If you ate pasta and antipasto, would you still be hungry? Author Unknown
Cheese Tools
There are many different types of utensils available for people interested in cheese. Serving tools as well as special eating utensils are available. Cheesemaking and cheese tasting also have items are available to make your cheese experience a pleasant one.
A cheese press is one of the oldest cheese-making tools still used today. The cheese press is used to separate the solids (curds) from the liquids (whey). Many variations of the cheese press exist. Most of the modern types are more elaborate but still retain the main components that were used in the original presses. In a press there are drain holes and a method of applying pressure (often using a device that screws down). Cheese-maker purist will sometimes skip modern presses and use gravity instead - a bin of cheese curds topped with a pressed on board.
Using a hot iron in cheesemaking may sound strange but it was actually an early tool. A hot iron applied in the cheese making process creates long strings. Early cheesemakers could tell the amount and type of acids in the cheese by how long the strings were and how they separated. Knowledge of the acids help determine how the cheese would progress in the future. Accurate and simple chemical test have now replaced the hot iron.
For the cheese enthusiast there are many more functional tools used for slicing, cutting, shaping and preparing cheese. Graters are a very common tool used in kitchens. A fine grater grates cheese into small rectangular pieces. The shaver creates larger, wider cheese pieces.
A cheese rasp does a wonderful job of shredding cheese into extremely fine pieces. The rasp is often used when fine toppings are needed for such in soup etc. A box grater with six sides encompass many different styles of graters in one. If you don't already have one, I highly recommend purchasing a multi function grater.
A wire slicer is also a valuable tool in the kitchen. It uses a thin strong wire running between two large tines. The wire slicer can be used to cut off a rectangular slab about 2-4 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick.
Similar to a wire slicer, a cheese plane slices of a thin layer of cheese. The majority of cheese planes have a handle holding a sharp opening centered in the middle of a pie-shaped serving top. A cheese plane is an indispensable tool for a cheese enthusiast.
Spend a little time in a kitchen store and you will quickly see that there are an endless number of knives with a dizzying array of purposes. A skeleton cheese knife is a unique and interesting tool. It has a sharp edge that combines with a sequence of holes and has a double point on the end. This interesting shape makes slicing cheese incredibly easy.
Fondue accessories are also fun items for cheese lovers. There are several different types and materials used in fondue pots and fondue forks. Iron, stainless steel, and glass are just a few of the varieties available. One popular model has a glass inlets that holds everyone's forks in individual openings.
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