A communal cheeseboard can be an intimidating scenario for a fromage freshman, lest he make a major faux pas. A good board will offer a nice assortment of aged and fresh, hard and soft, mild and strong cheeses. We’ve already learned the proper way to cut cheese of different shapes, but did you know that certain knives are meant to slice certain cheeses?
Robin Shreeves recently wrote about this topic on Mother Nature Network. She narrows it down to four categories: wide knife, thin knife, pointed knife, and cheese fork. Each have different blades, and are used for different textures of cheese. Certainly click through and give the whole list a read, but to sum up: the wide knife is best for hard cheeses, the thin knife for semi-hard, the pointed knife for semi-soft or spreadable cheeses, and the fork for both picking up slices of cheese and crumbling larger wedges of drier cheeses into manageable pieces. Which ones are already in your silverware drawer?
Of course, these are just suggestions for the classic use of each instrument. Will your Velveeta taste the same if you don’t use a specialized Velveeta knife? Yes. One tip Shreeves mentions that you should stick to? “It’s good to have one dedicated knife per cheese that you’re serving. That way, those who haven’t yet developed a taste for stinky cheese don’t have to use a knife that was used to cut Roquefort when they’re diving into a wedge of Cheddar.”
Ready to start shopping? Check out our Gear section for all sorts of cheesy goodies — knives included.
Photo by Anthropologie
Alicia Hahn
Alicia Hahn excels at eating and enjoys writing, crosswords, and cooking (preferably with cheese). Originally from San Francisco, she moved to Boston for school and fell in love with the city (despite an annual campaign against winter). Her favorite place to be is the farmers’ market, where she finds weird and exciting ingredients to make or break her next meal.
