OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board

Product Information

Plastic boards that are used frequently should be replaced about every two years, since lingering bacteria can hide out in deep cuts or scratches (when a sponge or dishcloth snags on the board, or your knife skips over deep cuts, it’s time for a new one). We also invited Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times, to test each of our top contenders and give us his thoughts. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time). If the item comes direct from a manufacturer, it may be delivered in non-retail packaging, such as a plain or unprinted box or plastic bag.

Many plastic cutting boards can withstand the dishwasher without warping, but you can also just scrub them with hot soapy water. 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. PO Box, APO/FPO, Afghanistan, American Samoa, Barbados, Belarus, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Guam, Iraq, Israel, Liberia, Libya, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Micronesia, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Palau, Reunion, Russian Federation, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Somalia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Virgin Islands (U. Our priorities are performance, not aesthetics, so we made sure the boards in this review met (and, hopefully, surpassed) the above criteria before even considering staining.We considered some rubber cutting boards, most notably NoTrax Sani-Tuff rubber mats, a favorite of cooks and knife enthusiasts. 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. They also come in a range of nice sizes, with the small and medium boards sold as a pair (linked above), while OXO's large "Cutting and Carving" board is offered separately.

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. You’ll find boards made from a range of materials, but according to our experts, plastic and wood are the best for most kitchens. Raw meats and fish can be slippery, and an overly smooth cutting board surface can make matters much worse.Plus, it can be sanded to reset the surface to good-as-new condition, something you can't do with plastic. Cutting boards, like this OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board, are designed to protect your knives from hard surfaces that dull the blade prematurely while also keeping the mess off your counter.

If aesthetics are important to you, a handsome wood board can be left on your counter and will go seamlessly from kitchen to table. Ideal for cleaning crockery, pans, cutlery and dishes, the Fairy Liquid Original helps to remove stubborn stains and grease to leave a spotless finish.

That said, we left one softer board in the running—our winning high-end pick—because it's such an absolute pleasure to cut on, and because the kind of abuse we were subjecting that board to was in clear violation of the usage instructions.