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We’re looking into some durability issues with the Teakhaus boards we currently recommend. For now, we’d hold off purchasing either of our wood board picks until we can do a new round of testing. Styrofoam Cutter
A good cutting board is a workhorse in any kitchen. Above all, it should be large, providing ample space for carving or chopping, and relatively easy to care for.
We recommend the OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board for those who want a plastic board, and the Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal (15″ by 20″ ) for those who want a wooden one. Both boards feel good under a knife, and they stood up to many sharp cuts, dark stains, and strong odors better than the competition. Plus, after years of long-term testing, neither board has split or egregiously warped from misuse.
This plastic board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. The rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.
This beautiful, eco-conscious teak board requires more careful cleaning than a plastic board, but it feels better under a knife and is easier to maintain than the other wood boards we tested.
This OXO cutting board is a smaller version of our main plastic pick. Like the large OXO board, it has rubber feet to keep it stable while chopping.
This teak cutting board is a smaller version of our main wood pick. Like the larger Teakhaus board, this one has a deep juice canal on one side and hand grooves for lifting.
To see how our recommended cutting boards hold up over time, we’ve been long-term-testing them in our home kitchens for several years.
We’ve tested over 30 boards made from various materials, including wood, plastic, composite, and rubber; we like wood and plastic best.
Small boards can feel cramped. And wooden boards under 1.5-inches thick are more likely to warp, so we avoided those.
We preferred boards with a juice canal on one side, to catch meat drippings or the juice from a ripe, plump tomato.
We’ve spent more than 150 hours of research interviewing chefs and materials experts, chopping copious pounds of produce, and using and abusing over 30 cutting boards to reach our conclusion.
This plastic board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. The rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.
The OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board is large enough for most chopping and carving tasks, easy to clean, and designed with rubber feet on its sides to prevent slippage. We were also impressed with how effective the juice groove was at holding liquid.
This beautiful, eco-conscious teak board requires more careful cleaning than a plastic board, but it feels better under a knife and is easier to maintain than the other wood boards we tested.
If you’re more interested in a cutting board made of wood, get the Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal (15" by 20"). The teak is hard enough to allow for smooth cuts but not so hard that it dulls your knife’s edge. Teak also resists moisture buildup better than other types of wood.
This OXO cutting board is a smaller version of our main plastic pick. Like the large OXO board, it has rubber feet to keep it stable while chopping.
If you have limited counter space in your kitchen or prefer using a smaller board, we recommend getting the smaller version of our plastic pick, the 10.39-inch-by-14.78-inch OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board. It’s great for simple tasks like slicing an apple or chopping a single large carrot. The OXO Utility Board has the same rubber feet as the larger OXO carving board; they keep the board securely in place while chopping. Unlike our main pick, its juice groove doesn’t have the capacity to hold the drippings from a whole roast chicken, but it’s still useful when chopping a couple of juicy tomatoes. Like the larger OXO carving board we recommend, the Utility Cutting Board resists warping, staining, and strong odors better than the competition.
This teak cutting board is a smaller version of our main wood pick. Like the larger Teakhaus board, this one has a deep juice canal on one side and hand grooves for lifting.
If our main wood cutting board is too large for your space or you’re looking for a less expensive option, we also recommend the smaller 12-inch-by-16-inch Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board. We think the larger board is best if you cook regularly, but we still found the smaller Teakhaus board suitable (albeit a bit more cramped) for most chopping tasks and a nice size for serving cheese or charcuterie. Like the larger board, it has a wide ¾-inch juice canal on one side for catching the drippings. The canal held 6 ounces of liquid in our tests, so it can’t hold the drippings from a whole turkey. But it’s sufficient for slicing a steak or carving a whole chicken. This smaller Teakhaus board weighs 2 pounds less than our main pick, so it may be more manageable for some people to lift and move. The board is also 1.5-inches thick—a rarity for most wood boards of this size—so it will resist warping better than thinner wood boards.
