How to Keep a Chopping Board From Warping
Warped cutting boards are not only annoying but also very dangerous. When chopping and slicing, your chopping board should be rock-stable; less is a recipe for disaster.
If all of your cutting boards keep turning into swings, chances are good that you are not washing or storing them properly. The good news is that this is very easy to fix: most of the deformation is caused by heat and / or bending forces, both of which can be avoided with a few simple wash and storage settings. These tips apply to both wood and plastic boards, and if you use them, you will never have to deal with another unstable cutting board again.
Do not wash your cutting boards in hot water, including the dishwasher.
The only best way to prevent warpage is to keep the boards away from hot water. Heat makes plastic and wood much more pliable; Place a chopping board in your sink and place it on the bottom to air dry to create the ideal conditions for warping. Unfortunately, this means you shouldn’t be dishwasher safe – temperature swings like this are bad news, even for boards that are supposedly dishwasher safe.
Wash in cool or warm water is a much better choice. If you are intimidated by the idea of using something other than boiling water to wash your cutting boards, then you shouldn’t. Nobody’s tap water heats up enough to truly disinfect dishes – soap kills all germs. If you use enough soap, scrub the boards thoroughly and rinse them thoroughly, cold water cleans as well as hot water.
Store cutting boards straight or on the long side.
The heat allows it to warp, but the cutting boards won’t bend without a little force. It doesn’t take long: it can be done by placing the board on its end, especially if it is thin and still warm after washing. But the board cannot bend under its own weight when lying flat. If you have room for this, you must store yours that way.
With that said, most people don’t have enough space to store a stack of cutting boards, myself included. Instead, it is best to store the boards on the longer side. I used to store my boards with the short side against the cabinet wall, which applied just enough force that they always came out of the cabinet deformed. Turning them over to their long sides immediately made a huge difference – and once I finally stopped using hot water, warped cutting boards were officially a thing of the past.