How to Cut Cheese

If you promised to bring a cheese board to your next dinner party, don’t panic! We have some tricks of the trade to make you look like a cheese pro.

Like layer cake, the texture and flavor of a wheel or a piece of cheese varies throughout. The flavor is likely more intense near the rind, and the texture there will be different from that in the center of the wheel. These contrasts heighten with age. For the sake of fairness, there is a courteous and practical rule to cutting cheeses that results in a democratic distribution of both the rind and the interior of the cheese.

Firm cheeses like Gruyère, Comté, Manchego, and clothbound cheddar 

Pyramid-shaped cheeses like Valençay and Capriole Goat Cheese Piper’s Pyramide 

Log-shaped cheeses like Bûche de Chèvre and Westfield Farm Classic Blue Log  

Blue cheeses like Stilton and Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Bay Blue 

Soft cheeses like brie and St. Nectaire 

Small, square cheeses like Pont l’Évêque and the Grey Barn and Farm Prufrock 

Small, round cheeses like Crottin de Chavignol and Vermont Creamery Bijou 

Got a cheese with a wooden container or wrapping? 

This wheel is likely super-duper soft—don’t slice it as you would a regular wheel. Instead, run a dull knife under and around the top rind and remove it to create a “lid.” Dunk crackers and breadsticks directly into the exposed paste. If you have leftover cheese, place the “lid” back in its place to keep the paste moist and store as normal.

Kate Arding

Kate Arding is an independent dairy consultant specializing in small-scale cheese production and an original co-founder of culture: the word on cheese. A native of Britain, Kate has worked in the farmhouse cheese industry for 18 years, first as wholesale manager for Neal's Yard Dairy in London and later helping establish Cowgirl Creamery and Tomales Bay Foods in California. Since 2003 Kate has worked extensively both in the United States and overseas as an independent consultant, specializing in affinage, sales and marketing, and helping small-scale cheesemakers adapt to changing market demands.