To better understand how to choose and maintain cutting boards, we interviewed the following experts:
To find the best boards to test, we also looked for recommendations from trusted editorial sources like Serious Eats. We compiled the recommendations of commenters on our site, as well as ones from Chowhound and ChefTalk forums. We also looked at the best-selling and best-reviewed boards on Amazon, CuttingBoard.com, Target, and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Michael Sullivan, a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, has reviewed all kinds of kitchen gadgets and equipment. His recent research and testing builds on the work of former Wirecutter senior staff writer Kevin Purdy, who wrote the first version of this guide in 2014. Additionally, several Wirecutter staff members, along with Sam Sifton, the founding editor of NYT Cooking, participated in our testing and provided feedback.
Finally, former Wirecutter science editor Leigh Boerner helped us research materials that made up each board: wood grains and glues, composite resins, and the major types of plastic used in cutting boards.
A cutting board is essential for any kitchen, and most experts recommend having at least two: one for cutting raw or cooked meats, poultry, and fish; the other for vegetables, fruits, or cooked foods. Having multiple boards on hand is especially convenient when preparing a lot of food for family gatherings or holiday meals.
If aesthetics are important to you, a handsome wood board can be left on your counter and will go seamlessly from kitchen to table. For those that want an inexpensive surface that’s easy to clean and maintain, we’d recommend getting a plastic cutting board.
If you already have a cutting board, but it’s warped, badly stained, or riddled with deep gouges, it’s probably time for an upgrade.
You’ll find boards made from a range of materials, but according to our experts, plastic and wood are the best for most kitchens. All of our testers agreed that wood boards feel better than plastic under a knife. When asked what board they’d most want to cut on, the chefs we spoke with tended to pick wood blocks. But when asked what they’d buy for a 22-year-old nephew or niece moving into their first apartment on their own, they each replied with some variation of “a plastic board they’ll probably treat terribly and replace in two years,” similar to the boards they received from restaurant supply stores.
Some of our testers hated the look of plastic boards and didn’t like the way the knife made contact with the board. Sam Sifton told us during testing, “I don’t like the noise and I don’t like how plastic degrades. You can always sand a wood board, but you can’t do that with plastic.” That said, some people may simply not have room for a big slab of wood, or might want, as chef Michael Dimmer put it, a board they can “leave in a sink overnight, or when (they) have people over, and no harm done.”
Plastic is a better surface for prepping raw meat, as it’s less likely to stain and can be washed in a dishwasher or sanitized with a chlorine bleach solution. We don’t recommend these cleaning methods for wooden cutting boards, so we think it’s best to use a plastic board for meat (this prevents cross-contamination, too). However, as Sam Sifton noted during testing, “You’re not bound by the rules of the health department in your own home.”
Choosing between wood and plastic depends on your cooking and cleaning preferences. Here’s how the two materials compare:
All of our testers agreed that wood boards feel better than plastic under a knife.
If you’re wondering which option is more sustainable, we discuss that in a sustainability section below.
Most experts recommend having one board large enough to chop several ingredients at once, at least 15 inches along one side. Chad Ward notes in An Edge in the Kitchen: “A cutting board 15 inches by 20 inches is about the functional limit for most household sinks… however, you need as much size as you can get to prevent stuff running off onto your countertops.” Sushi chef Ken Legnon agreed but said 16 by 22 inches is his favorite size.
Wood boards come in two styles, end grain and edge grain, and we considered both for this guide. End-grain boards are made of a number of board ends glued together, and they can be more gentle on knives because the edge slides between the vertical wood fibers. Cuts and other marks tend to close more efficiently, self-healing over time, but the exposed ends also make it easier for end-grain boards to dry out, stain, and crack. Edge-grain boards (like our Teakhaus pick) consist of the sides of boards glued together in alternating strips, with the sides (edges) facing up. These boards tend to be harder on knife edges than end-grain boards, but they also withstand moisture-based cracking and splitting better, and they are easier to clean. (This diagram illustrates the difference between end and edge grain nicely.)
For our original guide, we tested several types of wood boards—including maple, cherry, walnut, and Japanese cypress—but we considered only teak boards for our 2018 update. After years of testing cutting boards, we’ve found that those made of teak fight off moisture better and require less oiling than other types of wood.
