Stainless steel cutting boards

[Kango]

My wife just tried to give me some Stainless steel cutting boards as a late Christmas present.

*Cringe*
*Awkward Silence*
*She sees I’m not as into them as she thought I would be*
*She gets upset*

Wife: “Look them up they are a thing now”
Me: “I get that they might be but I’m not dulling my knives on steel”
Wife: “well I don’t like eating all that bacteria off the wood cutting board”
Me: “Thanks babe but I’m not using those”

*Wife storms off*


I know, happy wife happy life and all but there must be boundaries, right?!

[Spyderfreek]

Dull knife, unhappy life. My wife knows it's important to properly use and care for my knives by not doing things like cutting on ceramic/glass/metal surfaces. The amount of edge damage/deformation from even a single use on that stainless cutting board would render the knife butter knife dull.

[Synov]

Just get plastic or silicone boards if she is afraid of wood.

[Enactive]

Yikes! No thanks. I will stick with wood.

Wood is more hygienic than plastic for cutting boards according to quite a bit of research. I would have to dig for a citation tho.

Perhaps there is some form of diplomacy that will work with your wife.

[zhyla]

But it’s so easy to clean. You can put it in the dishwasher with all your knives .

I wonder how bad a brass cutting board would be…

[Mage7]

Not sure why stainless steel would be any better than plastic in this regard. A cutlery-hard blade is going to leave gouges and scratches in that stainless steel too. Maybe not as deep as on plastic, but certainly still enough to be a pain to scrub stubborn grime out of.

[sal]

Wooden cutting boards were used for many years. Then the "experts" said wood is bad for you because of bacteria potential. So everyone said plastic is good. Then the "experts" said that plastic is bad because it holds moisture in the cracks and bacteria can live in the moisture in the cracks. So we need to use wood cutting boards because the moisture in the cracks in the wooden cutting boards dries out so the bacteria dies.

Hard to believe all of the "experts" these days. Go on you tube and you could probably find testimonial using a guillotine for dandruff control.

sal

[jmj3esq]

Who has a logical explanation as to how a steel cutting board would be a good idea? Next, they will sell them as "Diamond Coated" so you can wear out twice as fast. How dumb.

[Pacu0420]

Steel cutting boards?! I like what Sal had to say about "the experts".

[Bolster]

Wood is more hygienic than plastic for cutting boards according to quite a bit of research. I would have to dig for a citation tho.

I never thought so, until a chef explained to me (in detail) that the above is the current state-of-the-art thinking, and chefs have largely gone back to wood.

Sorry about the Xmas present, Kango! Maybe you'd prefer a ceramic cutting board?

[RustyIron]

If bacteria are your concern, then stainless steel and glass are the obvious choices. Ever see lab equipment, food factories, and operating rooms made of wood? Me neither.

With that said, all my cutting boards are wood. I don't consider bacterial contamination from my household cutting boards to be a risk. But I'm also the guy who eats fruit right out of the yard, doesn't wash his chicken eggs, and when in the wilderness, doesn't wash his hands before eating. But I'm not saying anyone else should do that. Maybe I'm already infected and will be dead this time tomorrow. But at least I'll have died with sharp knives.

[Naperville]

Wooden cutting boards were used for many years. Then the "experts" said wood is bad for you because of bacteria potential. So everyone said plastic is good. Then the "experts" said that plastic is bad because it holds moisture in the cracks and bacteria can live in the moisture in the cracks. So we need to use wood cutting boards because the moisture in the cracks in the wooden cutting boards dries out so the bacteria dies.

Hard to believe all of the "experts" these days. Go on you tube and you could probably find testimonial using a guillotine for dandruff control.

sal

TRUE! Be careful when the dandruff inspectors make their rounds.

[Naperville]

Talking about modern operating rooms: The ones that I have been in for open heart surgery, all of the equipment is covered in thin plastic bags to keep them sterile, lots of stainless steel, and thick long power and data cables everywhere all over the floor. Lots of people covered head to toe in gowns, shoe covers and face masks. Really something. Very futuristic and I DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK!

Knock on a wood cutting board that does not happen anytime too soon.

[Wandering_About]

Metal and glass cutting boards are awful. Mom had a glass cutting board when I was young, hard to tell whether the edge or spine of her knives was duller.

[OV1kenobi]

Who has a logical explanation as to how a steel cutting board would be a good idea? Next, they will sell them as "Diamond Coated" so you can wear out twice as fast. How dumb.

How wonderful of an idea! With a “Diamond Coated” cutting board you can slice your food and sharpen your knife at the same time if the angle is just right!

Maybe Sal can market it as the “Spyderco Sharpboard”.

How about a white fine and a brown medium ceramic board?

[RustyIron]

I never thought so, until a chef explained to me (in detail) that the above is the current state-of-the-art thinking, and chefs have largely gone back to wood.

In the hallowed name of Science, I call shenanigans on this Old Wives' Tale.

