How To Cut A Block Of Cheese

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Tete De Moine Rosettes

Cutting a Large Block of Cheese with the CheeseHarp

In order to shave small ribbons of Tete de Moine, youll need a Girolle machine, which is a basic wooden tool with a crank knife that slices thin shavings of the cheese when rotated. These thin shavings can then be folded and arranged to look like small cheese flowers.

Start by cutting off the round-shaped rind off the top of the Tete De Moine wheel, exposing the paste underneath.

Set and pierce the wheel in the center, open paste side up, on top the the spike of the Girolle machine. Make sure that the wheel is completely pierced and firmly sits flat on top of the wooden base.

Connect the cutting knife portion of the Girolle machine and, using the handle, rotate it in either direction to create beautiful cheese curls.

Types Of Cheese Knives

According to dining etiquette, a cheese knife should not be used on more than one cheese type on your cheese board. Each cheese knife performs a purpose and was built to preform it well. Here is a list of common cheese knives organized from soft cheese knives to hard cheese knives. We also go through how they are used and some cheeses you can pair them with.

Enjoying Your Cheese Matters Most

How you cut up cheese is important, but whats more important, Polowsky says, is preserving its quality. The only wrong way would be cutting it up way ahead of time, he says.

Light and oxygen are cheeses biggest enemies. Oxygen, catalyzed by light, reacts with fat molecules and other compounds, like beta-carotene, in cheese, and can cause it to discolor and take on a plastic or cardboard-like flavor. Once cut, the countdown starts and the cheese will lose its quality with each passing minute.

Cheese is easier to cut when its cold, because thats when its less sticky, but you should never serve it straight from the refrigerator because cold temperature can mask the flavor. Instead, and as a general rule, Polowsky recommends leaving it out at room temperature for an hour or so before serving.

How long cheese maintains its optimal flavor after cutting depends on its type. Firmer cheeses, like cheddar, will last up to a week in the fridge, while softer cheeses, like brie, may only last a day or two.

And, unless youre breaking down massive wheels of cheese, Polowsky says you dont need a special set of tools to cut up and serve cheesejust a sharp knife, or even unflavored dental floss in place of a cheese wire to slice softer cheese.

Cutting guidelines help you get the most out of your favorite cheeses, but even if youre not sure, you shouldnt take things too seriouslyeating cheese is all about enjoyment.

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Cheese Bags Or Cheese Paper Is Best

To keep your cheese fresh for as long as possible, cheese bags or cheese paper is the best way to store it. It’s porous, so it protects the cheese from air exposure while still allowing it to breathe.

There aren’t many manufacturers out there besides Formaticum, but it’s well worth the investment. It’s a two-ply material made of wax-coated paper and a thin porous polyethylene plastic, which allows moisture to wick, but not totally escape.

Lisa over at America’s Test Kitchen compared Formaticum’s cheese bags to their homemade cheese wraps and found it to last a whole two weeks longer. To use these wrappers properly, check out Formaticum’s cheese wrapping how-to videos for the perfect folds.

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These uniquely shaped cheeses can feel intimidating to cut, but theyre actually quite simple to handle. Use a sharp, thin-bladed cheese knife or skeleton knife so the soft, delicate cheese doesnt stick to the blade.

Cut Valençay-style cheeses like Black Diamond from Yellow Springs Farm or Fireflys Mountain Top Bleu into even quarters from the top down. Next, lay each quarter flat on your cutting board and cut through the rind into quarter-inch thick slices. This method ensures that each piece looks uniform and has a relatively even rind-to-paste ratio.

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How To Slice Cheese Thinly

Whether you want to eat Dubliner cheese from Ireland, Cremoso cheese from Argentina, or Gruyere cheese from Switzerland, if it is not well-sliced, you will not enjoy it.

Having a passion or an obsession with cheese is not enough, you must factor in the shape, texture, flavor, and size into the way you cut the piece to get that satisfaction you so crave.

In as much as the taste of food is essential in the grand scheme of things, the presentation of a meal also goes a long way to either stimulate or reduce your appetite.

Even if you have the best cheese/meat slicer in the world, but do not know how to use it to slice cheese thinly for different dishes, your effort would have been a waste of time.

Stick with us as we embark on a journey to showing you the best ways to cut the different types of cheese, whether you are cooking for your home or at a professional level.

Items needed

  • A smooth and sharp kitchen knife
  • Wire cheese cutter or slicer
  • A clean serving tray

Things To Keep In Mind When Slicing Cheese

To prepare beautiful and delicious cheeses for you outside of the best way to slice cheese, the timing of the cut is also quite important.

It is important to cut cheese in the last few minutes before the party starts.

This is especially true for cream cheeses, if you cut them first, they will stick together easily.

While hard cheeses, it is more likely to dry out if cut too soon before eating.

Also, temperature plays an important role. You should remove the cheese from the refrigerator at least thirty minutes before serving.