Most plastic cutting boards are made of either high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polypropylene (PP), or occasionally a proprietary blend of polyethylene and polypropylene. The very short version of the differences between the two types of polymers is that polypropylene is harder but more brittle, while polyethylene, particularly high-density polyethylene, is softer but more flexible. We tested both polyethylene and polypropylene boards for this guide. (The OXO board we recommend is made of polypropylene.)
We also looked at composite and other materials: Composite boards are essentially many layers of Richlite baked and pressed together. They are food-safe and easily maintained, but generally quite tough on knife edges. Granite and glass boards are very hard and will dull a knife’s blade.
We looked for plastic and wood boards with a groove around the perimeter that collects juices from roasts and ripe tomatoes. Keep in mind that a juice groove can only do so much. We still recommend placing absorbent towels underneath a board with a groove if you’re carving a juicy roast.
We avoided plastic boards with a handle cut into the side because it reduces the usable chopping surface area. We looked for thicker wood boards with finger grooves on the side, which makes them easier to pick up and transport.
The best boards sit solidly without sliding on a countertop. “You want ease in movement with your knife, not the board,” said chef Boye, who dismissed many of our test boards as too light. Heavier wood boards move less but can also be a bear to move for cleaning or storage. Plastic boards tend to be more squirrelly because they’re thinner and lighter than wood boards. For our latest round of testing, we searched for plastic boards that have grippy feet or borders around the perimeter to keep them more stable.
How a board looks matters mostly if you’re going to keep it out on a counter. But how the board feels under a knife, and how easily it cleans and stores, matters more.
In the end, we found that form, function, and feel were a better guide to picking out a good cutting board than a strict focus on knife edge retention. The differences in how one plastic board affects your knife edge versus another is small and offset by many other factors: acids, interactions with different foods, and other kitchen happenings. Knife edge retention was certainly considered—and one of our chef experts was particularly concerned with it—but if you regularly sharpen (and steel) your chef’s knife, none of the cutting boards we considered will cause your knife to lose its edge midway through dinner prep.
After years of research, we’ve tested over 30 wood, plastic, composite, and rubber boards that fit our criteria. We discarded those that were too small, too big or thick for most kitchens, or difficult to reliably locate and buy.
For our original guide, we tested all of the boards over the course of four months on a rotating basis in one editor’s kitchen for everyday cooking. In 2017, we invited several members of Wirecutter staff with varying levels of cooking experience to participate in our testing. We also invited Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times, to test each of our top contenders and give us his thoughts. After the initial round of testing, we took the best-performing boards home to use for over a week in our own kitchens.
We recorded each board’s performance in specific tests. We looked to see if they fit in a standard dishwasher, semi-standard (15-by-20-inch) sink, or a divided 15-by-15-inch sink. We noted whether the boards stained or retained odors after letting beet juice and garlic paste sit on them for 30 minutes. We also cut carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, apples, and a variety of citrus fruits, noting the sound and feel of the boards, and whether they scarred. To see how well the boards healed after heavy knife use, we cut crusty bread with a serrated knife. We also noted how much each board slipped across a countertop, with and without a towel placed underneath. Note: For our 2021 update we chopped only on the 12-by-16-inch Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board and tested the amount of liquid the juice canal could hold. We didn’t perform the stain tests, since it’s just a smaller size of the main wood board we already recommend, so we expect it to resist stains and odors similarly.
This plastic board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. The rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.
This OXO cutting board is a smaller version of our main plastic pick. Like the large OXO board, it has rubber feet to keep it stable while chopping.
The OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board is the best plastic cutting board for most tasks. Its 14.34-by-21.11-inch size is large enough to comfortably chop several vegetables for mirepoix or carve a 12-pound turkey. In our tests, the juice groove on the OXO board was able to hold a surprising amount of liquid—an added benefit when chopping tomatoes or slicing a roast. And the grippy feet on the sides of the board keep in place better than other plastic boards that lack this helpful feature.
OXO made some minor adjustments to the Carving and Cutting Board in January 2020. The redesigned board is 0.2 millimeters thinner and features a slightly wider juice canal with pour spouts. The grippy sides are also a slightly different shape, but none of these changes affected the board’s performance. We haven’t tried the beet and garlic tests on the new board, but a representative from OXO confirmed that the materials of the redesigned board are the same as on the older version, which we originally tested in 2017. In our previous tests, the OXO did an excellent job of resisting stains and odors. We’ve also chopped on both versions of the board side by side and couldn’t detect any significant difference.