I don't want to sound unduly cynical, but in my experience, if something looks like ħœřşẽpøø, and smells like ħœřşẽpøø, then there's a fairly good chance that it's ħœřşẽpøø. It could be zebra, but you don't see too many of those stripped beasts roaming the streets of SoCal. Regardless, the anecdotes of the antibacterial properties of wood cutting boards leave me holding my nose.

I refer you to "Bacterial adherence and viability on cutting board surfaces," in the April 2007 Journal of Food Safety.

Abstract
The adherence and viability of Escherichia coli inoculated onto the surfaces of plastic cutting boards and new and used wood cutting boards were evaluated. Most of the inoculum was recovered from all surfaces after resident drying times of 5 min and from plastic surfaces at 24 h. When the exposure time was extended to 2 h, > 90% of the cells placed on new and used dry wood surfaces were not recovered after vigorous rinsing. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the bacteria resided within the structural xylem fibers and vegetative elements of the wood. After resident drying times of up to 2 h, almost 75% of the adherent bacteria on the wood surfaces were viable, as defined by a nalidixic acid direct viable count procedure. Microcosm studies showed no intrinsic growth-supporting or toxic properties of the cutting board materials. Bacteria that adhered to plastic surfaces were more easily removed by low-temperature washing than were cells that adhered to wood surfaces. These studies demonstrated that bacteria adhering to wood surfaces resided within the structural and vegetative elements of the wood's xylem tissues and were viable; wood was more retentive than plastic; penetration of the inoculum liquid promoted cell adherence to the wood matrix; and conditioning of wood with water before inoculation interfered with bacterial adherence.

Full article:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... d_surfaces

P.S.
I don't care what anyone says. I'm still keeping my wooden cutting boards.

[mikey177]

I say use the steel cutting board for a month and have the wife sharpen the knives every time they get dull so she will see just what effect they have on knife edges

[WilliamMunny]

Make your own cutting boards like I do. Harder for her to say what you make is “junk”. Gets worn, sand it down, recoat with board oil, just like new.

[Scandi Grind]

Ouch. I would hope that it is not difficult to see why that is a bad idea but some people just don't have a real concept of what it takes to properly maintain a working edge. Hopefully your wife starts to understand the issue at some point.

I figure that bacteria isn't a big enough problem to worry about with wood at this point, and many people don't consider that plastic also has health problems associated with it, but I do have a dedicated board for raw meat. In order to help keep my wood boards as clean as possible I try to hit them with some vinegar once a week, although I haven't been very consistent with that.

[Mage7]

I never thought so, until a chef explained to me (in detail) that the above is the current state-of-the-art thinking, and chefs have largely gone back to wood.

In the hallowed name of Science, I call shenanigans on this Old Wives' Tale.

I don't want to sound unduly cynical, but in my experience, if something looks like ħœřşẽpøø, and smells like ħœřşẽpøø, then there's a fairly good chance that it's ħœřşẽpøø. It could be zebra, but you don't see too many of those stripped beasts roaming the streets of SoCal. Regardless, the anecdotes of the antibacterial properties of wood cutting boards leave me holding my nose.

I refer you to "Bacterial adherence and viability on cutting board surfaces," in the April 2007 Journal of Food Safety.

Abstract
The adherence and viability of Escherichia coli inoculated onto the surfaces of plastic cutting boards and new and used wood cutting boards were evaluated. Most of the inoculum was recovered from all surfaces after resident drying times of 5 min and from plastic surfaces at 24 h. When the exposure time was extended to 2 h, > 90% of the cells placed on new and used dry wood surfaces were not recovered after vigorous rinsing. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the bacteria resided within the structural xylem fibers and vegetative elements of the wood. After resident drying times of up to 2 h, almost 75% of the adherent bacteria on the wood surfaces were viable, as defined by a nalidixic acid direct viable count procedure. Microcosm studies showed no intrinsic growth-supporting or toxic properties of the cutting board materials. Bacteria that adhered to plastic surfaces were more easily removed by low-temperature washing than were cells that adhered to wood surfaces. These studies demonstrated that bacteria adhering to wood surfaces resided within the structural and vegetative elements of the wood's xylem tissues and were viable; wood was more retentive than plastic; penetration of the inoculum liquid promoted cell adherence to the wood matrix; and conditioning of wood with water before inoculation interfered with bacterial adherence.

Full article:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... d_surfaces

P.S.
I don't care what anyone says. I'm still keeping my wooden cutting boards.

Well, not sure I would call 2007 cutting edge science...

The new theory that I have heard pitched is that specifically end-grain wood boards are anti-microbial because when used in that way, any moisture and bacteria is drawn deep into the grain where it's suffocated and then dried over time as the air wicks the moisture out. Conversely, using a board with the side of the grain exposed means shoving bacteria in under long, lateral stretches of material that stay moist longer because they're lawyered on top of each other.

Though, wouldn't you know it, end-grain boards are a lot harder to manufacture and everyone saying all that is selling some.