Epicurean Cutting Boards

Thin and lightweight, this cutting board is easier to wield than a heavy wooden slab.

The Epicurean line of cutting boards is taking the specialty cookware store by storm. Thin and sleek, these boards promise to be dishwasher safe, environmentally friendly and knife friendly. I decided to give them a test run to see how they measured up to their claims.

I decided to test the largest size (17 by 14 inches) of the recycled line, which is made of a composite of recycled cardboard and resin. The board is only about half an inch thin, which means it's lighter to lift and carry than most wooden boards, and is also easier to store than thicker boards; unfortunately the lightness also means that it can slide on the counter. Anchoring it with a damp dishtowel can solve this problem. The company claims the board is knife-friendly, meaning that the surface has enough "give" to keep a knife from dulling quickly. Wood, of course, is the most forgiving cutting surface for a knife blade. The board felt brittle beneath my knife, loudly clicking under the knife strokes, a sound I associate with cutting on surfaces like plastic. But over the course of a couple of weeks of use, I didn't notice any significant dulling of my cutlery. What's more, the board started showing scratches from the knife. While this detracted from the beauty of the board, it did show me that the surface is softer than I thought, thus good for my knife's blade.

Water seems to bead up on the epicurean board, making it easy to wipe clean between tasks. But best yet, at the end of your cooking session, you can throw the whole thing in the dishwasher.

The company claims that all Epicurean Cutting Surfaces are stain- and heat-resistant. Besides the recycled line, the company has several other product lines that boast everything from juice grooves to storage cups for sauces to gripper corners.

The 17x14 inch Recycled Epicurean Cutting Board sells for around $35.

Color-Coded Cutting Boards

One of the most common causes of food-related illness (a.k.a food poisoning) is something called cross-contamination, or the transfer of harmful bacteria from one food product to another by way of contaminated tools, equipment or hands.

In many cases of cross-contamination, cutting boards are a prime culprit. For that reason, using separate, color-coded cutting boards for different ingredients is a great way of preventing cross-contamination.

The colors help you keep track of which cutting boards are for reserved for which types of foods, so that you're less likely to cut lettuce on the same board you just used for prepping raw poultry.

Sound complicated? Fortunately, you don't need to adopt the entire system in order to cook more safely at home. Even having one separate, distinctively colored cutting board that's reserved just for raw meat is a great idea — one that will go a long way toward minimizing your chances of a food-related illness.

Here are the different cutting board colors and their meanings:
Green: Fruits & VegetablesYellow: Raw PoultryBlue: Cooked FoodWhite: Dairy ProductsTan: Fish & SeafoodRed: Raw MeatYou can buy a complete set of color-coded cutting boards including all the colors listed above. Or you can buy the colors separately, in case you don't want the whole set. Compare prices.