Parental protip: You know those tempered glass cutting boards?

[Sagitta]

If you're a parent, you might want to change them out for something else until your kids get past the 'into everything' stage.

I managed to make mine literally explode last night by accidentally leaving it on the burner and turning it on.

As in explode, explode.

I now have shards of glass all over the kitchen and throughout the downstairs area of the apartment. I'm counting my blessings the kidling is away for the next few days being babysat, but serrrriously.

It was actually kind of cool, except or the 'covered with glass/having to throw dinner away because of glass flying into the cookpot' part.

I have photos of the aftermath, when I get time later I might post them.

[UngorEatStefan]

Parental protip: Don't leave glass on the burner and turn it on.

[Rastlin]

I used to always use glass baking pans. My roommate managed to explode four of them since I would put them on the stove top to serve stuff out of them and he would never bother to actually look at the stove when he turned it on.

Still don't know how you don't see a big green glass baking pan that you have to reach over to turn the stove on.

[Phantom]

I've heard those glass cutting boards are actually bad in general. They dull the edges of your knives faster than a softer wood or rubber board.

[Colossal]

The fact that they're non-porous works against you in another way as well. Something porous like wood wicks any contaminants away from the food you're working with, while with glass the food just kind of stews in them.

[Navarp]

Though if he had left a wooden cutting board on the burner he might be having an entirely other set of problems.

I have always heard that wooden cutting boards are the best though for a variety of reasons.

[Sagitta]

Originally Posted by Colossal

The fact that they're non-porous works against you in another way as well. Something porous like wood wicks any contaminants away from the food you're working with, while with glass the food just kind of stews in them.

I've always heard how horrible the wooden ones supposedly are because they absorb the juices and then can't be properly cleaned so become bacteria farms.

I guess the only way to safely cut meat is samurai-sword style in midair. :-/

[Lapak]

Originally Posted by Sagitta

I've always heard how horrible the wooden ones supposedly are because they absorb the juices and then can't be properly cleaed so become bacteria farms.

I guess the only way to safely cut meat is samurai-sword style in midair. :-/

Actually, the latest studies seem to say the opposite. The bacteria may be drawn into the wood but it dies out there and/or the wood retains it, while plastic leaves the bacteria on the surface - and plastic that has been sliced by knives is the worst because you can't clean it properly.

EDIT: Here's a couple of relevant links.

[Requesting Bear]

I have always heard to have one wooden and one hard plastic. Wooden for everything but meat, meat goes on the plastic.

Never in my life have I heard of, or ever wanted to, use(ing) a glass cutting board. Interesting links, Lapak.

[oreth]

I use these due to my small kitchen space

[Marten]

Yeah, I mean, you can argue plastic vs wood (vs bamboo) for a while, but glass cutting boards are decorative only IMO.

[Colossal]

Originally Posted by Lapak

Actually, the latest studies seem to say the opposite. The bacteria may be drawn into the wood but it dies out there and/or the wood retains it, while plastic leaves the bacteria on the surface - and plastic that has been sliced by knives is the worst because you can't clean it properly.

EDIT: Here's a couple of relevant links.

Yeah, it's been fairly common knowledge for several years now. I went to all-wood for my cutting boards ages ago.

[Pandir]

I once tried to cook pancakes in a class dish as a kid. No one told me not to put glass on the burners, I was glad I wasn't in the kitchen when it exploded.

[echelonx]

And now a demonstration on proper cutting board etiquette:

cuttingboard.jpg

[Requesting Bear]

that's one way to lose a finger/hand/other body part, yeah.

working in a restaurant made me pretty jaded towards people that can't practice basic kitchen safety. I watched a man slice his entire hand and arm open with a knife once and watched another spill boiling water all over his arm.

so yeah...stupid shit seems funny! but it's really not. kitchen utensils don't give a fuck about your soft flesh.

[Bester]

I did that to a glass pitcher once. I had just finished off the last of a thing of iced tea and right away decided to refill it with freshly brewed tea.

