The wooden cutting board is the kitchen's unsung hero.
The wooden cutting board is the kitchen's unsung hero. Knives get all the attention, with their different shapes, sizes, metal types, and blade geometries to choose from. But a great knife isn't much good if the surface you're using it on is working against it. Add to that the risk of food-born illness from a cracked and deeply scratched board, and there's good reason to choose wisely.
With perhaps the most beautiful finish of all the boards we tested, Brooklyn Butcher Block's maple end-grain board is impressively well made. It comes in one stock size of 12 by 18 inches, but custom orders are possible, as are added details like a juice groove and indented side handles.The Best Edge-Grain Cutting Board: Brooklyn Butcher Block Long-Grain Maple
. Eventually wood can get scratched up, too, to the point where it also becomes an unsafe food preparation surface; the bright side is that it can then be sanded back to like-new condition. Wood fares better in the minimizing-damage-to-a-knife's-edge department—better than a lot of plastic options, better than composite materials, and infinitely better than glass or marble —but not all wooden cutting boards are the same in this regard. The way the board is constructed and the wood it's made from can have an effect on how your knife holds up.
When you crosscut the trunk, you expose what's called the end-grain. That's the cross-section of fibers that we see as the tree's concentric rings. Cutting boards for which the end grain is on the cutting surface—that is, where the tree's rings are visible on the surface—are often referred to as butcher blocks.
On an edge-grain board, the knife comes down sideways onto the tree's fibers, splitting them like broken strands of spaghetti. This will wear down the blade somewhat faster, and it'll lead to gashes in the wood that won't heal so easily. The board will eventually develop deeper scratches and can even splinter, though it'd take a lot of abuse to get there.
That said, a well-made end-grain board will still have a better chance at survival than a poorly made edge-grain one. This is a key point—there's no type of wooden cutting board that is guaranteed not to fail. High-quality expensive ones may be less likely to crap out on you, but some percentage will crap out nevertheless, even if you care for them properly .
Teak and acacia are woods that tend to be grown in Asia. They get mixed reviews, with some people complaining about their unpredictable hardness levels and high knife-damaging silica content , but because they've become so common, and because they're priced affordably, I decided to include them in this review to see how they'd fare against the maple options in some real-world tests.
A little over a year ago, I ordered new maple end-grain cutting boards for the brand new test kitchen at Serious Eats. They were big, heavy, and incredibly thick, if a little rough around the edges. They were also relatively affordable, which was appealing given that I was running up a pretty steep bill on new kitchen gear.
This John Boos end-grain board had various small imperfections: note the light-colored wood filler in the center used to patch tiny gaps and cracks. Less stringent wood selection for a board can lead to problems later. Really, all of this adds up to the timeworn advice that you get what you pay for. There are exceptions when it comes to wooden cutting boards, but, in general, this is a piece of equipment you're better off paying more for.A 4.5-pound skillet helped us maintain an even downward pressure on each knife, while a ruler allowed us to keep a consistent stroke length.
The workmanship is self-evident: The wood has been sanded to a fine finish, the edges and corners have been neatly beveled, and the wood pieces themselves are all pristine, with no major cracks, chips, dents, or knots to be seen. At a solid two-inches thick, it's also as sturdy as can be. The feet confer a couple advantages. First, they lift the board off your countertop, allowing air to circulate. This helps prevent the board from getting damp on its underside, which will eventually lead to warping and other problems. And, by lifting the board up, they make it easier to slip your fingers under to pick the board up and move it around.
Unlike The BoardSmith, the maple end-grain cutting board comes in only one stock size of 12 by 18 inches. It's also slightly thinner, at about 1 3/4 inches. However, just like The BoardSmith, Brooklyn Butcher Block is willing to do custom orders, so you could talk to them about going up in size and thickness, if desired.
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