins that have good anti-bacterial properties, but also happily react with steel.
Wood is great, and it certainly has advantages if you want a block for heavier purposes. Just think people are a bit too ready to romanticise it.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I'll just quote this bit, because it's the most important (to me).
I'm absolutely guilty of this. I know there's little or no difference in knife edge retention, and that really wooden matter to me (see what I did there?
), as I'm quite proficient at sharpening knives, but I really enjoy cooking, and I really enjoy knives, and I really love wood (stop it!), so I'll always choose a wooden board, if for no other reason than aesthetics.Edit to add: Yeah, I'm a knife snob. I'm not a stuck up twat, I just love nice things in the kitchen, because I spend a lot of my time there. I'd go as far as to include it with the 'good shoes, good bed' mantra.
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Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Epona
Radar 2006-2020, Sonic 2006-2022, Jakey 2007-2024
Aye, get some sea salt and scour the board with it, then wipe with spirit vinegar
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
What makes me lolalot is thinking back to the days when tree huggers wanted everyone to use plastic, to save the trees. Now the same people are decrying anyone who used plastic, and insisting they use tree, because sustainability... Oh how the worm has turned.
Epona
Radar 2006-2020, Sonic 2006-2022, Jakey 2007-2024
I'd love a great big wooden chopping board tbh. As it is, I have 2 rectangular wooden boards but because OH doesn't eat meat I don't cut meat on our general use wooden boards - I have some plastic ones for that, just so we know what is being chopped where.
Just to add, I've on some occasions used a wallpaper scraper or similar on chopping boards if they have anything stuck on them - then a good rub with salt.
Just to add, I've on some occasions used a wallpaper scraper or similar on chopping boards if they have anything stuck on them - then a good rub with salt.
maomao
普費斯
I like it. I have two that I've been using for five years plus and they're both in good condition. I do use hot soapy water on them daily and neither of them have ever warped. I still have a small not-bamboo wooden one for meat and that's always bloody warping (I almost never cut raw meat though, the odd chicken breast for kebabs, bacon occasionally).
maomao
普費斯
I'd want to make sure the plastic your chopping board is made of is BPA free. That's a known carcinogen and while it may not be dangerous in water bottles (cause you're not drinking the plastic) ingesting little bits of it is not a good idea.
platinumsage
Well-Known Member
BPA is used in polycarbonates, but chopping boards are made of polyethylene so no need to worry.
maomao
普費斯
Well that'll explain why there's quite a few chopping boards advertised as BPA free then. Playing on my ignorance.
Doesn't polyethylene have its own problems? I know you're not supposed to put hot food in cling film because of it. Admittedly chopping hot stuff is rare but then you're hacking out little chunks of it instead.
platinumsage
Well-Known Member
Cling film used to contain phthalates, which like BPA with polycarbonate, was added as a plasticiser to make it pliable. It has now been replaced with other ingredients that are less potentially harmful. PVC cling film is the worst offender and shouldn't be used with fats, but for this reason is typically only found in professional catering.
However chopping boards don't need to be wrapped around things so don't contain such plasticisers.
If you're worried about stuff from plastics leaching into foods, then the packaging it arrives in should be what you focus on. A curry ready meal or plastic-lined carton of tomato puree with added citric acid would have been stewing away for days or months, whereas chopping board contact is only fleeting.
But really it's about priorities. If you have a meal involving diced steak accompanied with a glass of wine, there's no point worrying about the chopping board giving you cancer.
maomao
普費斯
Well I don't do ready meals or drink much alcohol anyway, steak isn't going to be on the shopping list anytime soon and I worry about tomatoes already. It's not about time spent in contact in this case though. It's the fact that you're hacking chunks out of the chopping board as you cook. Chopping boards are a known source of microplastics in the human gut.
platinumsage
Well-Known Member
Plasticisers leaching into fats during storage is a different thing to swallowing lumps of inert plastic. The first is a real problem and the second doesn’t really have any science behind it. Compare here the relative risk score of 10551 assigned to plasticised PVC and 11 assigned to LDPE: https://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/documents/Micro-and_Nano-plastics_and_Human_Health_Galloway.pdf
I assert that the cleanliness of the chopping board is a far more important factor when assessing the risk of death. Despite everyone saying they know how to clean them, wooden chopping boards are frequently found to be a higher risk than plastic e.g. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09603123.2020.1723498
maomao
普費斯
That's a survey of 18 year olds living away from home for the first time. I like to think my hygiene is a little better than that.
platinumsage
Well-Known Member
Of course most people think they know how to clean wooden chopping boards effectively without using lots of hot soapy water, much as most people think they are a better than average driver.
If that’s you then you probably won’t see any disadvantges to using wood over plastic, even if someone convinces you that your perception of the dangers of plastic is unrealistic.
maomao
普費斯
I clean them with lots of hot soapy water (finish with a cold rinse to avoid warping). Have not previously heard of not washing chopping boards. Mind you I even use soap on seasoned cast iron sometimes (soap won't rinse away polymerised oils).
To me the main advantage is still aesthetic. If I'm going to spend up to an hour at the chopping board for a big meal I need to hear a proper thunk thunk thunk of metal against wood. It is possibly also the case that Asian/Chinese chopping techniques are less suitable for plastic. I don't think a plastic board would put up with too many of this kind of beating (I'm more likely to be mincing cabbage than meat but the technique is the same):
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
platinumsage
Well-Known Member
Well, people have been talking about cleaning them with salt, but yes scrubbing them with hot soapy water sounds good, although I am still very happy I can put my plastic ones in my dishwasher for 2.5 hours on a 70C cycle.
