END GRAIN VS. LONG GRAIN WOODEN CUTTING BOARDS

If you go online and try searching for cutting boards, you would not believe the variety that will be bombarded to you. So, to help you in choosing the right cutting board and not getting overwhelmed with the variety, I have conducted a good research on how the cutting boards can be differentiated on different levels and narrow down the funnel for you.

First level of differentiation is on the basis of material used. A cutting board can be made up of wood, glass or plastic. Wooden cutting boards are in great demand these days.

Secondly, when we dig deeper into the wooden cutting boards, you will come across the boards made of different woods that you might have never heard before.  The woods generally used for making cutting board are- acacia, maple, bamboo, walnut and beech.

Thirdly, while using a specific wood, let us say acacia wood, in what ways did you cut the wooden pieces to make a board? Did you cut it parallel to surface or perpendicular to the surface? Does it really make any difference? Well, it does. And that is where the end- grain and long grain differentiation starts.

So, sticking to today’s topic I would start with the definition of end grain cutting boardsand long grain cutting boards and give you all the pros and cons for both.

Long grain cutting boards as the name itself suggest are made from the edgy surface of the wood. You cannot see the rings of the wood in long grain cutting boards as it is cut perpendicular to the surface of the wood. They are very economical. But they are not knife friendly. This can be justified by looking at the picture given below. If we use knife on long grain cutting boards, we are actually cutting through the fibers of the wood. Because of this there are more marks on the board and even the edginess of knife gets dull very quickly. Hence, they need a lot of maintenance that will ultimately cost you a lot.

On the other hand, end-grain wooden cutting boards are made up from the end pieces of the wood. In this the wooden blocks are cut parallel to the wood fibers. End-grain cutting boards are knife friendly as this time we are cutting between the wood fibers. This helps to keep the knife sharp and it even leaves no marks on the surface. They also look beautiful and need very low maintenance. Being a good quality wooden boards, they are expensive than the long-grain cutting boards. But trust me, they are worth buying. Recently I discovered a site named Ironwood Gourmet for wooden ware. They sell the best quality of end-grain cutting board I have ever seen or used.