We have many cheese knives. I’m sure we can’t be the only ones? Maybe, but those of you with a drawer of cheese related knives; do you know which knives are supposed to be used with each cheese? We thought it would be a good idea to give you the Cheezus cheese knife guide.
Starting with the Pronged Cheese Knife: This version not only has the prongs at the end for picking up your cheese, but also features cheese like eyes in the blade.
This cheese knife is use for semi soft cheeses. The holes allow the blade to have less chance to stick to the knife, while the prongs give you the ability to stick it into something like a Camembert and move it to your mouth… or plate, if you’re one of those fancy people.
Use with cheeses such as:
- Camembert
- Brie
- etc.
Next in the cheese knife guide is the: Slim Blade Cheese Knife
This is much like the last knife, hence their close proximity. The blade on this knife is slim for the same reason the last knife had holes; to stop it sticking to the cheese. This means this knife is suitable also for softer cheeses. Being a slimmer blade also stops as much pull on the cheese, so you get a more uniform slice as you are cutting through a softer cheese.
Use with cheeses such as:
- Anything triple creme, if it isn’t too soft it needs scooping
- Washed rind cheese
- Goats cheese
- If it’s soft, you can feel content in using this knife!
This little gem is known as the Cheese Cleaver and looks like it could do some serious damage.
That’s why this cheese knife is perfect for those harder cheeses. The sharp deeper blade lends itself perfectly to the closed body cheeses, not pulling like it could on the softer side of cheeses, but making itself known.
Use with cheeses such as:
- Cheddar
- Gruyere
- Comte
- Abondance
- etc.
Next in that picture is the Cheese Spreader and funnily enough, the purpose of this knife is pretty self explanatory.
The dull blade on it isn’t much use for harder cheeses and the blade shape wouldn’t be fantastic on semi soft, but when it comes to the super soft cheeses, this comes into it’s own.
Use with cheeses such as:
- Mont d’Or
- Cream Cheese
- Also good for soft blues and super soft triple cremes.
Starting at the back on this above picture with our Parmesan or Hard Cheese Knife.
The shape of the blade is perfect for taking chunks out of hard, crumbly, salt cheese. Digging at it like a miner looking for gold. OK, I know, a miner would certainly not be looking for gold with a hard cheese knife, but hard crumbly cheese is like gold to me, so….
Use with cheeses such as:
- Aged Cheddar
- Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Anything that is hard and crumbly!
Next up we have another pronged cheese knife and to be honest, with our holey pronged knife above, you can pretty much interchange them. We just happen to have different types. This variety does not have holes in it, which help the cheese not stick, so more suited to a semi soft cheese. I like to think of anything that would sit about a 5-7 on the soft / hard scale on the Cheezus app.
Use with cheeses such as:
- Any Tomme style cheese
- Fontina
- Limburger
- Port Salut
Lastly on our list here we have these two. Up first, the Cheese Plane.
This serious looking bit of kit is used for harder cheese. A lot of sites state you can use this for semi soft to semi hard, but this is where I would disagree. When you have a less firm cheese, the cheese will start to pull and ball, rather than come away in pieces. In order to even attempt this on semi hard cheese, the cheese would have to be extremely cold. Basically, use it for hard cheese.
Much like the hard cheese knife, use this with cheeses such as:
- Aged Cheddar
- Parmigiano-Reggiano
- Anything that is hard and crumbly!
Now we have the aptly named Cheese Fork. You’ll never guess what this is for. Never. For forking cheese? Yes, OK you got it you cheeky scamps. You can also use it on some hard cheeses, but essentially this 2 pronged wonder is merely for transporting cheese from board to plate!
If you enjoyed this cheese knife guide, don’t forget to give it a share and if you would like to read some of our other cheesy posts, click HERE.
Don’t forget to grab the Cheezus app where all of this will soon be available to read on the app, but for now you’ll have to make do with some fantastic cheeses, great information about them and wonderful pairings.