Or salmonella. Or botulism. Or some other crud. These are all the things that I keep thinking about when I look at my cutting boards.
When I was younger, the butcher block cutting board looked like the height of culinary sophistication to me. To own one of those would probably instantly give one +5 skill in the kitchen. That My Prince owned a butcher block cutting board may be one of the reasons I actually married him (never connecting his -12 skill in the kitchen with said cutting board).
Then one day I saw a print ad that showed a knife laying on a cutting board. I don't know what was being advertised, but the text of the ad pointed out that the cutting board was more likely to kill you than the knife. It made me think--and made me paranoid.
As I get older, I think more and more about the real war that we are in, the one where the microbes are winning. So food safety gets to be an issue around our house. And the pretty butcher block cutting board is long gone in favor of plastic boards.
The issue has arisen again here are Mama's. Mama hasn't cooked in forever, so she doesn't really have a lot to work with. I bought a cheap wooden cutting board to have something to use while I am in her kitchen. I didn't think much about it until the day I started to cut up some raw chicken. I couldn't do it, not on that wooden board. I had to take out a pottery plate to finish the job.
The next day I went out and started buying plastic cutting boards. I got multiples because I use the boards and then put them into the dishwasher (after a pre-wash with hot soapy water). I try to use a separate board for veggies and meats, and I use a clean board for each meal.
As with many things related to food and health, we seem to have conflicting opinions being batted back and forth. The debate over wood versus plastic for cutting boards seems to be a lively one, and the research just goes back and forth about what material is safest. All I know is that heat kills those little microbe critters, the more the better. As long as I can put it in the dishwasher, turn on the sanitizing feature, and throw in some soap, I will tell myself that I am "safe."
Now about that dish cloth . . .
2 comments:
Hey have you thought about using a Marble Slab for a cutting broad. My son has one and it nice, it's a little heavy but good, It cannot be cut and no little critters can get in any little cracks or cut marks,
Talking about chicken and how different we are today, when I was small we always had fried chicken on Sunday. It was nothing to leave it sitting out on the stove over half a day. We didn't get sick from it and we didn't have air condition. Now I'm telling my age.
I'm not saying do it now , but it is funny how we live through somethings that they now say it might make you sick or kill you.
But today is today and yesterday was yesterday
MooLady
Hey, MooLady. Thanks for reminding me about the marble option. I think I actually have one of those, but I have been using it for a trivet. Silly me! I'll give it a try when I get back to Austin. New horizons opening up . . .
In our house, it was leftover breakfast that stayed on the stove top, waiting for someone to come along for a snack. Scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, sometimes all, sometimes just one. Cold biscuit with strawberry preserves and 4-hour old egg . . . mmmmm!
Yes, there is a cognitive disconnect between what we all know about microbes and infection these days (way too much) and how we managed to live to our great age without succumbing. Could be we are just lucky! Could be the microbes are getting tricksy!
Soap, water, heat . . . that's still my mantra.
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