Cheese knife

Last updated
Soft cheese knife Cheese knife.JPG
Soft cheese knife

A cheese knife is a type of kitchen knife specialized for the cutting of cheese. Different cheeses require different knives, according primarily to hardness. There are also a number of other kitchen tools designed for cutting or slicing cheese, especially the harder types. These include the cheese cutter, cheese slicer, cheese plane, cheese scoop for soft cheese and others, collectively known as cheese servers. [1]

Contents

An assortment of cheese slicers Cheese planes.jpg
An assortment of cheese slicers

Soft cheese knives

Soft cheese knives are designed to deal with the stickiness of soft cheese. When the cheese does not stick to the blade, it allows for pieces of cheese to be presented more attractively, with crisper shapes compared to cheese cut with standard knives.

The blades of cheese knives are usually made of a material such as stainless steel, which is resistant to the stickiness of cheese. Another design feature often found is the presence of holes in the blade to help to prevent the cheese from sticking to it. Some soft cheese knives also include a ridge, which runs vertically near the top of the blade. This helps separate the cheese as it is being sliced. Some cheese knives have a forked end, used for serving slices of cheese.

Most ordinary knives have a blade that is wide at the base and tapers to the tip. A cheese knife, on the other hand, may look similar to a cleaver in that it starts out thinner at the handle and then gets wider away from the base. Some cheese knives have angled handles to make an easier cut.

The non-sticky characteristics of a cheese knife also make them useful for cutting other sticky foods, such as cakes, eggs, and pies; compare also egg slicer.

Hard cheese knives

Parmesan cheese knife, featuring a short, stubby blade Parmesan cheese knife on block of cheese.jpg
Parmesan cheese knife, featuring a short, stubby blade

Hard cheeses require a tough blade, which will not be damaged by the hard cheese. Exemplary is the distinctive Parmesan cheese knife, which is short, thick, and stubby, like an oyster knife. Another popular design is that of a large straight blade with handles on both ends so that a great amount of pressure may be applied.

Alternatives

Various non-knife devices are used for cutting cheese, such as a cheese wire, which completely avoids adhesion, a cheese slicer, used primarily for thin slices of medium-hard cheeses, used especially in Scandinavia and The Netherlands for cutting cheese for sandwiches, and the girolle, used to cut the hard Tête de Moine cheese by scraping.

Cheese slicer

Ostehovel Osthyvel 20050723 001.jpg
Ostehøvel

A cheese slicer is used usually to cut semi-hard and hard cheeses like Edam cheese and brunost . It produces thin, even slices. There are different styles of cheese slicers, designed for cheeses of varying hardness.

Ostehøvel, a modern cheese slicer or cheese plane, was invented by Thor Bjørklund in 1925 in Norway. [2] Mass production of the ostehøvel started during 1927 in Lillehammer, Norway. The design was based on the carpenter's plane. This style of slicer is very common in the Nordic countries, and in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. [3] [4] [5]

Cheese cutter

Cheese cutter, an alternative to the cheese knife BeechwGrapesOrangeMat540.jpg
Cheese cutter, an alternative to the cheese knife

Cheese cutters are designed to cut soft, sticky cheeses (moist and oily), and accordingly do not have a large sharp-edged blade; compare to a cheese knife with holes in the blade. The cutting edge of cheese cutters are typically a fine gauge stainless steel or aluminium wire (a "cheesewire") stretched across a supporting frame. The thin wire cuts through a cheese block with hand pressure. [6]

The original Prodyne Gourmet Cheese Slicer had a wooden board with a slot cut into it and a hole through which one end of a U-shaped steel cutting arm was inserted. In the patented design, a stainless steel wire extends between the two ends of the cutting arm fit into the slot, and cuts the cheese. The wire has loops at each end; one loop is around the steel cutting arm in the slot, while the other passes around a metal pin though a plastic handle on the other end of the cutting arm. The plastic handle rotates upward to tighten the wire, and is secured to the cutting arm with a screw.

The board-style cheese slicer has been expanded to include marble, stainless steel, and plastic cutting boards. Several other designs of handles and wire holders have also been invented to hold the cutting wires of cheese slicing boards. Many of these wires have loops on the ends like the Prodyne models; others have small rings or knots that fit into a slot on the handle and cutting arm.

