Forget the Cutting Boards, Just Get a Chopping Mat

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.