What is best cutting board
Equipment Reviews: Best Cutting Boards & Our Testing Winner
a cutting board is a kitchen essential
for too often their disappointments they
split and crack and warp they stain and
get deep gouges from the knife pieces
break off they just don't hold up we
wanted to find the last cutting board
you'll ever need to buy that was our
quest we picked nine boards ranging from
twenty-two dollars to two hundred
dollars we had wood bamboo composite and
plastic boards in a range of weights
thicknesses and construction now we
chose a nice generous size too many home
cooks use dinky little boards you need
room to cut comfortably and safely we
focused on boards are at least 15 by 20
inches but some of these turned out to
be too heavy or hard to grab we like the
ones with grips or handles we wanted a
board that be nice to cut on not have
your food slide all around your knife
should stick just a little as you cut
and that's what's going to give you
excellent control finally and most
importantly we wanted a board that's
going to last it should stay flat should
resist warping show only minor scratches
and not need a ton of TLC first we
assigned each board to test cooks who
put them through three months of day in
and day out use cooking all day long in
the Test Kitchen we took another set and
did a series of tests we diced onions
minced fresh herbs chopped chipotle
chilies in adobo to check for staining
we hacked through bone-in chicken thighs
with a cleaver to test the toughness and
we did a cutting test where we made 750
consecutive cuts on each board with new
knives this told us whether the boards
were dulling our knives and one of the
knives damaged the boards we put the
dishwasher safe ones through the
dishwasher multiple times and we washed
and rinsed them in between each juice
and check to see if they had warp or
crack finally we push them all up the
countertop now they all survived that
test but simple washing proved to be too
much for some of these boards and grand
boards these are also called butcher
block they warped whether they were made
of wood or bamboo one actually split now
these boards are terrific to cut on but
all those end pieces of wood soak up
moisture like straws when wood gets wet
it expands and it contracts when it
dries that's what leads to warping and
cracking making the board extremely
unstable a bamboo edge grading board
where the pieces go the long way down
the board arrived cracked and a
replacement was no improvement two
composite boards were horrible to cut on
went clack clack clack every time we cut
a thin one begin to warp and actually
dulled our knife the slightly thicker
one did well until the cleaver test
which raised huge splinters we had to
pick out of the chicken it was gross the
plastic boards were durable except one
that got gouged but most of these were
more slippery to cut on than we'd like
and that's for the wooden boards we
found one that passed all our tests and
didn't seem as thirsty for oil as the
others this board turned out to be made
of teak which is naturally high in oily
resins which help it resist moisture and
in turn brighness the protec edge
grained teak cutting board and $85 was
our winner it's a great cutting board
it's extremely knife friendly with a
satiny finish good hand holds for easier
maneuvering and it held up beautifully
throughout our testing for a budget
friendly and dishwasher safe alternative
we recommend the Aqsa good grips carving
and cutting board it's plastic it's
lightweight it's just $22
