Talk:Butcher block

Page move: Butcher block --> Chopping block

A chopping block seems to be the umbrella term.

Chinese restaurant workers chop fish, roast ducks, and vegetables on them. Butchers chop raw meat on them.

It's hard to Google. I searched the terms in quotes along with a cooking word outside the quotes. Chopping block seems to do the best.

What do you think? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 12:19, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

The umbrella term is cutting board. However all three have clear distinctions within this. Butcher blocks, in particular, are end-grain as this resists the blows of a cleaver better, when used for chopping meat. Chopping blocks are similar size to butcher blocks, but they're made with flat grain as this is far cheaper to manufacture. Andy Dingley (talk) 13:32, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

Why do you say cutting board is the umbrella term? How can a huge cube of wood be a board? Here in China, we have huge hunks of wood as high as wide that definitely aren't boards. All of these are end grain, and very few are used by butchers. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:40, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

What do you mean by "made with flat grain"? You mean vertical orientation of the grain, right? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:46, 4 October 2012 (UTC)

I can't speak for China, but I haven't heard the term chopping block ever used in the US or UK when referring to the item pictured on the article. Butcher's (or Butcher Block) is the term used as found in dictionaries. In some respects Andy is correct... it really is an enhanced cutting board or cutting block. Most home owners of these tables use them for cutting vegetables, meat or stems off flowers. I guess if people really want to get technical, a butcher's meat block evolved from crude multipurpose chopping blocks. However if you go that route then chopping blocks evolved from simple cutting boards (which I use to chop meat at my house) when people needed a heavier board to cut wood and meats. Fyunck(click) (talk) 07:24, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Fair enough. The same dictionary also has this. This is why I asked at Aussie and USA project pages. Maybe I should ask at India and africa projects too. Anyway, it sounds like both are used, so I'm fine either way. Thanks for the input. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 07:32, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

It does give a def of chopping block but you'll note it's a simple block of hardwood as opposed to the butcher block entry which is glued together strips. Just wondering why you would ask at the africa project? Wouldn't we simply follow standard wiki protocol and title the article after the most widely used term in English? If there are relatively closely used terms amongst English then sure, we'd need to reach the best most accurate consensus, and maybe that's the case here. To be honest, while I would use butcher block, I'm fine either way too, but how would the Africa project help here? Fyunck(click) (talk) 07:56, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

I'd disagree that "chopping blocks evolved from simple cutting boards" - in fact it was the other way around. Blocks were around long before we were able to create boards. They were originally tree stumps or blocks cut from trees, as in this example. Later, when manufacturing processes became more sophisticated it was possible to create boards, which have since evolved into a standard kitchen item, and cutting boards can now be made from other materials such as plastic. Butcher's blocks have a specific use, ie the butchering of animals, but they're still a chopping block, so chopping block is the umbrella term, and both butcher blocks and chopping boards are subordinate to that - a chopping board is just a really thin block. A butcher block can be used a chopping board but use a chopping board as a butcher block and you end up with kindling, or shards of plastic whipping around the place. -- AussieLegend (✉) 12:24, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Exactly my thinking. Also, the dictionary definition for "board" always uses the word "thin". Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:31, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

Sort of. Merriam Webster says a board is "a piece of sawed lumber of little thickness and a length greatly exceeding its width"

I think lots of people speak English in Africa and India, so it's worth getting an idea of the terms they use. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 13:28, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

As a native speaker of U.S. English, I say that cutting board is preferred as the general umbrella term. The term "Butcher block" is familiar as a kind of cutting board -- and, as the current article notes, "butcher block" is also a style of assembled wood used for other purposes. Interestingly, I do not often hear or see the term "chopping block" used to refer to a physical object, but it is widely used metaphorically in relation to decisions to eliminate or reduce spending, jobs, etc. (Usage examples that I just pulled off a web search include references to National Hockey League regular season games being "on the chopping block" -- meaning they were in danger of being cancelled; the headline "HP adds another 2,000 to the chopping block, cutting 29,000 jobs by 2014"; and "Romney says Big Bird will be on the chopping block" -- meaning that Romney suggested reducing or eliminating funding for U.S. public broadcasting). --Orlady (talk) 15:16, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

I haven't heard the term "Chopping block" (which doesn't mean it isn't the correct term!). Butcher block is the preferred term in the US and "Cutting board" refers to the stuff we use for tomatoes in the kitchen and is not the same thing at all. --regentspark (comment) 15:33, 5 October 2012 (UTC)

There seem to be some regional differences in the use of these terms, and, I think, thefre are also differences related to class and ethnic background. I suspect that the term "butcher's block" or "butcher block" was used throughout the US for the freestanding table with a very thick endgrain top, whether glued up or made from a single slice of a large tree. I have also heard them called "chopping blocks." "Butcher-block," with or without the hyphen, is used to identify countertops made of maple or other hardwoods glued together and laid so that the working surface is edge-grained. See http://www.hardwood-lumber.com/butcher-block-countertop.html?gclid=COPv5OSU7rICFSiCQgod3C0AUQ These might be called "maple countertops" (or whatever the species of wood), but not "chopping block countertops" or "cutting board countertops." Sur la Table shows 100 cutting and chopping mats, boards, blocks and such, and all 20 that are labled "chopping blocks" are end grain and are thick enough to take repeated cleaver blows. Of the "cutting boards," it looks like only one is end grain (although I've seen others)--the rest are either edge grain or artificial. There were also "carving boards"--chopping blocks or "cutting boards" with gutters and juice reservoirs. I think that a merge would, in the end, result in an overlong article, but Cutting board could be expanded into a complete overview, with links to more specific articles as they are developed.--Hjal (talk) 06:02, 7 October 2012 (UTC)

Good points. I can't see a merge unless an umbrella term is agreed upon. Also, they are so distinct, standalones may be best.

I think we really need to know what India calls it. "Butcher block" may be hugely Western-centric, and may represent a minority. Non-Western English speakers comprise way over a billion people if we consider African nations and India. I will dig some more. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 23:23, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

A comment from elsewhere. Sorry to invite comments at other pages. I was hoping to draw them here. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 23:16, 9 October 2012 (UTC)

• Oppose Yes, I'm opposing my own merger. :) After really digging, I cannot gather enough evidence to support this. Toss a few more opposes this way, and I will happily close this. Sorry to waste your time, folks. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 22:54, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

I wouldn't call it a waste of time. I had never heard of it called a chopping block but you made me look and see that some do actually call it that. For all I knew at the time every other country but the US called it a chopping block. If rm's come about out of sincerity, nothing bad can happen, and we're all likely to learn something along the way. I know I did. Fyunck(click) (talk) 01:22, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

Another oppose. The items are sufficiently different to warrant separate articles. Frimmin (talk) 13:49, 8 December 2012 (UTC)Frimmin.

Thank you. :) Next time, though, I will do a bit more research before proposing. Cheers, Anna Frodesiak (talk) 02:38, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

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