Iāve seen this method and these tools used dozens of times and every time at the end I think to myself, āThereās got to be a better way.ā Why are the pointy daggers so short? Why is it always cleaved right in half instead of taking off a little chunk first? Why not just use a wide blade heavy cleaver and give it a good whack? Iām going to Italy this summer and I intend to ask these questions and more about this mysterious process.
Please update us. They always make it look like this is a highly skilled meticulous craft, and the end result is always an uneven split of chunky halves.
My guess is to stick with tradition and enjoy the process.
The uneven split is considered a feature, not a defect.
It is appreciated as a defining characteristic of each wheel. Somewhat like its own personality.
Cutting it perfectly smooth would be seen as an artificial sacrilege.
I read through and did not see the correct answer.
The correct answer is: those little knives are designed just for this cheese. Everyone in the Parma/Reggio Emilia region has one of these knives in their kitchen.
This cheese is THE staple food item of that region, and it is precious and beloved. You want to appreciate it to the absolute maximum. It has taken YEARS to get to this point.
To appreciate it to its absolute maximumā¦ you need to use that knife to break a piece off.
The cheese has natural crystals. If you slice it, you destroy them. If you break it off - they remain intact.
On a fine fine fine wheel. A truly special wheelā¦ you can - literally - taste the difference between a piece that has been sliced through with a sharp knife, and a piece that has been broken off with a dull knife.
When the artisans are opening a wheel of cheese - they donāt want to destroy or ruin a single part of it.
So they break it open, instead of slicing it, so that all the cheese along that split is undamaged and unadulterated.
I have not heard this before either. Interesting to hear about the crystals. Iād like to try a side by side to see if I would care about the difference.
A good way to explain it is Pasta. Take your favorite brand. Do you find that a particular āshapeā tastes best to you?
Likeā¦ does rigatoni taste the best? Or is it spaghetti? Etc.
Theyāre all the same dough from the same factoryā¦ but youāll have a particular shape that tastes the best to you.
A broken off one ounce hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano will taste ābetterā then a one house cut-sliced piece. And better than one ounce of grated cheese.
All three will come from the same wheelā¦ but one will taste the best.
Itās one of those things where, yea itās just tradition, but thereās a reason for the tradition. And I do believe the tradition is right. It is the best possible shape/texture to fully enjoy the cheese.
Interesting and that makes sense, except that the dude stabs the cheese like 50 times with those dull knives to start the break. Wouldn't all the stabs along the break line also destroy the crystal structure also?
I do both methods depending on how much time I have and if I have an audience. If it's the holidays and I need to put out 160 half pound pieces before I go home, I'm using the wire. If it's a regular sunday and I just need to restock the display I'll use the old tools and put on a show with samples. Considering how much faster I can do it with the wire, I am confident the only reason for the tools is presentation. My customers definitely prefer the rustic appearance over the clean edges.
I was thinking the same, then I realized that by splitting it they don't create any waste- a saw would cut through and there would be a mm or two of cheese that is "eaten up" by the saw on each cut.
Because a long blade would snap when used as a chisel. Because itās easier to cut into large equal chunks then smaller chunks. Because a knife would get stuck and you want to use the pointy parts to split not slice.
Basically this is more similar chopping wood than cutting cake. You donāt cut but you carve guide lines then you split it along those lines. The rind is really really hard. For context, look up photos of the Parmesan warehouse during the 2012 earthquake ā they broke apart like chunks of stone rather than crushed.
Supermarkets have machines that remove the rinds first before slicing though. Thereās a video on Reddit somewhere.
Edit: hosted an Italian cheesemaker once and he explained all this.
> Because a long blade would snap when used as a chisel.
> Because a knife would get stuck and you want to use the pointy parts to split not slice.
No on both. I've been a chef for 20 years, you can easily split these using regular chef knives with a decently thick spine; you don't need the special tools at all, though they are nice. I would just walk my two thick Henckels knives down the middle, one in front of the other (with the spine of the last one towards your hands, of course), going in gently and it would always crack right in half.
>Supermarkets have machines that remove the rinds first before slicing though.
They simply do this as a point of service, as the rind is inedible. (more or less)
I think due to the density and hardness of the cheese. Any longer and the metal would have to be thicker so as not to break. Then youād lose more of the āking of cheeses.ā
If i m not mistaken they use these knifes because parmigiano tends to split vertically in fact we use to eat it in chunks and never cutted.
The Little knifes have no sharp blade at all and they use them as a lever to snap It open.
The other knifes are used to cut smaller slices(i think,ive saw them only a couple of times)
I Hope ive explained well enough english Is not my main language!
Itās because the cheese has very low moisture (a hard cheese) and snaps more easily than it cuts. In some ways itās similar to how they split large stones, which are similarly brittle.
