Why cutting boards matter

When choosing among the many types of available cutting boards, remember just one crucial thing: do not use a cutting board that has an extremely hard surface. This includes stone, glass, and boards made from manufactured countertop surfaces. Why manufactured countertop surfaces? This doesn’t seem as obvious, but many people like to have cutting boards made from leftover scraps when they have new countertops installed in their kitchen. The problem with using these hard surfaces as cutting boards is that they’ll quickly dull your knives’ blades. You want a cutting board that has a little give to it.

The best materials for cutting boards are wood and polyethylene (usually called a poly board), which is a type of plastic. Both are solid, but not so hard that they’ll dull your knives. They’re porous, which also means they can be thoroughly cleaned. Although both types are very good, I prefer, and recommend, poly cutting boards over wooden ones because of how I like to clean them.