Girolle

Girolle Girolle 7910.jpg
Girolle

The girolle is a utensil for scraping Tête de Moine Swiss cheese into the form of rosettes that resemble chanterelle mushrooms (also known as girolle in French, hence the name of the device). This cheese was traditionally scraped with a knife. The girolle was invented in 1982 by Nicolas Crevoisier of the Swiss Jura and is produced by the Métafil-laGirolle company. [7]

Cheese plane

Cheese plane Kaesehobel 01 09.jpg
Cheese plane

The cheese plane is a stationary variant of a carpenter's plane. It is used for cutting extra-hard Berber Alpkäse that has been aged for at least two years, also known as Hobelkäse (plane cheese).

Cheese scoop

Cheese scoop (c. 1942) Scoop, cheese (AM 1942.2-1).jpg
Cheese scoop (c.1942)

The cheese scoop is used for softer cheeses. It has a short curved blade with a long handle, creating an appearance of a tiny (6–8 inches or 15–20 cm long) garden trowel. It can be used in a manner similar to a spoon for serving semi soft but crumbly Stilton cheese. It can also be used to scoop out Gouda or Edam from their wax covers. The old version may have a built-in scraper, similar to the one in ice cream scoop. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utility knife</span> Knife used for general or utility purposes

A utility knife is any type of knife used for general manual work purposes. Such knives were originally fixed-blade knives with durable cutting edges suitable for rough work such as cutting cordage, cutting/scraping hides, butchering animals, cleaning fish scales, reshaping timber, and other tasks. Craft knives are small utility knives used as precision-oriented tools for finer, more delicate tasks such as carving and papercutting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knife</span> Tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade

A knife is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of wood, bone, and stone, over the centuries, in step with improvements in both metallurgy and manufacturing, knife blades have been made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, ceramic, and titanium. Most modern knives have either fixed or folding blades; blade patterns and styles vary by maker and country of origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swiss Army knife</span> Multi-tool pocketknife manufactured by Victorinox

The Swiss Army knife is a pocketknife, generally multi-tooled, now manufactured by Victorinox. The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by American soldiers after World War II after they had trouble pronouncing the German word "Offiziersmesser", meaning "officer’s knife".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blade</span> Sharp cutting part of a weapon or tool

A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historically, humans have made blades from flaking stones such as flint or obsidian, and from various metal such as copper, bronze, and iron. Modern blades are often made of steel or ceramic. Blades are one of humanity's oldest tools, and continue to be used for combat, food preparation, and other purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese kitchen knife</span> Type of knife used for food preparation

A Japanese kitchen knife is a type of a knife used for food preparation. These knives come in many different varieties and are often made using traditional Japanese blacksmithing techniques. They can be made from stainless steel, or hagane, which is the same kind of steel used to make Japanese swords. Most knives are referred to as hōchō or the variation -bōchō in compound words but can have other names including -kiri. There are four general categories used to distinguish the Japanese knife designs: handle, blade grind, steel, and construction.

<i>Yanagi ba</i> Japanese knife for preparing sushi and sashimi

Yanagi-ba-bōchō, yanagi ba, or yanagi, is a long and thin knife used in the Japanese cuisine. It is the typical example of the sashimi bōchō used to slice fish for sashimi and nigiri sushi.

A puukko is a small traditional Finnish general purpose belt knife with a single curved cutting edge, solid hidden tang and, usually, a flat spine. Military models of puukko were popular in the Russian criminal underworld under the name "Finnish knife" or finka since the 20th century. The modified version were among the models on which the Soviet military knife NR-40 was based and which was informally called "finka".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Opinel</span> Brand of pocket knife

The Opinel company has manufactured and marketed a line of eponymous wooden-handled knives since 1890 from its headquarters in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, Savoie, France where the family-run company also operates a museum dedicated to its knives. The company sells approximately 15 million knives annually. Opinel knives are made of both high carbon and stainless steel, the latter being Sandvik steel from Sweden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kitchen knife</span> Knives intended for use in the process of preparing food

A kitchen knife is any knife that is intended to be used in food preparation. While much of this work can be accomplished with a few general-purpose knives – notably a large chef's knife, a tough cleaver, a small paring knife and some sort of serrated blade – there are also many specialized knives that are designed for specific tasks. Kitchen knives can be made from several different materials.

In cooking, a chef's knife, also known as a cook's knife, is a cutting tool used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most Western cooks.

