Many people love cheese. But cut it with ordinary knives - very dubious pleasure. It is very important to choose a specialized cutting tool that can cope with this task as it should.
Peculiarities
Sandwichrodes are cut without problems with ordinary blades. But any professional culinary and even just gourmet cannot agree with such a decision. Cheese knives can be different. When creating a knife, the proportion and consistency of each product are taken into account. The cheese knife for cutting especially soft varieties (Dor-Blue and similar varieties) is not suitable, according to professionals and experts, for cheese a little greater fortress. In turn, Both named types of knives will not cope quite effectively with durable and extremely durable varieties of the product.
The taste of good cheese is non-uniformly distributed by the mass of the workpiece. Even moving from the middle to the edges, the gourmets recognize the shades of taste. Therefore, lovers of this product believe that all pieces should be cut into smooth changes in taste sensations. The overwhelming part of the cheese knives is equipped with a handle above the blade. This scheme greatly facilitates cutting and provides uniform pressure throughout the line. As a result, the flushing and cropping product is excluded.
The length of the cheese knife should reach 0.37 m, it includes a 0.24 m blade and handle 0.13 m. The blade should not be excessively thick - the maximum allowable layer of metal is 1.6 mm. At the same time, the greatest length of the blade can be only 0.4 m. Deviation even 1 mm is not allowed over permissible dimensions.
The sharpening of the cheese knife should be carried out at an angle of strictly 20 degrees (for solid varieties) or 15 (if you need to process soft cheeses).
For cutting combined varieties, along with straight knives, strings, blades and a number of other structures can be used.
Important: If the knife is equipped with a ceramic blade, it is not suitable for cutting cheese. Ceramics simply destroys cheese and does not allow you to cut it correctly.
Normal is made from stainless steel grades with high carbon content. Classic example - Damascus steel. You can use more modern alloys with a similar composition. The handle may be different, it is selected individually. Considerable part of experienced cooks believes that the metal and fire-resistant plastic definitely loses wood.
Varieties
But the general requirements cannot be limited to. Even if the knife for cutting cheese looks the same as the usual, in fact it works differently. A classic option is a long knife with an ergonomic structure of the handle. Designers of the company Samura. who developed such a version provided for the use of a wavy cutting edge. Special "air pockets" exclude adhesion of fragments of cheese to the surface of the knife. In the descriptions it is noted that the junction of the blade with a handle is raised. This allows you to distribute the load as correct as possible.
Professional cooks occasionally face more unique tools, such as:
- parmesan knife;
- two-handed blade;
- Knife-grater;
- Plancock for cheese.
Professional devices usually differ in narrow specialization. Sometimes they are designed to handle one or several varieties of cheese. Therefore, their purchase is not too in demand. Classic modifications are good because it is quite well handled and solid, and soft cheeses. In the overwhelming majority of versions used bactericidal friend Helping effectively cutting sustained cheeses.
Products with two handles are usually used to cut very large heads. An ordinary tool with this task is not coping with too satisfactory. And the adaptation, which is called Zhirol . It looks simple and unpretentious, but effectively solves the task. With a grease easy to cut:
- Swiss Tet de Man;
- EDAM;
- Smoked cheese brands;
- Petit Basque.
This tool is used in other cases. He is able to make "curls" from chocolate, which elegantly look at home pastries. Rotating, fat forms chips, externally reminiscent of lace. For decorating various dishes, it is suitable perfect. Externally Greased is a round item with a central pin, which is put on the cheese head. Then spin the blade and handle. Rotation leads to the cutting of the upper layers of the sharp edge. These layers are becoming neat, similar to lace chips.
The blade is a knife for soft grades of cheese. It looks outwardly resembles a topopor, and the tool ends with a thin blade. Wooden handle is designed with the calculation of a comfortable grip, because the product cutting is easily and fast.
Traditional shovel allows you to adjust push strength. Therefore, it becomes possible to make pieces of precisely given thickness. Another type of blades - A knife with a side blade similar to a plug. This product is widely used to work with delicacious cheeses. There are also blades with an oblong part: they are needed to smear Ricott or Almete.
For processing soft cheese use String knife. Such a cheese cutter is capable of turning even the least solid product in cubes with neat faces. This is the perfect solution for blue mold cheese, which under the blade of an ordinary knife turns into an incomprehensible crumb. But high quality strings can cope with a moderately rigid product.
String structures are made to divide on the execution on platform and intended for handmade. Stands are from different materials:
- wood (especially used bamboo);
- non-corrosive steel marks;
- glass.
Hand and platform cheese knives Can cut the head to the segments of the required thickness. In most structures, this thickness is asked hard when designing. Only a few versions allow, rotating special screws, adjust the size of the cut fragments. The melted cheeses most often cut the knives with the "closures" and with the teeth of figure shape. These teeth allow you to capture and decompose the sliced pieces on the dish.
Parmesan is distinguished by unusual properties: it is solid, but at the same time very broken, it is easily divided into grains. Cut it completely dissimilar to the ordinary knife tool. He is rather similar to the plane and the chisel. The blade must have a large width, and it is necessary to apply special solutions that reduce the adhesion of chopped pieces. To do this, or the Teflon coating is applied, or the extras of a special form are made.