The OXO board provides ample space for nearly every chopping and slicing task you’d want to accomplish in the kitchen. We had plenty of room to chop, even with several ingredients piled on the board. The juice groove on the board holds roughly half a cup of liquid, an impressive amount compared with other boards we tested. Keep in mind, the OXO board won’t fit into some dishwashers unless it’s turned at an angle. But if you prefer using a smaller cutting board that will have no issue fitting in a dishwasher, we also recommend the 10.35-by-14.78-inch OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board. The board is also sold in two other sizes: the 8.93-by-12.89-inch Everyday Cutting Board and the mini 7.23-by-10.75-inch Prep Board. We think these smaller boards are best for simple tasks like slicing an apple or cutting lemon wedges, but not chopping vegetables for meal prep.
Made with a harder, more slick material (polypropylene), with some slight marbling applied to the surface, the OXO board provides a secure grip with a chef’s knife. Upon first use, the board feels a bit slick under a knife and can occasionally cause the blade to slip. However, after several uses, the surface becomes lightly scarred and allows for better traction, which keeps the blade from slipping. Since it’s surprisingly light for its size, we found it easy to maneuver and store, too. Most of our testers agreed that it looks professional and more presentable than the other plastic boards we tested.
The rubbery feet on the sides of the board do an excellent job keeping it in place while chopping. That said, if you’re going to do a lot of chopping, we’d still recommend placing a thick towel underneath the board for added stability. If your counter is wet, the rubbery feet could lose their traction and cause the board to slide around; a towel will prevent slippage.
All of OXO’s products are covered by a satisfaction guarantee which states that you can return any product for any reason if you’re not satisfied.
Negative reviews address two main concerns: flexing of the center of the board while chopping, and knife scarring. Placing a towel under the board remedies the flexing issue. Our own testing saw an OXO board scar under hundreds of knife marks, but the same can be said for any board. In fact, we found the surface scarring actually gave the board better knife traction.
Your knife won’t gouge the plastic on most chops and slices, but if the knife blade comes down particularly hard on the board, it can lock in place as if it’s cutting on a rail. It’s a small issue that only happens once in a while, but it’s something our testers experienced. The OXO board is also louder to cut on than our wood picks, especially if you don’t have a thick towel or rag placed underneath it.
This beautiful, eco-conscious teak board requires more careful cleaning than a plastic board, but it feels better under a knife and is easier to maintain than the other wood boards we tested.
This teak cutting board is a smaller version of our main wood pick. Like the larger Teakhaus board, this one has a deep juice canal on one side and hand grooves for lifting.
For a wood option, we highly recommend the striking and sophisticated Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal. Made from sustainably harvested teak, it feels better under a knife than most other boards we tested. It stays in place with minimal help, and at 15 inches by 20 inches, it’s generously sized but not so heavy that you can’t easily move it. The Teakhaus also requires less maintenance than most wood boards, but it’s still far more vulnerable to moisture damage and staining than plastic. For those with the counter space and the patience for every-other-month oilings, we think this board will be a valued asset to your kitchen.
In every test, the Teakhaus allowed for smooth motion with a sharp knife, both parallel to and against the grain. The teak was hard enough to allow for clean cuts, but still soft enough to maintain a knife’s sharp edge. The bamboo boards we tested were too hard on knife edges, while others, like the hinoki boards we tried, were too soft. Sushi chef Ken Legnon agreed: “It’s durable, but it still helps maintain your edge, long-term.”
Teak wood fights off moisture more effectively than the most common wood-cutting-board materials, so it requires less oiling. In fact, Teak has been used in boatbuilding for more than 2,000 years because of its remarkable moisture-fighting properties. It is “the gold standard for [rot] resistance.” Its 2.0 shrinkage (T/R) ratio is about the lowest of any wood considered hard enough to be used as a cutting board. That’s likely why the Teakhaus looked better after months of kitchen duty than our prior maple pick from Boos.