<i>Santoku</i> Kitchen knife originating in Japan

The Santoku bōchō or Bunka bōchō (文化包丁) is a general-purpose kitchen knife originating in Japan. Its blade is typically between 13 and 20 cm long, and has a flat edge and a sheepsfoot blade that curves down an angle approaching 60 degrees at the point. The term Santoku may refer to the wide variety of ingredients that the knife can handle: meat, fish and vegetables, or to the tasks it can perform: slicing, chopping and dicing, either interpretation indicating a multi-use, general-purpose kitchen knife. The Santoku's blade and handle are designed to work in harmony by matching the blade's width and weight to the weight of the tang and the handle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Survival knife</span> Knife designed for wilderness survival use

Survival knives are knives intended for survival purposes in a wilderness environment, often in an emergency when the user has lost most of their main equipment. Most military aviation units issue some kind of survival knife to their pilots in case their aircraft are shot down behind enemy lines and the crew needs tools to facilitate their survival, escape, and rescue. Survival knives can be used for trapping, skinning, wood cutting, wood carving, and other uses. Hunters, hikers, and outdoor sport enthusiasts use survival knives. Some survival knives are heavy-bladed and thick. Other survival knives are lightweight or fold in order to save weight and bulk as part of a larger survival kit. Their functions often include serving as a hunting knife. Features, such as hollow handles, that could be used as storage space for matches or similar small items, began gaining popularity in the 1980s. Custom or semi-custom makers such as Americans Jimmy Lile, Bo Randall, and Chris Reeve are often credited with inventing those features.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pizza cutter</span> Tool for cutting pizza into slices

A pizza cutter is a handheld kitchen utensil that is used to cut various items into sections or slices. Due to its prevalence in the making of pizza, it has earned the name "pizza cutter." The typical pizza cutter has a wheel-shaped blade that is attached to a handle. The original design has been modified over the years to include different sizes, blades, handles, and uses. The typical pizza cutter is not limited to cutting pizza but also for a variety of other tasks such as cutting dough or chopping herbs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paper knife</span> Tool used to open sealed envelopes

The terms paper knife and letter opener are often used interchangeably to refer to a knife-like desktop tool. In truth, they are actually for different functions and were in use at different times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cleaver</span> Large knife

A cleaver is a large knife that varies in its shape but usually resembles a rectangular-bladed hatchet. It is largely used as a kitchen or butcher knife and is mostly intended for splitting up large pieces of soft bones and slashing through thick pieces of meat. The knife's broad side can also be used for crushing in food preparation and can also be used to scoop up chopped items.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knife sharpening</span>

Knife sharpening is the process of making a knife or similar tool sharp by grinding against a hard, rough surface, typically a stone, or a flexible surface with hard particles, such as sandpaper. Additionally, a leather razor strop, or strop, is often used to straighten and polish an edge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scraper (kitchen)</span> Kitchen implement used to remove material from containers

A kitchen scraper is a kitchen implement made of metal, plastics, wood, rubber or silicone rubber. In practice, one type of scraper is often interchanged with another or with a spatula for some of the various uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Table knife</span> Type of cutlery

A table knife is an item of cutlery with a single cutting edge, and a blunt end – part of a table setting. Table knives are typically of moderate sharpness only, designed to cut prepared and cooked food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fillet knife</span> Flexible knife used in the preparation of filets

A fillet knife is a kitchen knife used for filleting. It gives good control and aids in filleting. It is a very flexible member of the boning knife family that is used to filet and prepare fish. Fillet knife blades are typically 15 to 28 cm long. This allows them to move easily along the backbone and under the skin of meat.

Slice Inc. was founded by T.J. Scimone in 2008 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida. The company mostly manufactures small hand-held cutting tools, including box-cutters, knives, and scissors.

References

  1. 1 2 Von Drachenfels, Susanne (2000). The Art of the Table: A Complete Guide to Table Setting, Table Manners, and Tableware. Simon & Schuster. p. 211. ISBN   978-0-684-84732-0 . Retrieved 2023-10-07.
  2. Mary Bellis. "Cheese Slicer". About.com. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  3. "Thor Bjørklund". Norsk biografisk leksikon. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  4. "About Us: History (Thor Bjørklund & Sønner AS)". Archived from the original on 2018-07-23. Retrieved 2016-12-24.
  5. Mats Linder. "Ostehøvel". Store norske leksikon. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  6. "What is a Cheese Slicer?". wiseGEEK. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
  7. "The Girolle originale – a device for shaping cheese". www.girolle.ch. Retrieved 18 March 2011.