Stop cooking with plastic cookware, time to switch to wood! Have you made the leap?

[ChefMariaSantiago]

I went shopping today in Canada's capital and stopped by a store called The Zone. While I was there I looked at various wooden kitchenware tools and made the decision switch out all my plastic cookware for wooden cookware. I found that all the plastic junk I bought over the years had started to deteriorate and taint the food I was cooking with little bits of plastic.

My first big purchase was a nice big wooden cutting board from a company called Core. The board is made of sustainable bamboo and is extremely study. I prefer buying bamboo over other hardwood any day because of deforestation.

I also bought some Caron & Doucet products to help maintain the wood. These products are also 100% natural unlike the petroleum found in mineral oil.

It was well worth the investment. The board is nice and heavy and makes my chopping so much better. In addition, the cutting board oil and wax smell awesome!

Have you made the decision yet to steer away from plastic in the kitchen?

 

[Kayelle]

Hi Maria and welcome!

We've had many many discussions about cutting boards here, but I too prefer bamboo for it's long lasting durability and beauty. Mine sits to the right of my sink at all times and even years later, it still looks great. Some say the product is too hard on knives, but I'd rather sharpen my knives more often than have an ugly board on my counter. I see you also have my very favorite style of knife.

 

[ChefMariaSantiago]

Hehehe, I love that knife... unfortunately the knife set I have is so cheap and crappy. I wish I could afford one of those japanese knife sets that sell for 1,000$+ I love sharp knives... sounds kinda weird...

 

[jennyema]

Nope. You can't beat plastic for ease of maintenance plus they go in the dishwasher.

I've had a couple of my plastic ones for 30 years and they show no signs of wear beyond cut marks.

I have 2 wooden spoons and that's probably the only wood I'll ever use in my kitchen.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I like to use a large wooden board when I'm kneading bread dough.

For daily chopping the workhorse of my kitchen is a 6"x10" plastic bar board. I can chop on it and then lift it to the pan. When I'm finished it goes into the sink for a quick wash and if necessary a short soak in a little bleach water.

6" x 10" x 3/8" Poly White Cutting Board

 

[Steve Kroll]

Nope. You can't beat plastic for ease of maintenance plus they go in the dishwasher.

I've had a couple of my plastic ones for 30 years and they show no signs of wear beyond cut marks.

I have 2 wooden spoons and that's probably the only wood I'll ever use in my kitchen.

I agree completely. Like you say, I also like the fact I can run them through the sterilization cycle im the dishwasher.

 

[Addie]

I hate plastic in my kitchen. It seems to me that they always have that greasy feel to them. Even if you wash them in the hottest water with a good dish washing detergent. If I have to make a choice, then I go with glass containers for leftovers. Instead of a large plastic pitcher, I have a lovely glass one with an ice cube catcher on the spout. I have a wooden board that I use all the time. I also have a smaller round one that was given to me as a gift. It hangs in my kitchen.

I am a yard sale fanatic. Anytime I see a 40's glass container for storage, I grab it. When my daughter sends me a meal from a holiday feast, she always sends it in a plastic container. She knows how I feel about plastic, so she sends the food in a throwaway. And that is exactly what I do. I change the container immediately, and toss hers away. I don't even bother to wash it.

I have a utensil jar next to my stove that is jammed with wooden spoons and rubber spatulas. One of the reason I like Oxo products is because their handles are made from rubber. No plastic there.

 

[ChefMariaSantiago]

Exactly! I hate the greasy feeling of plastic. If you need a lighter chopping block, just buy a small wooden one from the dollar store, but its always nice to have a big heavy one.

 

[Andy M.]

I use only plastic cutting boards. I've never had them feel greasy after cleaning. That's more of a problem with storage containers. Maybe we should consider wooden storage containers.

My cutting boards go into the DW and come out clean and sanitized. They don't warp, separate, or need oiling. Not to mention they cost a fraction of the price of wood boards.

 

[Cooking Goddess]

Nope. You can't beat plastic for ease of maintenance plus they go in the dishwasher.

I've had a couple of my plastic ones for 30 years and they show no signs of wear beyond cut marks.

I have 2 wooden spoons and that's probably the only wood I'll ever use in my kitchen.

I have an old plastic spoon I love! It was Himself's when he was in college before we were even dating. We celebrated our 40th anniversary last year, so that spoon has to be around 45 years. It's only sign of aging is a bit of a slant to the edge where the spoon rubs against a pot or pan. Same spot as where my Mom's old wooden spoons are worn down, and hers have to be at least 65 years old. Maybe older, if they were HER Mom's

I love the convenience of tossing my plastic utensils in the dishwasher, but I love the memories using my Mom's spoons gives me.

 

[bakechef]

I use only plastic cutting boards. I've never had them feel greasy after cleaning. That's more of a problem with storage containers. Maybe we should consider wooden storage containers.

