What Are The Main Cheese Knives? A Complete Guide on Various Types and How to Use Them Best

In recent years, also thanks to culinary programs, even those who have never had aspirations of being a skilled chef when organizing a dinner at home take care of everything down to the smallest details. Often, among the must-have foods of home dinners, cheeses are never missing: because they are usually appreciated, they are ready to be enjoyed fresh and offering them on a generous cutting board for an appetizer or as a course at the end of the meal in a plateau always makes an impression. To fully enjoy all the flavor (and also the beauty, let's face it) of meticulously chosen dairy products, however, you have to treat them well: for this reason there are various cheese knives that, used at their best, enhance consistencies and aromas. Let's see what the main ones are and how to pair them.

So Many Cheeses, So Many Knives: To Each His Own

From a slice of cheese you want to get all its goodness and this is only possible if from the shape you obtain a section that enhances the peculiar characteristics of the product, making it immediately recognizable. There must therefore be a heart, as well as an external part: for a tasting  of 5 types (the ideal number to bring to the table) it is better not to exceed 30g each. Soft, tender, crumbly, fresh, hard, mature cheeses: just a glance is enough to understand that they are not all the same and that to serve them they need different knives.

Soft Cheese Knives

Soft cheeses include a wide variety of products, all of which are characterized by soft, more or less mushy textures. Their peculiarity is that they are very yielding and there is therefore the risk that when cutting a part of the cheese will remain stuck to the knife. For this reason, there are three options that are right for us:

• Knife with perforated blade: the blade is medium long, thin and very sharp, with two, three, four holes in the middle, which have the task of letting the cheese pass through, without it sticking to the tool. Recommended for products such as crescenza or stracchino, they can have a kind of two-pronged fork at the end, useful for serving the portion immediately.
• Thin and rigid blade knife: these are professional knives with a long blade (from 20 to 40 cm) that is not very thick and low, which allows for precise cutting without residues. The tip is usually curved: they are suitable for types with a melting paste such as brie or taleggio.
• Gorgonzola knife: for this cheese you can also use the two tools seen previously, but a special knife has been created that has a double use: the very thin blade allows for cutting and the rounded shape allows for spreading the cheese directly on bread or croutons given its creaminess.

Semi-Hard Cheese Knives

Fontina, Asiago, Montasio, Emmental are cheeses that are mostly found in a semi-mature version, with a fairly tough rind, an almost rubbery consistency and the size of the whole form is quite considerable. Long, sharp professional knives are needed, with a high and thick blade and therefore also more rigid, which allows for a clean cut, to be applied with a certain pressure: to avoid hurting yourself, the handle is very important, which must have an anatomical grip, easy to handle and not slippery.

Hard Cheese Knives

Mature cheeses such as some pecorinos or aged cheddar have a consistent paste, as is the rind. They therefore require solid and massive professional tools: enter the scene the cleavers, sturdy knives with a blade up to 40 cm long, thick and wide, which can be serrated or not. Due to the size of some cheeses, it can happen that the cut requires a balanced pressure on both sides, for this reason there are knives with double handles, so that you can use them by distributing the effort uniformly, without damaging yourself and the product.

Knives for Grana and Parmesan

They are among the most common knives in the home for hard cheeses: also called parmesan cutters, they are characterized by a knob- shaped handle (made of wood or plastic) and the blade is called drop-shaped or almond-shaped, with a particularly pointed upper part that is used to cut these long and very long-aged cheeses, with a crumbly consistency, obtaining many small pieces that can be easily picked up with the hands.

Similar to a knife, it is the cheese slicer or paddle, which thanks to its thin internal blade reduces the cheese into sheets: a tool more suitable for when, for example, the parmesan needs to be served immediately on a risotto, on pasta, on a carpaccio, rather than for a cutting board.

The raspadüra, or very thin sheets of cheese used in the Lodi tradition, deserves a separate mention: in this case, the cheesemaker himself uses a long, tall, very thin and flexible blade with a curved end to obtain them directly from the mould.

Serving Knives

As we have seen, certain knives are more suitable for professional use, if you have whole cheeses: this rarely happens in a home environment and it is easier to already have slices available for the cheese platter. Instead of knives for true experts, there are therefore service knives, which on a smaller scale perform the same functions, but come in more elegant shapes and smaller dimensions. In addition, they are versatile, and can therefore be used for more cheeses: these are the ones that are usually found sold in sets in home accessories shops, even in refined gift boxes.

Knives in The Kitchen: an Ally to Be Made to Last Over Time

Knife rhymes with cooking, that's a fact. It's no coincidence that even novice chefs jealously guard theirs, a bit like musicians with their instruments. There are knives for all needs: knives for meat, for fish, for bread and Japanese ones, among the coolest around. Owning them means keeping them working for a long time, sharpening them when necessary and removing any rust, to always have effective blades: only in this way will the desired effect be obtained with the cut.