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by echelonx

And now a demonstration on proper cutting board etiquette:

I fail to understand how the 360 controller works with everything else!

[Padma]

I've seen microbial tests made on a cleaned wooden cutting board and on a cleaned nylon cutting board. Seeing as nylon cutting boards are easier and cheaper to exchange those are the ones we use in restaurant kitchens here for anything meat/chicken/fish. But then, we also colour code them and use different ones for different purposes.

In my opinion wooden boards are fine for veggies, root veggies, bread and cheese. But for anything sensitive where contamination is a high risk I want to use a cutting board I can scrub down properly with disinfectants and run through a high temperature dishwasher.

For just using at home, you're free to use whichever you want.

[Requesting Bear]

Originally Posted by Padma

I've seen microbial tests made on a cleaned wooden cutting board and on a cleaned nylon cutting board. Seeing as nylon cutting boards are easier and cheaper to exchange those are the ones we use in restaurant kitchens here for anything meat/chicken/fish. But then, we also colour code them and use different ones for different purposes.

In my opinion wooden boards are fine for veggies, root veggies, bread and cheese. But for anything sensitive where contamination is a high risk I want to use a cutting board I can scrub down properly with disinfectants and run through a high temperature dishwasher.

For just using at home, you're free to use whichever you want.

I think the difference here is that most people at home don't rub their cutting boards down with restaurant grade disinfectants and then through a high temp dishwasher

[Navarp]

I have a "hot water tap" that holds a little less than 1 gallon of 200 degree water. I use that and Antibacterial soap to clean mine and I am confident that it is pretty much germ free when I am done with it.

I definitely think that wood is the way to go (or bamboo)

[Sagitta]

I spent a good chunk of my morning picking glass off the floor and from the rug (dear apartment complex, rugs running up to three feet from the kitchen is a bad idea, as an FYI) and was all happy I had everything up.

I just opened my oven door.

Glass.

EVERYWHERE.

I forgot it exploded at waist level so I wound up with a good chunk going in the cracks of the oven door.

Also, wondering why a chunk of glass won't come off the rug only to find the heat had adhered it to the fabric? Scientifically cool, but amazingly annoying to get up.

[Padma]

Originally Posted by Requesting Bear

I think the difference here is that most people at home don't rub their cutting boards down with restaurant grade disinfectants and then through a high temp dishwasher

Most, no (although Navarp just said he did), cause I think that method will kill off a wooden board quite quickly. Which tbh only makes me less prone to use them, the microbial tests taken from the wooden cutting board was disgusting while the nylon was pretty much clean.

Like I said, at home, I use nylon (which I exchange about every 4 months or so) for meat, fish and poultry and wooden for (rinsed) veggies and root veggies, fruit and bread. That's also the way most kitchens I've worked in have been.

At the school I'm working atm we only use nylon cutting boards, colour coded so they're only used for certain kinds of foods to avoid cross contamination.

[Viper1969]

I once, years ago, exploded a baking dish, turned on the wrong burner and didn't realize it until it was glowing under the dish. I grabbed a oven mitt and grabbed the dish in the hopes I could put it somewhere else, but as I was looking for a place to put it, it exploded all over the kitchen. Little bits of it melted into the linoleum around the oven and even some bits got into the next room and melted into the carpet. Huge pain in the ass.

[Vaal]

So where to stone cutting boards fall on the safety/knife destruction spectrum?

[Peacefully]

Once when I was still living at home with my mom and her boyfriend, a glass dish containing dinner exploded in the kitchen. He pretty much accused me of throwing it against a wall, then later decided that a ghost had done it (he literally saw, and spoke to, ghosts).

It was supposed to be an unbreakable dish or something, still not entirely sure what happened since no one was around. I can only assume a burner or something was left on and no one noticed. Our stove was kind of odd at the time, I once found a burner on full blast without the knob being turned, no light on, and the stove hadn't been used in days. I only found it cause I randomly smelled something burning which turned out to be food under the burner.