A pastry wheel, also known as a pastry jigger or jagging wheel, is a kitchen tool which is used to cut pastry and other doughs. [1] [2] A typical design includes a small wheel on a handle, which is shaped in such a way that it produces a jagged cut or other pattern in the dough. [3] Pastry wheels for home use tend to have just one wheel, whereas ones for professional use may include multiple wheels so as to cut large quantities of dough at once. [1] The handles of pastry wheels are made of varying materials depending on the wealth of their user, from simple wood or pottery, to silver, bone and mother of pearl. [1]
Pastry cutters date back to antiquity, although the wheel did not appear until the late Middle Ages. The first known pastry cutter appears in a relief in a 4th-century B.C. Etruscan tomb. The first attested use of a pastry wheel in a professional kitchen dates from 1549 in Italy. They are also referred to in Bartolomeo Scappi's 1570 culinary opera. [1] Both typical and atypical pastry wheels are held in museum collections, including several artistic wheels made entirely from scrimshaw. [1] [4] [5] [6]