Smaller cheese heads are cut by approximately the same one-handed or two-handed knives that are smaller in size. But there is an alternative solution - Traditional Swiss tool similar to a spatula. Blades of "Spatulas" may have a direct either semicircular shape.
Returning to parmesan and other solid cheeses, we must immediately indicate that the handles must be equipped with a metal insert. According to this, it is convenient to hit by a special hammer to remove a strong crust.
As for the corrugated knives, they can help when working not only with cheeses, but also with vegetables, and even when cutting chips. In a separate group allocated tools that allow you to cut:
- Soft cheeses with mold crusts (Camembert);
- Soft cheeses with a washed crust (Limburg);
- Cheese with blue mold (Gorgonzola or Roquefort).
All such knives are distinguished by frame execution. From the blade deliberately remove a significant part of the metal. Save only a frame with a cutting face, volatile and some ribs. Completes the design of a two-way terminal fork, suitable for heating and serving portion pieces of cheese. Important: For products with each type of mold, knives are used with the handle of the corresponding color.
Popular brands
To work with soft cheeses like gurma is often used Wusthof knives, manufactured by the German company Solingen . The peculiarity of this version is to use strong steel with the additive of vanadium and molybdenum. Plastic handles are distinguished by a large fortress and serve quite long. The blade is equipped with holes that exclude the sticking of the chopped cheese, the two-sided sharpening is performed on a bilateral scheme.
String ALUMINIUM (manufactured by Westmark) Designed specifically for cutting semi-solid product. And the handle and the case are made from strong aluminum. The model will allow you to instantly prepare pieces of practically transparent thickness. Czech brand products come in handy for working with parmesan Tescoma. Its characteristic feature is a large thickness of the handle that is convenient to use.
Design OT. Tupperware. Provides for the edge of the edge with small cloth. This model is designed to work with Rocca. Specific feature - 3 large holes. For the manufacture of the handle used strong plastic. The package includes a convenient storage case.
Recommendations for choosing
For cutting cheese, only a blade knife is used, which contains 15% chromium and 10% nickel. The required information can be learned from the marking. Models for soft cheese, which is hard to cut, necessarily have recesses in the middle. But for a solid product, other modifications are needed, which are outwardly similar to the shovel or the chisel. With such a tool, the cutting on the portion pieces and the removal of strong crust is not labor.
For the type of kitchen, the type of steel has an important meaning. Damasi alloy is very expensive and not all for the pocket. However, it will allow to stand out against the background of other consumers, and if there is money, it is worth choosing it. As already mentioned, many cooks adhere to special views on what the material will be the best for handles. Here you need to be guided only by personal tastes, and not someone's advice.
The same applies to the design of knives. So, SAMURA models embody the traditional elegance inherent in the Japanese approach. However, they are rejected by some people. The set must include a knife for parmesan. Notice: if the manufacturer supplies its knives in a wooden case, then it is very convenient and testifies to the quality of the products.
If you need to choose not a whole set, but only a separate instance, you need to give preference to knives for medium soft cheeses. They are more or less suitable for very soft, and for an extremely solid product. Those who can't consider themselves gourmet can be limited to one fixture with a hearty sharpening. When buying a set, give preference to the large number of knives should not be. Most manufacturers include sets of 1 or 2 tools that are practically useless in everyday life.
Subtleties of use
No matter how the knife or a whole set is purchased, it is very important for them to use correctly. If you allow an error if you cut the cheese incorrectly - no constructive perfection will help. When a cheese march turns out in the hands, it needs to move. It turns out a thin sheet chop. Parmesan, characterized by extreme hardness, do not cut in the usual sense of the word, and split into pieces.
In any piece, there must be a crust and a middle, and the main part of the head. Use your special knife for each grade of cheese.
The point is not only in the convenience of cutting, but also to eliminate the mixing of flavors and smells. The knife must be kept parallel to your body - this is the only right position. The end of the blade directs always from itself and strictly down, it is the most secure and practical orientation.
It is impossible to put pressure on the knife too much. If, after passing through the head, it will be powered into a cutting board or a different surface, it will be:
- impractical (without any benefit);
- unnecessary noisy;
- unsafe;
- It is harmful to the blade (its service life is reduced).
Storage and care
But even if the kitchen tool is used correctly, errors during its storage and improper care can very much.
Any chef knows: so that cheesy (and any other) knife worked as long as possible, he must be where it is convenient to reach it with his hands.
In the kitchen of modest size uses mounted magnetic holders. If there is enough space apply the usual stand. Important: Rotating stands are more comfortable - they allow you to get to the desired tool.
It is categorically impossible to fold the knives in the boxes in the boxes, in boxes and on the shelves. This leads to a rapid loss of acute and rust. It is extremely important: each tool should be applied only for the work for which it is intended. The best boards are wooden, when contacting them, the blades are still stupid. When the work ends, the knives wash immediately, and then wipe the blades.
In the next video, you will learn how to use different types of knives for different cheeses.