America's Test Kitchen - Cutting Board - Proteak Edge Grain Teak

Just saw this video.

[video=youtube;eiCNB0fId0U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiCNB0fId0U[/video]


I'm new to cutting boards,
Been using a commercial San Jamar plastic for years and it's served me well.


I recently picked up one of these on Craigslist.

It's an Acacia end grain.
Seems like it's a common generic board rebranded and sold everywhere?
I refurbed it by sanding it down and giving it a few coats of mineral oil.
It's gorgeous now and great for plating, but I'm not sure it'd be good for actual kitchen use.

I'm really concerned about cutting meats on something with open pores (end grain)
And extra concerned about strong aromatics like garlic, onions and chilies.



Do you guys have any wisdom to share and point me the right way?

My "good" cutting boards are a Boardsmith and a very large Boos. I'm good with all kinds of veg on them. If kept oiled, I can't see it harboring the garlic or other aromatics smell. For proteins I drop an Epicurean board on top of the good board - it's considerably lighter, easy to wash, can go in dishwasher. An inexpensive plastic board would probably do as well.

ATK? Meh. They don't know how to conduct a test. I would not dismiss their results out of hand but would consider them a dubious source.

I have some hinoki boards (with the shun label, but they must be OEM because I've seen similar elsewhere without the logo) and they weren't oiled and apparently don't need it ether. I have applied some Boos Butter (mineral oil and bees wax) to a couple of them and can't say I notice a lingering onion smell on them, but I also no longer notice the nice cedar-like smell.

I don't smash garlic cloves on them, but I do cut onions and sometimes am lazy and just wipe with a dry paper towel to remove any extra juices. If I did a lot of mild flavoured fruits and stuff I may think twice about the onion aspect, but I do misty veg. When my BoardSMITH arrives It'll get better treatment.

I also have an edge grain JB with juice groove. I don't let extra juices sit on it or anything like that as an abundance of caution. Bob Kramer of Kramer Knives had an article about this where the boards were actually cracking and not along the glue joints either. I could forward it to you if you'd like.

OT - I think I got conned into watching the ATK Mandoline review when I was looking into getting the Benriner, surprised to see it wasn't even reviewed.