Chopping Boards

There are many different varieties of chopping boards varying in shape, size and material. Let’s look at a few.

Heavy Duty

These chopping boards are used by many professional chefs and are often used in restaurants. They are made of sections of very hard wood, often rock maple with an end grain construction.

In other words you see all the end of the wood “molded” together. They are very tough and hard wearing, but a bit heavy to handle. All Purpose These can vary in size according to what you want to use them for. The better ones can be made of bamboo.

I would recommend the kind that you can use both sides because they tend to warp very slightly and then they slip around on the counter top. When this happens just turn them over.

Plastic Boards

To be more precise these are usually made of acrylic polypropylene plastic. These are generally fairly low cost.

The big bonus with these boards is they can come in a variety of colors and therefore you can keep a separate board for each type of food. Be careful though because they are not very heat resistant. If you put a hot dish on one straight from the oven you might find that the board just melts.

You can also get “flexible” plastic boards which you can form into a funnel to pour the chopped ingredients into a container.

Herb Chopping Boards

Again these are usually made of hard wood and have a “bowl” in the middle into which you put the herbs. It comes with a curved blade which you then rock back and forward to chop up the herbs.

Somehow for us amateurs this method seems to be a lot easier than using a chefs knife on a flat surface.

Decorative Boards

Again there all kinds of these. Small ones are very useful for serving and cutting cheese or salami for appetizers.

Rules of the Road

These are just a few of the many varieties of chopping boards. When it comes down to it it is all a matter of personal choice.

The better boards should be regularly oiled using “Food Safe”mineral oil. If you buy a good quality wooden board then oil it once a day for a week before using it. Once it has been used then oil it once a week for a month and from then on once a month.

Keep a separate board for fruit. Onion tasting strawberries are not very nice, strawberry tasting onions are even worse!!

It’s not a bad idea to keep several boards, one for each specific purpose. For example one for chopping garlic, one for slicing lemons or limes.


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