The 15-inch-by-20-inch Teakhaus board is 1.5 inches thick and weighs 12 pounds, so it barely budges on most counters. Sliding even just one or two layers of damp paper towels underneath eliminates any minor movements. The Teakhaus board has slots in the ends that, while oddly shallow and unfinished, do help with lifting the board. This same size board is also available without a juice canal on one side. For big jobs like carving a Thanksgiving turkey, we recommend the larger 24-by-18-inch version of this board, which also has a juice canal to catch drippings. If you prefer a smaller board, it also comes in a 12-by-16-inch size.
Each Teakhaus board is different, more so than with maple boards, and each ages over time into richer colors. Chef Jennifer Boye was quickly drawn to the unique pattern, and she recommended it as her top wood pick. One of our testers called it “a very luxurious board.” Sam Sifton agreed, saying it was “wicked nice.” As it has been stained, smeared, cut upon, and slightly abused, the wood has not taken on a lighter, worn appearance at the center as did a Boos board we tested. It has simply picked up a few marks here and there.
Teak wood fights off moisture more effectively than the most common wood-cutting-board materials, so it requires less oiling.
Teakhaus warranties its products for one year against “defects in workmanship and material,” but not “damage resulting from neglect or misuse of the product—” a very standard warranty for wood cutting boards. Contact Teakhaus if you need a refund or replacement.
The biggest flaw for any wood board is the need for maintenance and for caution with liquids to avoid warping, cracking, and splitting.
Teak withstands moisture better than most woods, but you should avoid letting liquids sit on the board for more than a few minutes, if possible. After you’re done cutting, wipe the board down with warm, soapy water, but never immerse the board in a sink full of water. And you must oil the board―roughly once a month, or more if the board gets “thirsty” (more on this in care and maintenance section below).
Aside from its required maintenance, the Teakhaus board’s main drawback is the shallow side handle slots that only allow you to get your fingertips into the board. However, since the handle slots still provide a decent grip, we don’t think this is a dealbreaker.
We recommend getting a wood cutting board if you’re seeking a more-sustainable option. Once a wood board becomes deeply gouged after years of use, you can sand it down to restore its smooth surface, which extends its lifespan. Wood boards will last for decades if treated properly.
Teakhaus’s wood is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Rainforest Alliance. This means that Teakhaus sources its wood from forests sustainably managed according to FSC’s principles.
Plastic boards need to be replaced about every two years, according to the pros we spoke to (though this depends on how frequently you use them). So they won’t last as long as wood boards, which makes them less cost effective. We plan to do more research on the environmental impact of using plastic boards versus wood boards, but in the meantime we’d recommend choosing one made from the latter material if you want to replace it less often.
Whenever possible, use the dishwasher to sanitize plastic boards, particularly after working with meats. However, it’s important to use the dishwasher’s delicate/econo setting or set a timer to pull out the board during the drying cycle to keep boards from warping. If the dishwasher isn’t an option, experts recommend a hard scrubbing with hot soapy water under fast-flowing water. Plastic boards can also be sanitized with a chlorine bleach solution.
Like plastic, wood boards should be scrubbed with hot soapy water under flowing water. Immediately dry it with a clean towel, and prop it upright on your counter. Allow the board to dry completely before storing. For more details, see our in-depth blog post on cleaning and caring for wood cutting boards.
To avoid the chance of cracking or warping, never leave liquids on a wood board for long periods of time (and don’t even think about immersing it in a sink!).
The thick polyethylene Hay Chopping Board feels great under a knife and comes in a variety of fun colors, but unfortunately it warped in the dishwasher and faded after we scrubbed it by hand. It also has grippy feet on one side, which prevents you from chopping on both sides. It’s a fine option if you want a colorful board to leave on your counter for occasional light use, but we wouldn’t recommend it for nightly dinner prep. It’s also pretty expensive for something that will inevitably need replacing in several years.
We were disappointed to discover that the thin Material reBoard was warped right out of the box. According to the manufacturer, it’s made from 75% recycled plastic and 25% sugarcane, and it felt harder on knife edges than the OXO board in our tests. It also has a large hole in one corner for hanging, which cuts down on usable board space. And it lacks grippy sides to keep the board from sliding around on the counter.