It is easier to cut hard cheeses while they are cold.

You should consider tools or cheese slicers that work well for hard cheeses and a knife will suit softer cheeses for cheese cutters.

Dont make your cheese pieces go crushed just for them.

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Cheeses In A Wooden Box

Example: Mont dOr

Now, you will point out to me that the camembert also comes in a wooden box, but I wrote above that the camembert should be cut like a cake above.

Unlike the camembert however, cheeses like Mont dOr are very soft and can be scooped up directly with the spoon.

If you are making a baked camembert though, do leave it in the box and scoop up with cutlery.

You’re Slicing Cheese All Wrong Here’s How To Cut Every Shape Of Wedge Wheel And Chunk

Cheese 101: How to Cut Cheese

The facts are straightforward: Serve cheese plate, improve situation. No matter the occasion, cheese is bound to make it better.

Figuring out how to neatly present said cheese plate, however, is the tricky part. Sure, you can place the cheeses all nice and pretty on a board, but how does one know where to make the first cheese incision? And what about the intimidation factor that comes along with being the first person to whack into that beautiful, unperturbed wedge of brie?

Wipe the sweat off your brows, dairy queens. The folks over at Martha Stewart Living have made it simple — thank goodness. “When preparing a cheese plate, make a few slices to get guests started ,” they suggest. “Slice the cheese with the rind on guests can discard it on their plates.” Check out these helpful diagrams below for the best way to cut your cheeses — from Gruyere to goat — and rid your cheese-platter woes for good.

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One person commented that using a veggie peeler is actually go-to hack in the catering business to ribbon an array of foods . Kourtney Kardashian has also vouched for using a veggie peeler to make her own Instagram-worthy salad.

Another person stated they’ve been using a similar item for years that works very well: an actual cheese slicer, which doesn’t look too far off from Burton’s peeler.

While this cheese-peeling hack might seem like a dream, chef Frank Proto, director of culinary operations at the Institute of Culinary Education, said home cooks should proceed with caution whenever using a tool for something other than its intended purpose.

“Id recommend using a peeler to peel things,” he told TODAY via email. “While not the most exciting answer, I find that peelers are great at peeling but other tools are better for slicing.”

He did contend that this trick would work well with semi-hard cheeses like cheddar, Parmesan and pecorino. Others noted that it would not work with crumblier varieties.

As far as Burton’s technique? “I recommend staying away from any method of slicing that requires cutting towards yourself,” the chef advised.

Cheesy Cheese Tips For The Everyday Person

Try out these helpful tricks and tips for cheese:

1. For a healthier and tasteful meal try making macaroni and cheese with a natural cheese such as Fontina, Asiago, Gruyere, feta, or zesty pepper jack.

2. To keep cheese from curdling try melting at the end of the recipe, then add it in.

3. Never freeze your natural cheeses, store them wrapped up in wax or parchment paper at a temperature of 35 to 45 degrees.

4. When putting together cheese boards to be served before or after dinner, remember to limit your selection to no more than five different cheeses. Serve cheeses of different sizes, shapes, and flavor or texture profiles to create diversity and add interest to your cheese board.

5. Try this: Simple greens can be transformed into elegant salad courses by the addition of crumbled feta, blue, soft-ripened goat cheeses, or grated hard cheeses.

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How To Cut Feta Cheese

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, . Janice is a professional and creative writer who has worked at wikiHow since 2019. With both a B.A. and M.A. in English from East Stroudsburg University, she has a passion for writing a wide variety of content for anyone and everyone. In her free time, you can find her working on a new crochet pattern, listening to true crime podcasts, or tackling a new creative writing project.The wikiHow Video Team also followed the article’s instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 3,141 times.Learn more…

Feta cheese is a really tasty addition to a variety of dishes. While its really well-known for being crumbled over food, you can purchase it in block form. Since feta is softer than most other cheeses, you can slice blocks of feta in smaller cubes or crumble it into pieces. Play around with smaller chunks of this soft cheese to jazz up your recipes!

Can You Cut Cheese With An Electric Knife

Cheddar Cheese Block And Slices Stock Image

While you can technically try to cut cheese with an electric knife, it is now recommended. The constant movement and carving motion that electric knives do will just make the cheese stick more. Electric knives will also not give you very attractive cheese slices.

They will do more harm than good if youre trying to make a nice-looking cheeseboard or something similar.

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The Ultimate Guide To Cheese Knives

You may have a cheese knife set in your home but may not exactly know what task each one of those knives was made to perform. Just as a chef will use various types of knives in a day to increase their efficiency, each cheese knife type has a purpose to improve the user experience. We prepared a guide and a to help you use the proper knife for the cheeses you are planning to serve.

How To Cut Soft Wheels Of Cheese

Small, whole wheels of cheeses like bloomy rinds and washed rinds are simple to cut: just pretend youre slicing up a birthday cake.

