Forget the Cutting Boards, Just Get a Chopping Mat
9 Comments Published by Joel October 3rd, 2006 in Food. Share This
There’s really only one thing you need to know about cutting boards: You’re going to have to keep buying new ones. By the very nature of their duty—catching the business end of a piece of sharpened steel—they’re going to get tore up and eventually need replacing. Keep that in mind before you buy a $350 cutting board, no matter how beautiful it may be.
If you want to know the differences between end-grain and flat-grain wooden cutting boards, polymer boards, and various varieties of bamboo boards, well, this isn’t the place. (Try: This nice article on “What’s Cooking, America?” or look at Fantes’ Cutting Board selection.)
Instead, I’m going to tell you what to buy: Chopping Mats, like the one linked here at random or similar. They’re simply thin sheets of plastic that can be placed on a counter, absorb the angry hacks of your frustrated blade, then be rolled up, food and all, to drop their load into your pan.
Then, when they get all ate up from repeated use, just toss them. New ones are, like, $5 for two (or less).
Chopping mats are also super-easy to clean, something you should do with soap and water after each use and with a mild bleach solution every couple weeks or so.
Although it should be pointed out that a good quality cutting board is generally made so that you can sand it down until the torn up bits are gone.
But really, who does that?
I am sure the cutting mats kill baby seals somehow. :)
If I may…
I have had cutting boards and I have used cutting mats. What I have found is that my knifes seem to keep their edge longer if you use the mat ON a cutting board.
I think this is because the cutting board, even the plastic ones, are designed to “give” a little when the knife hits it, as opposed to counter tops of *gasp* glass cutting boards, which make the knife bear the brunt of the impact. The mat gives too, but it’s much thinner, so the counter takes it out on the kife.
You get all the benefits of the mat, convience and clean up (it wasn’t mentioned, but you can put the mats in the dishwasher. A BIG NO-NO with a wooden cutting board!)
Yes, you have to buy a cutting board, but based on the wear mine have seen doing this, the cutting board you buy will last A LOT longer.
So, you’re really getting the best of both worlds. :)
I have both boards and mats. I tend to use the mats more, simply because they’re thinner (and so take up less space in the sink) and flexible (good for dumping cut ingredients into pots or containers). The downside is that they have a tendency to curl up, especially if you– like us– foolishly put them in the dishwasher.
I put my mats in the diswasher, and then store them under my huge cutting board, which flattens them out. The board (with juice-moat) is only used for carving large carcasses of meat. The mats are way better for everything else.
I gotta go with a big wooden cutting board. The mats are totally convenient, and I use them for some stuff, but for 99% of cooking duty I’d rather have wood. A good board can outlive you if it is properly taken care of, and even some of the relatively cheapo wooden boards will last 5-10 years. I’d rather do that than throw away little plastic things every few weeks.
I prefer boards, though I use both. The “mat on board” suggestion seems like overkill to me, but it technically correct. Your knife will hold an edge longer, especially if you’re not the type who uses a steel to hone it before each cutting, if you use a board or board/mat combo. If the Rockwell hardness of your countertop is sufficiently high, it will dull your knife blades, even with a mat over top of it — they’re just not thick enough to cushion the blades, in my experience.
But I disagree with Ryan. Though part of me really likes wood boards and blocks for reasons of tradition, they are simply not as sanitary as polymer boards. I keep a wood board for bread dough and other dry jobs, and while I love it, I never let wet projects near it. No poultry, no meat, no fish and (possibly because I’m anal retentive) not even wet vegetables. For those, I use relatively soft plastic boards that I can disinfect (read: run through the dishwasher). And possibly because I’m an AB fan, I even keep one specifically for poultry.
You shouldn’t have a problem cutting “wet” ingredients on a wooden board, so long as you wash and dry it soon afterwards.
I, also being an AB fan, wont cut anything on a wooden board that I wouldn’t eat right then. Veggies and cooked meat are OK, raw chicken is a big NO-NO!
I cut my mats in half since my dishwasher sucks and neither side of my sink is quite as large as a whole mat, so it was hard to scrub or bleach them. They are much easier to use and store that way, and now I grab a half any time I’m doing something that would otherwise leave a mess on the counter.
Where can I purchase the plastic chopping mats.
Can they be purchased on the internet.
Frank