We used to recommend the plastic Prepworks Cutting Board from Progressive International, but we don’t anymore because it warps. Initially, we liked the Prepworks board because it was inexpensive and made of low-density polyethylene (which is a softer material than that of the OXO board we recommend), so it felt great under a knife. But it also lost points for being significantly smaller than the OXO board and lacking rubber feet to keep it stable.
The Williams Sonoma Synthetic Non-Slip Cutting Board has grippy sides like the OXO, but our testers said it was too small. Sam Sifton said of the Williams Sonoma board, “It’s too little. What’s it for, making tiny food for hamsters?”
Oneida’s Colours 16-inch Cutting Board has rubberized grips on two ends and comes in a nice size, but it doesn’t have a juice groove, and we found that its large handle holes allowed juice to drip onto the counter.
The 14-by-17-inch Dexas Pastry Superboard feels smooth under a sharp knife, and the surface has a roughed-up texture that keeps food from slipping. Its midnight granite color hides knife marks and stains, but the board slips even with damp towels underneath. It also warped in our tests.
Williams Sonoma offers an exclusive Antibacterial Synthetic Cutting & Carving Board. It’s a good size at 16 by 12 inches, and it has Microban-like bacterial protection baked into its plastic. Its texture is similar to that of the Prepworks, if not quite as gripping, and its knife feel is better than that of most boards we dismissed. But its wide, smooth 11-teaspoon (just under 4 tablespoons) juice groove releases liquids more easily than the one on the OXO, and its handles are so barely indented as to be superfluous.
We liked the counter-gripping feet and the surface texture on the Dexas Grippboard in Granite, but it was so small that it could barely hold half a diced onion. It also took on deep orange and red stains after a run through the dishwasher, and it warped slightly.
The plastic, 15-by-20-inch Cutting Board Company White Cutting Board doesn’t have grooves or any other standout features. Onion dicing felt good, carrot dicing was a bit loud, and a very sharp knife made mostly shallow surface scratches. But this board slipped when we lightly nudged it on a counter.
The surface of the Stanton Trading Company Plastic Cutting Board was very soft. A serrated knife left remarkably deep scars on this board.
IKEA’s Legitim cutting board was too small. Also, since it’s only a quarter-inch thin, we could bend it with our hands. Our knives left murderous gouges in it.
The Teakhaus Scandi Thin & Lightweight End Grain Cutting Board measures 10 by 14 inches but is only 1 inch thick, and it was warped when it arrived. Since the Teakhaus Scandi Thin & Lightweight Cutting Board has the same dimensions and thickness as the end-grain version, we dismissed that model, as well. Thicker boards, such as the Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board we recommend, are much more resistant to warping.
We opted not to test Food52’s Five Two Bamboo Double Sided Cutting Board because at 13 by 18 inches and 1 inch thick, it’s smaller and thinner than the teak Teakhaus board we recommend, which measures 15 by 20 by 1.5 inches. Also, after years of testing cutting boards, we’ve found that bamboo is hard on blade edges and prone to splintering over time. The Five Two board’s most notable feature is its slot for holding a phone upright so you can follow a recipe as you cook. However, unless you’re willing to clean your germ-ridden phone before and after placing it on the board, we’d strongly recommend keeping it away from any surfaces where you’re preparing food. Besides being unsanitary, who wants their pricey device splattered with meat juices and other cooking liquids? We also foresee the phone slot being the perfect place to trap food and a hassle to clean.
A Boos Block Maple Edge Grain Reversible Cutting Board was our previous wood board pick. It feels good under a knife, and counter slipping is almost nonexistent (thanks to the board’s 18-pound heft). But this board requires a lot more upkeep than the Teakhaus. It developed a small crack in the handle after our first year of use and developed a lightened circle near the center of the board, even with regular oilings.
The first version of this guide had a 15-inch Boos Block Chop-N-Slice board as its top recommendation. After seeing a downward trend in Amazon reviews for the board, and learning more about how the wood dries, splits, and cracks, we now recommend a slightly thicker board made from more forgiving materials.
