If you’re more interested in a cutting board made of wood, get the Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal (15" by 20").

Raw meats and fish can be slippery, and an overly smooth cutting board surface can make matters much worse. Kleen-Pail Pro’s patented, curved shape allows for easy pouring, with molded-in handles for more controlled carrying.

We also looked at composite and other materials: Composite boards are essentially many layers of Richlite baked and pressed together. We purchased the OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board so our reviewer could put it to the test in her kitchen. We avoided plastic boards with a handle cut into the side because it reduces the usable chopping surface area. We also invited Sam Sifton, food editor of The New York Times, to test each of our top contenders and give us his thoughts. inches thick—a rarity for most wood boards of this size—so it will resist warping better than thinner wood boards.

Providing smooth writing for every occasion, the Paper Mate Ball Point Pens are quick drying and durable, perfect for an array of home, school and office writing tasks.After an exchange with representatives from OXO some months ago, we learned that they'd since updated the board material to address this issue. Those include flexible cutting board mats, which we've found to be far too hard to keep from sliding around on the countertop, and industrial high-density polyethylene boards, which we find to be too hard and, often, too roughly textured.

We compiled the recommendations of commenters on our site, as well as ones from Chowhound and ChefTalk forums. The grippy sides are also a slightly different shape, but none of these changes affected the board’s performance. Proper Grip on both sides of the board so there's no slipping or sliding around whilst trying to chop\cut. The Teakhaus board has slots in the ends that, while oddly shallow and unfinished, do help with lifting the board. When it’s time to switch, the contrasting Smart Check color between the double-sided surface shows through.Upon first use, the board feels a bit slick under a knife and can occasionally cause the blade to slip.

Some of our testers hated the look of plastic boards and didn’t like the way the knife made contact with the board. Teak wood fights off moisture more effectively than the most common wood-cutting-board materials, so it requires less oiling. After you’re done cutting, wipe the board down with warm, soapy water, but never immerse the board in a sink full of water. Only a couple were still slicing cleanly after the 200th stroke, leaving us with a pretty clear idea of our winning boards. That said, some people may simply not have room for a big slab of wood, or might want, as chef Michael Dimmer put it, a board they can “leave in a sink overnight, or when (they) have people over, and no harm done.We loved how our knives felt on the Shun Hinoki Cutting Board made of very forgiving Japanese cypress. Polypropylene is probably the safest plastic you can find for food use, which makes it perfect for cutting boards. The Williams Sonoma Synthetic Non-Slip Cutting Board has grippy sides like the OXO, but our testers said it was too small. Second, one side has a drip catcher that traps liquids to minimize messes on the kitchen counter and easily pours from the corner. The unfinished juice groove was especially unpleasant, allowing its 8 teaspoons of liquid to easily leak out at the slightest tilt.