Learning to Cook: Cutting Board 101
Placing a cutting board in a category all by itself may seem wasteful. However, getting to the right cutting board cost me considerable time and effort, so I am going to try and help you circumvent the problems I encountered. In this post, I will also include some basic tips for managing your cutting area during food prep.
Cutting boards, like most things, come in all shapes, sizes, colors, materials, and prices. You should consider the material of the cutting board you select, based on what kind of knives you have. You want a cutting board made out of a soft enough material to protect your knife blade. This requirement automatically rules out glass, stone, and metal cutting boards. You should have good knifes, don’t ruin them with a cheap cutting board.
As a default, I like wood. Some will argue that wood enables more bacteria growth as the knife will cut grooves into the surface, but this is true for any cutting board. The only drawbacks of wood are that they require more maintenance and are generally more expensive. However, I am a traditionalist and feel that a wood cutting board is more inline with how people first began to cook.
Not all wood cutting boards are created equally. Wood cutting boards can be made out of various types of wood, wood grains, and newer ones are even made out of bamboo. You should select a high quality cutting board that is aesthetically pleasing. Most importantly, get one bigger than you think you’ll need. This is where the majority of my mistakes happened. I probably went through 4 cutting boards before I went big enough. I eventually graduated to the 18*24 inch Boos Maple cutting board. While these may seem HUGE, you can never have too much cutting board.
You may opt for a plastic board, another viable choice, though you should keep in mind they look tacky. Plastic cutting boards have their place, especially if you prepare a lot of raw meats and need a separate cutting surface to avoid cross contamination. Plastic cutting boards allow you to disinfect them with much harsher chemicals, than do wooden boards. You can also run plastic cutting boards through the dishwasher, something you would never dream of doing with a wooden cutting board.
- Always wash your board with hot soapy water immediately after use and be sure it is completely dried
- Wooden board need to be conditioned with mineral oils to prevent cracking, do this once a week when the board is new for a month, and again once every 3 months or so thereafter as needed
- Wooden boards can be resurfaced to get rid of deep cut marks, but only do this after the board has been excessively used
- Never prepare vegetables on the same board or with the same knife after you’ve prepared raw meat. This allows for cross contamination and can make your guests sick.
Now that you have selected a good cutting board, I will give you a few tips in preparing raw ingredients for cooking.
1. Measure and prepare all your foodstuffs before turning the heat on! This will make the cooking process run much more smoothly.
2. Use individual containers, like you see on the cooking shows, to store all your ingredients once you have prepped them. This keeps your work surface neat and tidy. It also makes adding ingredients to your dish much easier as you can just pick up and dump your selected ingredient into the pot or pan.
3. Keep a trash jar, bag, or bowl. You will be throwing away the butt ends of the ingredients you are preparing and having a big bowl in front of you to dispose of these will save you lots of time and keep your work area better organized.
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