The 12-by-18 Brooklyn Butcher Blocks End Grain Cherry board illustrated the trade-offs of end-grain boards compared with edge grain too perfectly. Its offset bricklayer-style pattern looked quite nice, it stayed right in place, and slicing and dicing on this board felt good. After weeks of testing, this board looked almost untouched. That said, it still had not lost its beet stains after a few washings, and its sides tended to dry out more frequently than those of other boards. If you’re willing to care for it, this expensive board could be worth the price, but Brooklyn’s long-grain (edge-grain) board looks just as good and cuts about as nicely for about half the price.
The Brooklyn Butcher Blocks Edge Grain Walnut board was a wonderfully dark and rich-looking board, but it felt like it was scraping often during our onion-slicing tests, and it requires just as much oiling and moisture avoidance as other wood picks. Otherwise, it performed quite well. We don’t think it’s quite as good a value as the Teakhaus.
We loved how our knives felt on the Shun Hinoki Cutting Board made of very forgiving Japanese cypress. But it requires wetting before you cut on it, and even then we found that it absorbed odors. It also scars very badly; a serrated knife will butcher this board. We think this board is too high-maintenance for most people.
Bengston Woodworks sent us a sample cube of its end-grain boards. We couldn’t put it through all the tests we put other boards through, but its artistic patchwork look drew stares and praises from people who spotted it. If you really want to create a home base for food prep in your house and you can dedicate yourself to caring for it, you’d do well to order a board from Bengston or Brooklyn Butcher Blocks.
We tried out a few composite boards, including three boards from Epicurean: the 15-by-11-inch Kitchen board in nutmeg brown, the 8-by-6 Kitchen board in natural, and the 15-by-20-inch Gourmet Series board with a slate core. Overall, we found them too hard on kitchen knives, and our experts agreed. Buffalo chef Michael Dimmer said they “feel like nails on a chalkboard … just too hard.”
We considered some rubber cutting boards, most notably NoTrax Sani-Tuff rubber mats, a favorite of cooks and knife enthusiasts. But because these mats are especially heavy, sometimes available only through specialty vendors, and almost always made in hospital-beige colors, we decided they were not the best choice for most home cooks and opted not to test.
The surface on the Freshware Bamboo board we tested truly felt like it was grinding our knife edge. Picking up small bits of onion with our fingers was difficult, as the surface felt dry and scraped our fingertips. The unfinished juice groove was especially unpleasant, allowing its 8 teaspoons of liquid to easily leak out at the slightest tilt.
This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.
Abrishami, S. H., Tall, B. D., Bruursema, T. J., Epstein, P. S. and Shah, D. B., Bacterial Adherence and Viability on Cutting Board Surfaces, Journal of Food Safety
Cutting Board Cleanup, Cook's Illustrated
Chad Ward, An Edge in the Kitchen, phone interview with email follow-up, May 21, 2015
Eva Haviarova, associate professor of wood products at Purdue University Wood Research Laboratory, phone interview, December 14, 2014
Brian Brashaw, former program director at Natural Resources Research Institute University of Minnesota Duluth (now the program manager at the U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory), phone interview, January 5, 2015
Doug Gardner, professor of Forest Operations, Bioproducts and Bioenergy at University of Maine, phone interview, December 18, 2014
Jennifer Boye, former chef at The Mansion on Delaware and Nickel City Chef (now the executive chef of Elm Street Bakery), in-person interview, March 3, 2015
Michael Dimmer, chef at Marble + Rye, in-person interview, February 5, 2015
Ken Legnon, former sushi chef at Seabar (now the executive chef of Yoshi Sushi Bar and Eatery), in-person interview, February 27, 2015
Comparison of the Characteristics of LDPE: PP and HDPE: PP Polymer Blends, Canadian Center of Science and Education
Preventing Wooden Cutting Boards from Cracking, Cook’s Country (subscription required)
Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade.
Kevin Purdy is a writer, editor, and repair advocate at iFixit. He previously reviewed products at Wirecutter, including mattresses, standing desks, and bike-commuting gear. He has also written for Lifehacker, Popular Science, Fast Company, and other publications.
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Cnc Foam Cutter Design Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).