Cutting Board Questions

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Noah

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Other than aesthetic reasons and utility considerations like size, are there any particularly important features of a wooden cutting board that makes it preferable for working with fine knives?

For instance does hardness of the wood really matter? Or will most any wood be soft enough compared to the hardness of your blade that it's a non-issue?

What about end grain compared to boards that are made along the length of the grain?

Etc...?

Thanks,

Noah
 
Look for a hardwood that produces edible nuts or sap... these usually are ideal for cutting boards (walnut, maple,cherry, mahogany). End grain is more forgiving on knives when compared to edge grain. You also want to make sure the wood has tight pores.
 
Look for a hardwood that produces edible nuts or sap... these usually are ideal for cutting boards (walnut, maple,cherry, mahogany). End grain is more forgiving on knives when compared to edge grain. You also want to make sure the wood has tight pores.

Not many native Australian hardwoods produce anything edible (by humans- koalas don't seem to mind). Indeed, swallowing too much eucalyptus oil (comes from the leaves) is pretty bad for you. Nonetheless, they make fantastic boards. I love my end grain Jarrah board.
 
I would imagine eucalyptus would have some natural anti-bacterial benefits as well, no?
 
Look for a hardwood that produces edible nuts or sap... these usually are ideal for cutting boards (walnut, maple,cherry, mahogany). End grain is more forgiving on knives when compared to edge grain. You also want to make sure the wood has tight pores.

Thanks. :)
 
Other than aesthetic reasons and utility considerations like size, are there any particularly important features of a wooden cutting board that makes it preferable for working with fine knives?

For instance does hardness of the wood really matter? Or will most any wood be soft enough compared to the hardness of your blade that it's a non-issue?

What about end grain compared to boards that are made along the length of the grain?

Etc...?

Thanks,

Noah

My understanding:
Softer wood is easier on knives but surface scores more. Some hardwoods are pretty hard.
End grain is easier on knives and scores less but is more expensive and prone to warping if you leave it wet. Get a high quality one which is burnished and sealed with feet to keep the bottom of the board elevated for ventilation. Keep it really well oiled. I use parrafin oil (a mineral oil sold in pharmacies as a laxative) wirh beeswax melted in about once a week. Feel free to spend 10 times as much on proprietary board oil though.
 
I would imagine eucalyptus would have some natural anti-bacterial benefits as well, no?

Honestly don't know. My understanding is that any antibacterial effects of wood are less imporant than the fact that bacteria get stuck in between the grains then die before they can get out again (as long as you wash the rest of the bacteria off the surface). FWIW, I only use my end grain board for veggies and I sanitise every few days with vinegar or lemon. Not too much science in that though.
 
Not many native Australian hardwoods produce anything edible (by humans- koalas don't seem to mind). Indeed, swallowing too much eucalyptus oil (comes from the leaves) is pretty bad for you. Nonetheless, they make fantastic boards. I love my end grain Jarrah board.

On reflection, I'm not 100% sure that the oil is only/mainly in the leaves (but the leaves certainly seem to have oil).
 
Don't know about the ones you have there, but the rainbow eucalyptus we used to have near my house in Hawaii was such a beautiful tree. Never saw anything made with it though. <looks at google> Hmm, yup, pretty wood.
 
Softer wood will be kinder to your knife edge, and the less sharpening you have to do, the longer your knife will last. But at the same time, I never pay attention to this and just use end grain boards that I liked the look of for the majority of my kitchen prepping. I use plastic for raw meat but that is a rare thing for me, and a small edge grain board for cutting cooked meat or for presentation.

I took a couple of my knives on vacation with a bunch of friends at a rental house where there were only plastic boards and they definitely dulled faster on plastic than at home on end grain wood of any type.

Oak end grain looks awesome to me, but the pores are so large. One day I'll cave and buy or make one though...
 
Here is a decent graphic that shows the difference in cutting on face grain vs end grain



You can also look up the Janka scale to get an idea of the differences in relative hardness between wood species. Although, as mentioned previously, hardness should not be the only consideration as there are differences in porosity (drop a piece of red oak in a bucket of water and watch the bubbles), allergens and irritants to also be aware of between species.

 
Thank you for the very helpful information folks! :)
 
Don't know about the ones you have there, but the rainbow eucalyptus we used to have near my house in Hawaii was such a beautiful tree. Never saw anything made with it though. <looks at google> Hmm, yup, pretty wood.

I just looked these up. They are very colorful and quite pretty. I've never seen anything like them. From Wikipedia, they are from the topics to the north of Australia and are the only eucalypts with a natural range that extends into the Northern Hemisphere.

For those who have not spent much time Downunder, the significant majority of our large trees are eucalypts and there are probably thousands of species, with many different characteristics. When we think "hardwood", we usually assume you are talking about a eucalypt. There are some stunning woods that come from them. Also some stunning tree sillhouettes. One of my favourite memories is gazing at the sunset through the Karri forests in SW Western Australia.