My cutting boards go into the DW and come out clean and sanitized. They don't warp, separate, or need oiling. Not to mention they cost a fraction of the price of wood boards.

Same here, I like that they come out sanitized, and after a trip through the dishwasher there is definitely no greasy feel to them. My plastic storage containers don't stay greasy either. My plastic cutting boards are going on 15 years old and holding up like a champ.

Sent from my XT1080 using Discuss Cooking mobile app

 

[Cheryl J]

Plastic here too, the same ones as Aunt Bea posted in her pic. I love the look of wooden or bamboo, but for me plastic are much easier and more practical. I have 3 and depending on what they are used for I just scrub with a soapie scrubbie or put them in the dishwasher for sanitizing. When they're not in use they live behind the crockery jar that holds cooking utensils.

 

[Dawgluver]

Stop cooking with plastic cookware, time to switch to wood! Have you made the...

I have a 20 year old plastic overlay "cutting board" that I can roll up, pick up, and transport stuff into a pan on the stove. It also cleans up nicely in the dishwasher, as do my plastic containers. None ever feel greasy.

We got a nice little Boos wooden cutting board as a gift, I mainly use it to cool my canned goods

 

[Addie]

I would love to be able to run my cooking and eating items through a dishwasher. But this building was the second one to be converted to elderly housing. The powers that be felt that we needed a garbage disposal more than a dishwasher. The next building they converted has a garbage disposal, self cleaning ovens and a dishwasher. Unfortunately the found that the people in that building forget to take out the pans they store in the oven before they turn on the self cleaning. There will be no self cleaning oven in the next building. The dishwashers have created their own problems. The tenants load it in a fashion that blocks the water jets. Thus a flooding problem. There will be no new dishwashers in the next elderly housing. It has cost more in repairs and maintenance than the original cost of the item to be repaired. One by one they are removing the dishwasher and the self cleaning stoves. Every times an apartment becomes empty, these items are removed and the space where the dishwasher was becomes a cabinet.

 

[jennyema]

I use only plastic cutting boards. I've never had them feel greasy after cleaning. That's more of a problem with storage containers. Maybe we should consider wooden storage containers.

My cutting boards go into the DW and come out clean and sanitized. They don't warp, separate, or need oiling. Not to mention they cost a fraction of the price of wood boards.

My plastic cutting boards never feel greasy either.

For me there's no question that plastic is better than wood.

 

[Andy M.]

My plastic cutting boards never feel greasy either.

For me there's no question that plastic is better than wood.

I do use mostly wood utensils for cooking. I have several wood/bamboo spoons and spatulas I like to use. I like that the wood utensils are rigid. They're cheap and replaceable and also go in the DW.

 

[jennyema]

I do use mostly wood utensils for cooking. I have several wood/bamboo spoons and spatulas I like to use. I like that the wood utensils are rigid. They're cheap and replaceable and also go in the DW.

My utensil of choice is a Le Creuset "spoonula," which they stupidly discontinued making.

They have wooden handles. I put them in the DW but now that they don't make them anymore I have been pulling the head off (its designed for this) and dishwashing that and hand washing the handle.

 

[Andy M.]

My utensil of choice is a Le Creuset "spoonula," which they stupidly discontinued making.

They have wooden handles. I put them in the DW but now that they don't make them anymore I have been pulling the head off (its designed for this) and dishwashing that and hand washing the handle.

I have several high heat spatulas (one solid piece of silicone) that I got at a kitchen store in an outlet mall. They are similar to this:

 

[Steve Kroll]

My utensil of choice is a Le Creuset "spoonula," which they stupidly discontinued making.

Amazon still sells them:
http://www.amazon.com/Creuset-Silic...11606&sr=1-17&keywords=Silicone+Spoon+Spatula

I have a similar silicone utensil, but it's made by OXO. It has a plastic handle. I would like to get another one, but the problem is that I haven't been able to find it separately. It only seems to come as part of a set.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005PP9ACY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[CWS4322]

I have bamboo, wooden, professional kitchen 1/2" synthetic cutting boards, flexible plastic cutting mats. I have one set of cutting boards for meat (live on one side of the sink), and another set for veggies and fruit. I also have two sets of knives for the same purpose. I toss my wooden cutting boards in the dishwasher, they are thick enough they haven't warped, although I did have to reglue one of the smaller ones not long ago. I keep my cutting boards in metal "file divider" from Staples. I used to keep them on top of the microwave, but s/how they moved to the file divider. I use the same sort of thing to store my baking sheets/pizza pans and pot lids. And, when we replaced the counter top with the ash butcher block, I kept the sink cutout and use that over the sink to gain more counter space. That doesn't go in the dishwasher. I wash it with dish soap, rinse with diluted bleach, (which is how we do that in the commercial kitchen for the prep stations with wooden tops over the stainless). At home, I oil my wooden cutting boards periodically.