What tool for cutting cheese?

J

Jonathan Rodriguez

New member
The situation: I am a 99 pound weakling. An old one. I have one heck of a
time cube-ing ( sp? and Who cares?) hard cheese. I've taught our blender to
grate it but getting it down to cubes the size the blender likes is a
bummer.
I see cheese knives that have holes in the blade ( perhaps to undo a
sticky sort of vacuum) and also a rod with a sort of wire thing for cutting
hard cheese. We enjoy having a bowl of pimento cheese ready for a sandwich
but I always dread the battle with red hoop cheese. Any solution? Polly
 
Polly Esther wrote:

Are you cutting it cold? It might be easier
if you let it come up to room temperature.
Most if not all cheeses will safely tolerate
a brief excursion to room temperature. I can't
think of any exceptions.
 
JeanineAlyse wrote:

Not sure if that's a good idea. The machine
could have raw meat juices on it, and the
inevitable flesh-eating bacteria. On the
other hand, if they have a deli department,
they could cut the cheese.
 
On Apr 18, 7:28?pm, "Polly Esther" wrote:

Those are soft cheese knives.


Good luck with that. We've broken so many wire cheese cutters it's not
funny. I think they're designed for Velveeta.


To cut cubes of hard cheeses, get a hard cheese knife.
 
"Polly Esther" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

I got the industrial sized wire one from a restaurant supply store. With it
those huge Costco chunks are no problem at all. If you buy smaller blocks
of cheese you could get a smaller one.
 
"Julie Bove" wrote:



Julie,

On a food TV program, there was a cheese board that used a guitar string
to make cheese slices. I forget how it was fashioned but it was very
effective.

Best,

Andy
 
"Polly Esther" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
For years we've used a "cheese plane", though I've never called it that.
Here's something very similar to ours from OXO.
http://www.knifecenter.com/kc_new/store_detail.html?s=OXO26581
I use it with the soft supermarket mozzarella when I can't find firmer for
pizza. I don't think anything is available that would work easily with
Velveeta. I haven't thought about that word since childhood.

Kent
 
On Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:01:46 -0800, Mark Thorson
wrote:


It's *hard* cheese, that's going to be pulverized in a blender... no
need to make neat cubes. Just bust it up into chunks and crumbs with
a stout pointy implement like a screwdriver. But did she ever think
of a cheese grater? duh
 
Polly Esther wrote:


Different cheeses have different specialty tools optimized for cutting
them. Wires are for very soft cheeses. Knives with air gaps are for
medium chheses.

For a hard cheese you want a short thick blade. The knives specific to
Parmiagiano Regiano are so short and thick they look like small
triangular trowels.

Pick the shortest thickest blade you have and use that. Cut off small
pieces one by one.
 
On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:09:03 +0000 (UTC), Doug Freyburger
wrote:


I like to eat hard cheese and I like as much surface exposed as
possible, I pick off bits with an ordinary stubby screwdriver.
 
On Tue, 19 Apr 2011 11:27:55 -0500, Sqwertz wrote:


Oops. I thought that was Sheldon. Sorry!

You're not often (or ever) wrong with facts, but sorry - you are this
time. The knives with holes are for soft cheeses. The wires can be
used with any cheese, but not usually soft cheeses.

-sw
 
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