Last week, we told you all about the best knives for cutting hard cheeses. The next installment in our guide to cheese knives tackles soft, spreadable, luscious styles like fresh cheeses, bloomy rinds, washed rinds, and blue cheeses.
While soft cheeses might not require the force needed to cut very firm styles, they can still be tricky to portion and serve. Luckily, there are many specialized knives for cutting fresh, soft, and semi-soft types so that your boards look and taste great. Here are the soft cheese knives to consider for your kitchen.
Cheese Spreader
True to its name, this short-handled cheese knife with a dull, rounded blade isn’t really designed to cut. It’s best for scooping and spreading a portion of tangy chevre, for example, or one of these triple-cream bloomies from Nettle Meadow Farm. The blade is perfectly shaped to schmear the cheese smoothly over a hunk of crusty baguette or your favorite cracker.
Hybrid Knives
Some knives can handle cheeses ranging from soft and supple to firm and crystalline—like our very own hand-carved bamboo cheese knife set and writable black resin cheese knives. They’re great for cutting wheels of any texture, and with their wide, curvy blades, both models are great for spreading soft cheeses.
Fork-Tipped Spear
This elegant utensil is standard in many cheese knife sets. The thin, sharp blade is great for cutting into soft, semi-soft, and semi-firm wheels alike, such as this soft-to-semi-firm sheep’s milk trio from Green Dirt Farm. Even better, you can use its handy two-pronged tip to pick up a slice of cheese or even spear yourself an olive or cornichon from the bottom of the jar.
Soft Cheese Knife (Skeleton Knife)
The challenge with cutting soft cheeses isn’t getting through their firm paste or tough rinds, as it is with hard cheeses. Rather, it’s in portioning each piece cleanly, as soft types tend to stick to the knife or become misshapen when they’re cut with the wrong gear.
Cutouts along the blade of this ingenious knife make it so that there’s nothing for a rich, soft cheese like triple-cream Trillium to stick to, and the sharp edge makes neatly slicing through the lushest, gooiest cheeses a snap.
Slim Blade Cheese Knife
Another trick for slicing those soft, oozy, stick-to-the-knife cheeses? Make the blade as thin as possible to allow for smooth, clean cuts with no sticky mess. The offset handle lets you cut all the way through a soft cheese like Boxcarr’s pudgy, beer-washed Lissome without your knuckles getting in the way.
Gorgonzola Knife
Blue cheese lovers, take note: this specialized cheese knife is designed to cut cheeses that are soft and spreadable on the inside but a little firmer on the outside, like Tulip Tree’s lush, double-cream Chicory Blue. The design combines the rounded shape of a spreader with a sharp blade and uniquely angled handle to help you make the most of your favorite blues.
Cheese Wire
Chefs and cheesemongers know that one of the best ways to cut soft cheeses—in fact, any cheese—isn’t with a knife, but with a thin metal wire. That goes double for soft cheeses, which can be tricky to cut cleanly even with thin-bladed or skeleton knives.
Just pop the cheese under the wire at the place you want to cut it, then bring down the wire in one smooth, swift motion. Voilà—beautifully cut logs, wedges, and rounds for your next cheese board!
Do you have a favorite soft cheese knife in your collection? Tag us in your Instagram posts and stories @cheesegrotto and let us know!
1 comment
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