The Cheese Knife

Ever since human beings have been preparing their own food, people have been coming up with new ways of cutting, slicing, shredding and grating all sorts of different food types. The professional chef is always interested in creating new utensils that will make their job easier and more efficient. As a result, there are now thousands and thousand of different types of utensils that you can buy, not only for the professional chef, but that you can use in your own kitchen as well. A lot of these tools are fantastic time savers and will help you immensely in the preparation of your food, and some of them are a complete waste of time, but you've got to hand it to the innovators out there who continue to find new designs and ideas.

One such initiative idea that has been out for quite a while now is the cheese knife. There are so many different types of cheeses out there, that it's quite easy to lose track of them all, and for each type of cheese, there are numerous ways that they can be prepared, and countless recipes that you can use them in. It is believed that humans have been making cheese for at least 8,000 years. That has given us a lot of time to experiment with different cheeses and perfect the art of cheese making. As a result, we now have blue cheese, camembert cheese, Parmesan, Swiss and brie. We have goats cheese, cottage cheese, Gouda, goats and even moldy cheese. So many cheeses to choose from!

Combine the human desire to create with all of these cheese possibilities, and the quest began to design the perfect cheese knife. After all, what good is the perfect cheese, if you do not have the right tool to cut it with? There are many different types of cheese knives out there, but they can generally be split into 2 different categories; Soft and Hard.

The Soft Cheese knife is specifically designed for the softer types of cheese. These include your Camemberts, azeitao, bjiou and brie. The soft cheese knife will usually have large or small holes down the length of the blade. The reason for these holes is to prevent the cheese sticking to the knife. If you've ever tried to cut a slice of Camembert with a normal knife, you will know how easily the cheese sticks to the edges, making it difficult to cut properly.

The Hard Cheese knife was created to slice harder types of cheeses. These include Doddington, Gouda, Parmigiano Reggiano and Sbrinz. The hard cheese knife is usually long and extremely sharp, making it much easier to cut through the more difficult cheeses. You will find that hard cheese knives quite often have two prongs on the end, which allows them to be used for serving as well as cutting.

Other Types of Cheese Knives

Along with the two general types of cheese knives mentioned above, you can also get a specialised cheese knife for extra tough cheese. Sometimes these knives are referred to as "Parmesan Cheese Knives", and are much shorter and stockier than their more common cousins, allowing the chef to put more weight behind the cut for a better cutting effect.

For a more uniform cut, you could also look at getting a cheese slicer, which is not really a knife, but should be mentioned here for the sake of completion. There are a few different types of cheese slicers, and a lot of kitchen graters will come with a cheese slicer built in, but the two most common type of cheese slicers are the ones that use wire to cut and the ones that are like a flat broad length of metal with a slot through the middle to let the cheese through. These are both used by dragging the slicer across the top of your cheese while applying pressure.

If you are considering purchasing a cheese knife, there are a few considerations that you should be aware of. For starters, you should definitely be looking to get a stainless steel blade. Anything less is not going to last the distance, and is not going to make your cheese cutting experience a good one. Secondly, you need to consider the handle. This is more personal preference, as some people prefer the feel of a wooden handle in their hands, whereas others like the weight of the stainless steel handle. You can also get cheese knives with plastic handles which are a lot cheaper, but tend to be cheaper in quality as well.

If you are looking at buying a cheese knife as a gift for a friend or loved one, why not go the extra step and get them a set? There are some great cheese knife gift sets out there that come with a range of the knives that we have talked about above, all packaged in a lovely wooden box. Some kits even come with a range of cheese samples to get you started. If you are after something a little less formal, you can look at getting a cheese knife in the shape of a mouse or some other novelty. There are plenty of options out there, if you shop around you are bound to find the perfect cheese knife for your needs.