Interestingly eucalypts are uniquly adapted to fire. They are much more able to survive fire than most other species. One of the reasons that our bushfires are so devastating is that on hot dry days, eucalypts will release their volatile oils which has the effect of aiding the spread of fire.
 
You can also look up the Janka scale to get an idea of the differences in relative hardness between wood species. Although, as mentioned previously, hardness should not be the only consideration as there are differences in porosity (drop a piece of red oak in a bucket of water and watch the bubbles), allergens and irritants to also be aware of between species.

Are there any issues using nut bearing species in people with nut allergies?
 
Are there any issues using nut bearing species in people with nut allergies?

The general consensus is that there are no issues here. I've personally never heard of any adverse events related to this.
 
wood with a lot of silica would be a bad choice. but those woods are not usually used in a cutting board. like ipe or desert ironwood and several others.
 
I just looked these up. They are very colorful and quite pretty. I've never seen anything like them. From Wikipedia, they are from the topics to the north of Australia and are the only eucalypts with a natural range that extends into the Northern Hemisphere.

For those who have not spent much time Downunder, the significant majority of our large trees are eucalypts and there are probably thousands of species, with many different characteristics. When we think "hardwood", we usually assume you are talking about a eucalypt. There are some stunning woods that come from them. Also some stunning tree sillhouettes. One of my favourite memories is gazing at the sunset through the Karri forests in SW Western Australia.

Interestingly eucalypts are uniquly adapted to fire. They are much more able to survive fire than most other species. One of the reasons that our bushfires are so devastating is that on hot dry days, eucalypts will release their volatile oils which has the effect of aiding the spread of fire.

I will point out, that most of our native plants are adapted to fire... since Australia typical has two main weather patterns... Bushfire or flood (in a generalised sense).
 
Honestly don't know. My understanding is that any antibacterial effects of wood are less imporant than the fact that bacteria get stuck in between the grains then die before they can get out again (as long as you wash the rest of the bacteria off the surface).

That's what the research says. These boards are pretty easy to wash and sanitize. Unless you cut very aggressively you can maintain the surface with a bench scraper. Wash with warm soapy water. Sanitizing is optional. I use basic restaurant sanitizer (quaternary ammonium). Spray and let dry. Vinegar and lemon kinda sorta sanitize, but there's a lot of stuff they don't kill. Most notably norovirus, which is the most common foodborne illness.
 
Eeeeeew norovirus. That was going around and I was lucky enough to get in on the joy a couple of years ago.

....skip it!
 
You forgot drought....&#128518;

Unfortunately I'm not really joking.

Sorry I took bushfire and drought to be a package deal..... forgot I was educating people but only giving them half the story......

Yeah it is quite scary really.... First comes the flood... then straight after that comes the drought... then the bushfires... cycle that a few times.. then flood again
 
Course you realize if it were all highly habitable you wouldn't just have New South Wales, you'd have New-Entire-Britain, and the convicts would have ended up in the arctic... :sad0:
 
Sanitizing is optional. I use basic restaurant sanitizer (quaternary ammonium). Spray and let dry. Vinegar and lemon kinda sorta sanitize, but there's a lot of stuff they don't kill. Most notably norovirus, which is the most common foodborne illness.

I haven't seen restaurant sanitiser before, although I am a home cook. I wonder if we call it something else in Australia? Or maybe I need to look in a restaurant supply store?

Does Norovirus contaminate food or is it mainly human to human (presumably feco-oral) transmission? Even if the latter, I guess you dont want to take the risk&#129298;.
 
I haven't seen restaurant sanitiser before, although I am a home cook. I wonder if we call it something else in Australia? Or maybe I need to look in a restaurant supply store?

Does Norovirus contaminate food or is it mainly human to human (presumably feco-oral) transmission? Even if the latter, I guess you dont want to take the risk&#129298;.

Norovirus is mostly transmitted human to human, but often through food and cooking surfaces. Cook uses the bathroom, doesn't wash hands well enough, returns to kitchen and handles salad greens ... 12 hours later half the people in the restaurant want to die. There are cases of it contaminating shellfish that are exposed to sewage. This is how a norovirus outbreak shut down the Fat Duck for a week a few years ago (although in this case, I don't know what the restaurant could have done about it ... the shellfish came in contaminated and were served raw). Not sure if it contaminates food by other means.

Luckily it rarely lasts more than a day, but I imagine it can be bad news for anyone with a depressed immune situation.

Re. Sanitizer, yeah, check out a restaurant supply store. It comes as a concentrated liquid or as tablets. Some restaurants just use chlorine bleach, although it's got downsides—toxic, irritating, bleaches clothes, gradually disintegrates side towels, corrodes stainless steel, and works poorly on porous or organic surfaces (like wood).
 
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