Cutting equal-sized wedges from the center out ensures that each piece will include the cloudlike center, lush cream line, and delicate rind, giving each bite the full range of flavors and textures for the cheese. A thin-bladed knife or skeleton knife will give you the best results. This method also works for square-shaped bloomy and washed rind cheeses like the ones from Tulip Tree Creamery or Boxcarrs robiola-style blocks.

If the cheese youre serving is too gooey and liquid inside to cut normallylike Firefly Farms Merry Goat Round Spruce Reserve, for examplethats no problem! Simply use a sharp knife to cut through the top rind, almost as though you were opening an aluminum can. Peel back the lid and let your guests dip in with bread, crackers, veggies, or a spoon.

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Keep The Rind In Place

Some cheeses come entirely encased in a rind, like Brie or a big ol’ wheel of goat cheese. Your guests, being cultured turophiles , will like to see how ripe the whey inside that rind is, and you will show them by cutting the lentame, which is the first slice.

And no digging out the gooey middle of the Brie, you American barbarian. Its customary to eat the rind of soft and blue cheeses. All of it. However, our Frenchman notes that you can feel free to remove the rind of the harder cheeses before eating. No need to always rind it out.

Option : Cheese Grater

Block Cheese Cutting on the Wire Cutter B

The most common way to shred cheese at home is to use a cheese grater! When it comes to cheese graters, you will usually find two different kinds of cheese graters that are the most common!

  • Box Cheese Grater A box cheese grater is a great kitchen tool to have on hand! it gives you three different sizes to shred your cheese and a shaved cheese option!
  • Handheld Cheese Grater A hand held cheese grater usually comes with one shredding thickness, but is great if you need a quick cheese shred!

What is the down side to a hand held grater? The only down side to a hand help cheese grater is that if you have a recipe that calls for a lot of shredded cheese, you can get a hand cramp!

However, we still highly recommend to all cheese lovers to keep one of these hand graters on hand at all times

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Get The Right Knife For The Job

Getting the right tool for any job is usually the easiest and most convenient way to solve a problem. This fact still rings true when it comes to cheese. If you dont have the proper cutting tool, any knife will technically cut all types of cheese. However, just because you can do something doesnt mean there isnt an easier way to get the job done.

There are a surprisingly large amount of cheese knives to choose from. Some do a great job overall, and others work best for specific cheeses. For this specific issue, you should get a cheese knife with holes in it. Many of the options come with holes in the blade. The purpose of this is to reduce the surface space that the cheese has to stick to.

Here is a great video that shows how to cut different cheese with the right tools properly!

How To Slice A Piece Of Hard Cream Cheese

Many people have asked this question in the past.

Step 1: First, you need to take the cream cheese out of its wrapper.

Step 2: Second, place the cream cheese on a flat surface with the wrapper facing up.

Step 3: Next, peel off both sides of the plastic wrap so that it can be easily flipped over when finished.

Step 4: Finally, flip over the cheese to face down on your flat surface. Make sure to hold onto one side while flipping it so that there is no possible way for it to roll away from you when cutting it into slices.

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How To Cut Blocks Of Cheese Thinly

Different cheese types require different types of cut. These types and methods are described below:

Semi-firm cheese blocks get sliced into triangular bites

  • Cut your block in half to get two rectangles at first
  • Each rectangular piece is then cut to 1/8 inches thick
  • You then slice each piece diagonally to 2 triangles

This method is excellent for slicing Cheddar cheese.

Logs of cheese get cut into even-sized coins

  • Place your knife about 1/8-1/4 inch from the edge of an unwrap chunk of cheese
  • Using medium downward pressure, press the knife in to make a slice
  • Do this continually until you slice through all the cheese log to get 10-18 coins based on the slice-size

This is great for Mozzarella or Fresh goat cheese.

Rectangular blocks of cheese get cut into even cross-section slices

  • Use a large kitchen knife to make slices in rectangular shapes of 1/8-1/4 inches thick
  • The cuts should be evenly spaced from 1 end till you cover the whole length

The best block of cheese for this method is Pepper jack, Swiss, and Colby Jack.

How To Cut Cheese In Different Ways For Different Recipes

Block of Cheese with Cut Pieces â Stock Photo © Anita ...

When cutting cheese, the knife should always be sharp. The cheese should be cut with a slow and steady hand. It should be cut in a downward motion, careful to not make any sudden movements. Cheese should be cut into thin slices or cubes to create even pieces for cooking or serving.

The cheese may also need to be pressed and flattened before it is cut to make it easier and more efficient to slice and choose the thickness of the final product.

Cheese can also be cut into smaller pieces with a biscuit cutter or zip-lock bag tops for cooking or baking purposes. For example, the cheese used in a quiche or omelet can be cut in this manner.

Whether you want to prepare a large charcuterie board or a quiche or maybe an omelet, each recipe calls for different cheese shapes. Here are a few tips on how you can cut them into different shapes effortlessly:

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