Hosting is an art and the host is an artist, now just imagine ruining your perfectly hosted table just because you didn’t give enough attention to the most important part of your presentation! The Serving tools, and if you want that perfectly sliced piece of cheese on your table, you definitely need the best cheese cutlery set to go with the delicacies you have to serve.
Your chef’s knife is far too large and awkward, and your butter knife lacks the strength to slice through firm parmesan or the grace to smoothly slide through a soft, velvety blue but fortunately, there is a perfect fix for that too. Welcome to the elegant world of specialized knives and in this blog you can learn and get your favorite pair of cheese cutlery sets.
If you're serving olives, pickles, or small appetizers, using a dedicated spoon makes a noticeable difference. A stainless steel olive spoon is specially designed with small holes to drain excess oil or brine, making serving cleaner and more convenient. You can explore a range of elegant and durable options in this olive spoons collection perfect for both everyday use and stylish table presentation.
The basics of cheese knives
Cheese tools come in a remarkable number of styles. Short, elongated, pointed, or rounded—whatever you are searching for, there is likely a specialized knife available for you but for a beginner, it can be tough to distinguish which tools are used for specific tasks. That is why we gathered this manual so you can understand the various selections and the dairy pairings they match.
Types of cheese knives
Soft cheese knife
Whether you are tasting a fresh mozzarella or portioning off a bit of gorgonzola, the soft cheese blade is the proper tool for the task. Soft cheeses naturally adhere to your utensils, so these blades are strategically engineered to reduce the surface area that dairy can stick to. By being remarkably thin or featuring holes—not unlike Swiss cheese—these tools are vital to a seamless, snag-free cutting session. Your days of needing a second blade to scrape cheese off the first are finished!
Offset cheese knife
If you only wish to purchase one single tool, this is the one. Offset blades are sturdy enough to handle firm cheeses like alpine-style, but possess a thinner edge that won't stick to delicate soft varieties. The angled handle that gives this tool its distinct lightning bolt silhouette provides space for the user’s knuckles, allowing for better control, leverage, and consistently tidy cuts.
Pronged Cheese Knife
This versatile cheese tool is a necessity for any dairy enthusiast. A standard pronged blade can slice everything ranging from sharp, aged cheddar to crumbly feta. It isn’t quite rugged enough to go head-to-head with hard cheeses like parmesan, however, and may be a bit thicker than ideal for soft types. It is the generalist of cheese tools but the master of none. The forked tip can be utilized for serving or just staring deeply at the cheese of your choice—we won’t judge.
Cheese cleaver
Indeed, it looks exactly like a miniature meat cleaver—which is almost reason enough to put this in your cutlery drawer. The cheese cleaver is what we use when portioning firm or semi-hard varieties like gouda or brick. It makes separating larger blocks of cheese an absolute breeze.
Flat cheese knife
The flat cheese tool also known as a cheese chisel — is for shaving or splintering aged hard cheeses like vintage gouda or cheddar. As the name suggests, the blade is wide and short allowing you to exert pressure in a small area and create small shards without pulverizing nearby board accouterments.
Spatula cheese knife (or Cheese spreader)
Some varieties are better smeared than sliced, and for those, you’ll want a dedicated spreader nearby. This simple tool will reinvent the way you apply cream cheese to a bagel. Once you experience it, there is no going back and the spatula blades are intentionally designed to gently bend as you apply force so that you have even more precision over your spreading skills because every board deserves a spatula knife.
Parmesan knife
We realize what you’re thinking: it is totally biased that parmesan gets its own dedicated tool. This blade originates from Italy where it is called a “tagliagrana.” It also goes by the name almond knife or spade knife. Whatever you decide to call it, the parmesan tool is the instrument of choice for breaking down hard, granular cheeses like parmesan, the pointed tip easily pierces into even the most stubborn rinds.
What cheese knives should you get?
While every Cheese Lover envisions a drawer full of every specialized tool they could imagine, it makes sense to focus your shopping for maximum utility. For high-quality options, we suggest looking at a cheese cutlery set from Inox Artisans. We’d recommend beginning with the three tools we couldn’t live without:
- Soft cheese knife
- Offset cheese knife
- Cheese cleaver
These three selections cover everything from creamy to hard textures while having enough versatility to ensure you’re never left waiting while someone else is using the tool you need.
Other cheese tools to know
Cheese plane
The finest way to get uniform, razor-thin ribbons is a cheese plane. Although many four-sided graters have one built-in, having a handheld cheese plane can be a fantastic addition to your tool kit when you want the ease of a smaller, more specialized device.
Cheese wire
For ultra-fragile cheeses that might get flattened with a blade, the cheese wire can be a superb way to make cuts without crushing your beautiful ball of mozzarella. Many serving boards even have fixtures so your cheese wire can connect directly to the board itself!
Ready, set, cut!
Equipped with the proper instruments, you’ll be slicing and dicing Cheese with ease. Find the board to match your new cheese cutlery set with our guide to all things cheeseboards. Beyond the board, Inox Artisans offers a full culinary knife set for your kitchen needs, as well as an elegant wedding cake knife for special occasions.
Armed with the right tools, you’ll be slicing and dicing Cheese with ease. Find the cheese board to match your new cheese knives with our guide to all things cheeseboards.
If all this talk of cheese tools has you feeling greedy for a new cheese cutlery set, try our selection of over handcrafted tools featuring.
Try out your new cheese knives by getting your favorite Inox Artisans and cheese board and knives set delivered right to your door with our continuously updated list of new collections.
FAQs
Q1. What are the differently shaped cheese knives for?
Just as professional chefs use different blades for cutting various fruits or meats, enthusiasts use specific tools for different cheeses. Soft varieties require thin blades to prevent sticking, while hard cheeses like parmesan need a stout blade to splinter off pieces. Each silhouette has a specific goal.
Q2. What knife is best for cutting cheese?
If you don’t have any professional tools on hand, we’d recommend using a compact paring knife for firm-to-hard blocks and a thin kitchen blade or butter spreader for soft varieties, while these won’t replace a purpose-built cheese cutlery set, they’ll work in a pinch.
Q3. Why do cheese knives have holes?
Have you ever been annoyed by cheese that stubbornly clings to your blade, everyone gets, but some tools have holes to prevent exactly that. The cutouts provide less surface area for the dairy to stick to so your cheese can smoothly release from the metal rather than hanging on while you scrape it off.
Q4. How do I clean my Inox Artisans tools?
To maintain the handcrafted finish, you should wash your tools by hand with mild detergent and dry them immediately, avoid abrasive scrubbers to keep the metal looking pristine.
Q5. Can these knives be used for fruit or charcuterie?
Yes, tools like the pronged knife or cleaver are excellent for serving sliced apples, pears, or hard meats like salami on your platter.
Q6. What is the best way to store a cheese cutlery set?
Storing them in a dedicated block or a lined drawer insert helps protect the sharp edges and prevents the unique handles from getting scratched.
