In my mother’s house, right below the board was a tilt-out flour bin, in which she could pour a 50-pound bag of flour. There was also a grocery store where she could buy a 50-pound bag of flour. And them make my sister a dress out of the empty bag. And the bread had a nice flavor and texture. Times were different, once, and houses were designed accordingly.
My house, built in 1978, has one. I use it almost every time I cook, usually by pulling it out and putting it atop the stove or the counter. It is a beautiful after-market board I bought from a woodworker. It replaced the chewed up cutting board that came with the house. I love it.
Our house built in 1987 has one. I have never used it. I have some really nice cutting boards I prefer. My parents house built in the early 70’s had one, but it was definitely meant to be pulled out and used on top of the counter. It was not sturdy enough in the slot to be used there.
In all the kitchens I have installed in the past decade or even renos where someone else has done the kitchen I do not recall any pull out cutting boards. The photo in Johnny’s link shows North American style face frame cabinets which are very rarely installed anymore. I am sure Blum and other manufacturers make cutting board hardware for frameless cabinets, but I do not recall installing any.
I thought it was relatively common wisdom that wood cutting boards are generally more sanitary than plastic, due to wood’s better drying characteristics. Wood is more resistant to developing surface features from cutting that harbour bacteria, and can more easily be refinished. Plastic is better suited to dishwasher sanitizing of course.
The house I grew up in here in LA (near La Cienega and Jefferson) built in 1928 had one and I have never seen another place with one since then. We also had a cupboard which my dad called a “cooler”. It sat on an screened opening in the floor so cool air under the house could help keep perishables a bit cooler. I know cool air doesn’t rise, but this thing seemed to work.
I installed a new kitchen 7 year ago, into an older house. Yes, we put in a pull out cutting board. Yes, it was a standard option in the lower cabinet (we used semi-custom cabinets). I can’t tell you anything about popularity, but they are still a thing.
Our house was built 1967, but I don’t know if we still have the original cabinets. It has the slide-out cutting board. We use it only for slicing bread or buns, or perhaps pizza. We never use it for meats or vegetables; we have plastic cutting boards for those.
I just pulled it out and looked at it. It’s a one-way design; it can’t be flipped or rotated, but it’s in pretty good shape. If it got worn, I’d probably never use it again and just forget about it.
When I remodeled my kitchen 25 years ago, it was a standard option on the modular cabinets I used. It actually has 2 finished edges, one in light oak and the other in dark maple. So one board matches 2 cabinet finishes.
I use it almost every day. Washing it with soap & water keeps it clean; once a year or so it can be bleached if needed. If you’re really free with your knives when cutting, you might have to sand it down & refinish each decade or so.
Now, I believe you can get them where the middle part of the board is routed out to hold a 1/4" plastic insert that can be run thru the dishwasher if desired.
We had one in the new house we bought last year (c. 1950s). Hate the thing, and just ripped it out.
My house was built in 1996 and has one. I never use it.
My kitchen cabinets don’t have a slide out cutting board.
I bought a microwave cart over twenty years ago that has a slide out cutting board. I bought it at Sam’s Club in 1989. It did require assembly.
This one is almost identical to mine. Except mine has cabinet doors to hide the storage area.
I only use the cutting board for vegetables.
I have a plastic one for meat. It goes in the dishwasher.
My childhood home built c. 1957 had one. Haven’t seen one in anything from any other era.
Basically an improved way to preserve microbes.
My apartment complex was built in 1964. We moved in in 1997. I can’t say for certain that the kitchen was never remodeled between '64 and '97, but our kitchen had an ancient dispenser for waxed paper and aluminum foil built into the wall, so I think we got the original kitchen (as an aside, the dispenser had space for a third roll as well; I suspect it was for butcher paper).
Anyway, the kitchen we moved into had a pull-out cutting board above the silverware drawer. We had to remove it and put it on top of the sink to use it though, because a piece of wood under the counter was broken, and the board would seesaw if we tried to cut anything on it.
Last year, the owners decided to remodel all 100 units (a work in progress). We couldn’t get them to tell us when they were going to do ours, but we were told that they weren’t going to put laundry hookups in any of them. A month later, the manager told me that she had spoken with the owners and they had agreed to put hookups into the unit 60 feet to the east of ours if we’d agree to move into it in about two weeks. We did, they did, and since December we’ve not had a pull-out cutting board.
That lack is, of course, the LEAST of the things that have made the move less than satisfying. But that’s a story for another day.