The kitchen is a place in the home where we spend a good amount of time in preparing meals, drinks, snacks, and so on. Because so much time is spent in the kitchen, it also tends to be a place for visiting. Just outside the kitchen is the dining room or kitchen nook where the meals are typically enjoyed. Some of us even enjoy our prepped foods in the living room, outside, or even in the bedroom for that morning breakfast in bed.
Kitchens can be a pretty messy area, but it also can showcase nice looking appliances, whether high end or not, and other cooking tools such as beautiful cutting boards and butcher blocks.
Kitchen tables or dinning room tables can be used to show off the beauty of cheeseboards and charcuterie boards.
Many of our serving and food prep surfaces in and out of the kitchen are made of wood. Other serving surfaces, such as dinner plates, are usually made with other materials besides wood, but have you ever wondered what they were before they were plastic, glass, ceramic, or what ever material you might have in front of you while you eat? Where did butcher blocks come from? Or this thing called a charcuterie board?
I tend to wonder about these things on occasion and I decided it was time to do a little research on the history of some of these items. This article was originally going to be only on cutting boards and butcher blocks, but as I was researching these items I determined that it might be good to include other items we use these days as well.
Cutting Boards
Cutting boards have been around for years, probably for as long as people have prepped their food. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much history on the use of cutting boards, but it appears they have been in use in China and Europe since the 1400’s.
Sometime in the mid 1900’s, plastic cutting boards hit the market and were beginning to be used in home kitchens. It was believed that the plastic cutting boards were safer to use since they were not porous, therefore reducing the chances of bacteria form building up. Afterall, they can be put in the dishwasher for a good cleaning unlike the wooden cutting board.
Cutting boards have been made with a variety of materials over the years, including wood, marble, plastic, stone and metal. Today, wood and plastic are the primary materials of choice because they tend to be more friendlier to the blade of the knife.
Wood has been the most common material over the years, mostly due to their natural durability and ease of obtaining the material. Wood also has a natural anti-microbial properties unlike it’s plastic version. Before the beautiful cutting boards were made, they were most likely made from circular slabs cut from the trunks of trees.
Butcher Blocks
Butcher blocks, also commonly called a chopping block, this tends to be a large nearly cube block of wood with the end grain exposed on the top surface. It may have three or four legs to support it or even sit directly on the ground. Three legs were and are still good for stability purposes on uneven floors.
This large block had many uses including being used by butchers, hence the name butcher block, or by other trades that required a strong durable work surface. In fact, it appears it was probably first used by a blacksmith to support and take the shock from the anvil that was sitting on a block of sycamore that was supported with three legs. The local butcher noticed the durability in this block and needed one for himself in his butcher shop.
Here is some good history on a company that may have been one of the first to make these butcher blocks: John Boos & Co.
Up to around the 1870’s, butcher blocks were commonly made of a section of a sycamore log. The size would depend on the size of the sycamore. Until this time, butcher blocks were then assembled with other types of wood, such as maple, that were cut into straight strips and then glued together to create a much larger block of wood. We see this type of construction now in butcher blocks, cutting boards, and table tops, although table tops are typically edge or face grain.
Trenchers
The John Moore Museum posted a very fascinating article on the history of Trenchers: https://www.johnmooremuseum.org/the-humble-trencher/.
A brief summary of this article and other sources I read is that trenchers were from the Medieval times and were used as a form of tableware. It originally started as a stale piece of bread to serve the food on like a plate. When the meal was done, the bread was soaked with the juices from the meal and then given to the poor as alms.
Alms:
This is something that is given to the poor people, or people in poverty, such as in food or money. In this case, it was the trencher and it was considered as an act of charity.
The bread trenchers were used until around the mid 16th century where they were beginning to be replaced by the more durable and functional forms that were made of wood or metal. They were typically round and flat and used for foods that did not have liquids. These wood trenchers were also used for cutting food on. Some had designs carved in them and the design of the trencher changed slightly over the years to serve different purposes. Some of the designs had indentations, a larger one to hold the juices from the meal and a smaller indentation to hold salt (I am not sure why salt).
Check out the article from The John Moore Museum if you haven’t already. It really is fascinating.
Cheese Boards
Cheese boards have been around for many years. In fact, the flat circular trencher is a form that we use today as a cheeseboard.
The term “cheese board” today has been used interchangeably with the term “charcuterie”, thanks to modern society, whether it is social media or the lack of understanding from the general public.
The cheese board is a platter with various types of cheeses and can include crackers and fruits that go good with the cheeses, along with mustards or jams. It typically does not include meats as a charcuterie board does, but it may in todays society.
Cheese has been around for a very long time, possibly dating back to the 1200BCE, but it wasn’t until much later that the cheese board became popular.
Charcuterie Boards
Charcuterie (shar-KOO-ta-REE) is similar to a cheese board but is focused more on a variety of meats and can include different cheeses, mustards, olives, pickles, and so on.
Charcuterie is a fancy word for cured meats. It is derived from the French around the 15th century when the meat was put through a preservation process for all parts of the meat before refrigeration existed.
This type of board is usually made of wood or some type of stone. They can get fancy with the wood and the sizes can vary in length from around 18 inches to several feet long. A lot of times, it is made from a single slab of wood, sometimes with a live edge.
It wasn’t until more recent years this type of board has become popular among people in the United States, probably because it is a rustic yet stylish display when hosting for guests.
Want to read more on the history of Charcuterie Boards? Head on over to Amazing Charcuterie Boards for a more extensive history leason.
Breadboards
Breadboards have been around for many years as well and you still see them in some of our kitchens today. These boards were used for kneading dough and cutting bread. It can be a wood board that sits on the counter top or one that slides out from under the counter, also serving as an extension to the work surface (counter top).
Most breadboards are thin, around 1/2″ to 3/4″ and usually include what is called a breadboard ends which are boards that the grain runs perpendicular to the main boards used as the work surface to hold everything together.
Most people do not hand make bread dough like they use to so these boards tend to be used as a cutting board these days.
Conclusion
This was an interesting one for me. I was hoping to find more information on each of these types of items, but there seems to be little about them. I still enjoyed learning something about each of them, especially the trenchers and the relationship of the butcher block with the blacksmith. If you have anything you would like to add to this list or more history about what I already shared, add it to the comments below, we would love to hear it.
Rick Simper has various hobbies, including woodworking, metalworking, composting, and gardening. He is an Architect full time and uses these hobbies to get away from the busy week of Architecture.