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Custom made Wooden cutting board for over hob


Sophie Emma

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There is only one wood a Thai would recommend for a cutting board, and that's end grain tamarind. You may struggle to find anyone in BT that uses tamerind. Any particular reason you need it customised ? I use a 12in round, 3in thick slice bought from a truck vendor on the doi soket road for about 200bt. They do other sizes too and these are used by all the Thai food stalls & restaurants. I would never use anything else. Thrown away all my fancy western overpriced rubbish.

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Never use / purchase end grain wood unless for cutting veggies. Think about it ...the wood is made up up capillary cells that run vertical up the tree bringing nutrients from the roots up during the spring and down again when going into dormancy. Teak or any deciduous tree, such as maple are examples. Coniferous tree do the same. Flat sawn wood pieces will give you a more sanitary chopping block when using meat or chopping garlic, as the bacteria will not be sucked down into the grain with capillary action..  Garlic...just essence , of course, has a habit of doing similar. Now, as a rather experienced Teak Wallah....I have a bias toward the wood. The oils and waxes of teak will inhibit that transference of bacterial into the cells. However, my personal teak cutting boards are not open grained, but tight quartersawn wood. I have had food poisoning too many times. Maybe, once was from alcohol ;-(  .  When I see a typical Thai cutting board which is a round cut off a piece of random log,  I won't eat meat cut off it....restaurants, funerals, ex inlaws  etc. nope! . If it was washed down with hydrogen peroxide each night and left to soak....okay, but chances are the only thing that came close was a few rats licking the remaining juices and evacuating on the surface. Which brings me to 'street food'...so tasty.....where are the dishes washed ?

Don't get me wrong, I have ate pythons, dogs, cougars and bears....but, damn, only a fool eats food not prepared right.    ;-)  ....Ken

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it is true the round thai chopping blocks are only tamarind,any other tree o know off cannot be used in slices without serious checking.they are very durable when chopping with a cleaver.you do the same thing on a teak board you are going to eat a lot of teak over time,bad for the knife edge also as it contains silica.no great flavour either ,i tasted it many times when dealing with the dust.if the board goes ontop of your hob it is only for light chopping mostly cutting i guess.any dense wood that is not too aromatic will do.where i come from it would be quarrtersawn maple -butcherblock. cleaning with a little clorox is a good idea too.teak is ok maybe for a salad bowl or a stirring spoon.in general  all wood from the rainforest is better avoided.

leave it to the monkeys.

 

 

Edited by uptoyoumyfriend
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I concur with Teak; a wooden chopping board simply harbours germs and worse!!

 

it matters not what you seal it with as the first time you cut a carrot you score the surface and its away, collecting botulism,salmonella, the bubonic plague and dare i say....termites are already licking their tongues.

 

Not sure you would find a wooden chopping board in any restaurant with a health cwrtificate.

 

The hard plastic one are ok, but a small piece of granite even better...tho a bit heavy...or can be.

 

Go to a granite yard and buy an offcut for 200bt, then ask them to chamfer and bevel the edge. 300bt all in and a beautiful piece of kit to boot

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A hob is the cooker top, or the surface that has gas rings for cooking on


I see. More proof that in order to get the most from the "programme" here on TVF forum one needs to keep an open mind "whilst" being aware "colourful" terms for common things understood only in a limited area of the English speaking world.
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I see. More proof that in order to get the most from the "programme" here on TVF forum one needs to keep an open mind "whilst" being aware "colourful" terms for common things understood only in a limited area of the English speaking world.


You're quite right, being a Brit I never would have thought there would be any confusion over such a simple noun. Seems that I was wrong though ......

ef93b58c25bbed80aba59ad7e6894376.jpg
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On 30/08/2016 at 9:10 AM, Teak said:

Never use / purchase end grain wood unless for cutting veggies. Think about it ...the wood is made up up capillary cells that run vertical up the tree bringing nutrients from the roots up during the spring and down again when going into dormancy. Teak or any deciduous tree, such as maple are examples. Coniferous tree do the same. Flat sawn wood pieces will give you a more sanitary chopping block when using meat or chopping garlic, as the bacteria will not be sucked down into the grain with capillary action..  Garlic...just essence , of course, has a habit of doing similar. Now, as a rather experienced Teak Wallah....I have a bias toward the wood. The oils and waxes of teak will inhibit that transference of bacterial into the cells. However, my personal teak cutting boards are not open grained, but tight quartersawn wood. I have had food poisoning too many times. Maybe, once was from alcohol ;-(  .  When I see a typical Thai cutting board which is a round cut off a piece of random log,  I won't eat meat cut off it....restaurants, funerals, ex inlaws  etc. nope! . If it was washed down with hydrogen peroxide each night and left to soak....okay, but chances are the only thing that came close was a few rats licking the remaining juices and evacuating on the surface. Which brings me to 'street food'...so tasty.....where are the dishes washed ?

Don't get me wrong, I have ate pythons, dogs, cougars and bears....but, damn, only a fool eats food not prepared right.    ;-)  ....Ken

It's a wonder all of SE Asia isn't dropping off like flies... ever wonder why your theories are probably a case of typical western paranoia knows best ? 

 

Maybe proper science can explain...

 

http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/wellbeing/cutting-boards-and-bacteria?page=0%2C0

 

This fool is still alive and healthy using an end grain wooden chopping board like 3bn other fools in most of Asia :)

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There was a time when I wasn't too particular and living quite rural for too many years. It was the hot season and I developed something akin to dysentery. The mother in law treated me with with small balls of opium to constipate me and I kept buying large bottles of water with those strips of plastic proving they were  'sealed hygienically". I faithfully kept hydrated and took the small balls of opium.........and kept getting worse.

As mentioned, it was the dry season and the only water was in the wells and rats would sniff out the water, lean over and fall into the well. Yeah...bottled, dead rat water with a sanitation tape....wasn't helping. Finally cured myself by going to CM for 4 days and eating BiG Macs twice a day. Bunged me up so well....worked better than opium !  I don't eat Big Mac's or eat opium today....but, both a sure cure for chronic  diarrhea.   Quoting websites isn't quite the same as living life and learning how to keep living.  :-)      ....Ken

 

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