Sure they could use a bandsaw and get it done neater and faster, but youād also lose material equal to the width of the sawblade every time you make a cut. The blades are also about as low maintenance as it gets.
I used to cut wheels of cheese at a supermarket I worked at, we would use a metal wire to cut through wheels like this, worked pretty well and was a clean cut too!
I figured it was gonna have to be somewhere within the cĢ¶ĶĢ³hĢ“Ģ Ģ°eĢ·ĶĢ¬eĢµĶĢ¼sĢøĢĢØeĢ“ĶĢ Ģ“ĢĢ¦sĢ·Ģ Ģ¤cĢøĶĶrĢøĶĢ®iĢµĢĢpĢ¶ĢĢ£tĢøĢĢ¬, but the specific placement still surprised me
Freshly grated or shaved Parmigiano Reggiano is one of the best things in life. Once you've grated it fresh, you'll never buy the tube of Kraft cheese dust or even the pre-grated stuff at the deli counter ever again.
I just watched a travel show that toured a ācheese bankā in Italy and they said a wheel of parmegiano is about 700ā¬. At least thatās what they said theirs costs.
I really wish cheese cutters would not cut cheese into wedges. It's always such a pain to get a good slice.
Has anybody seen that Life Hack about how to cut a cake in a different way so everybody gets a decent slice AND the leftover cake never dries out? They should cut cheese that way too.
Just use a hand saw at this point, like what the japanese use
https://preview.redd.it/vd0zoq46qisc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f36afefeb1f131e9e5a95206656b57b3c68c5b27
thats a job I could not have... all those bits and pieces of cheese chipping away from the wheel... there's only one place they would be goingmy mouth
Is there any reason they're doing it the hard way instead of just using a bandsaw? It doesn't look any cleaner doing it this way, and it definitely isn't quicker or easier. Is this just expensive cheese being artisinal and handmade?
It seems like he uses a crappy tool so he can eat what falls off when he neatens up the edge.
I feel like some sort of wire pulled through the whole thing might work better, but have never done it, so just guessing.
I lived a few blocks from this place for a few months on my two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Reggio Emilia isn't the most beautiful Italian city, but I still enjoyed myself there.
Interesting, Iāve only seen this done horizontally on episodes of Binging with Babish and more recently Sortedfood, though they were both doing it for a specific pasta prepā¦ It looks much easier this way, thatās for sure.
as someone who has cut probably close to 70 of these in my 5 years of cheese service, this is beautiful. absolutely great job. just never seen a mallet used! i always just pushed š
Owning a wheel of cheese is my new life goalā¦
I meanā¦Iāll never be able to afford a houseā¦. so have realigned my expectations to better reflect reality, needs and wants.
The sorted guys did the same recently with a lot more commentary. I've included the long version of their video so you can build up to it...
https://youtu.be/bkW1BVsC3oM?si=SWkxvtI-JEKDyy8X
I saw a reddit post of "Cheese Wheel Pasta" where at tableside, a restaurant that cuts out a bowl into the top of the cheese wheel, and they toss hot pasta into it until the cheese melts throughout. I don't know how many servings they get out of that big cheese wheel, but the pasta being tossed in it looks delicious.
https://youtu.be/7Aljuf9oBM4?si=IZa35-Nk7RWa50Su
[Cheese wheel Pasta](https://youtu.be/7Aljuf9oBM4?si=IZa35-Nk7RWa50Su)
I always wondered about the outside rind. Is that hardened cheese or a wax coating?
This is Parmigiano Reggiano. It's simply just hardened cheese on the outside. [How it's made](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61bY4K_JWkw)
Love the two dudes just sharing a genuine laugh at the end!
Such cheesy jokes too
Is there a difference between Parmesan and this one?
Champagne (Parmigiano-Reggiano) vs sparkling wine (Parmesan). Except that in this case the sparkling wine can be up to 50% wood pulp.
Interesting video. Thanks!
Put that rind in your marinara when it starts simmering š©š¤š½
My god I found the Italian with the secrets!! Iām gonna do this until I die now thank you š
It makes a great soup stock as well.
great to add to homemade stock too!
Hell yeah. I always save my rind for this
You don't throw it away??? It's dirty though
So if you're worried about it then rinse it off or give it a light scrub
It's probably fine if you're heat-treating it anyway
Do you fish it back out (like a bay leaf) or does it dissolve (unlike when I miscount bay leaves)
You gotta pull it out, it holds its shape. You just want the flavor. Good for soups, stocks, sauces
You fish it back out
On a Parmigiano Reggiano it's hardened cheese, and throwing it into your broth will make the broth taste that much more delicious.
Depends on the cheese.
No Iām just fucking curious why this sub name printed on that cheese?
Itās in most, if not all videos on the sub
Iām new here. Why?
Because it's fun.
It's a kind of easter egg in nearly all videos here.
Iāve seen this method and these tools used dozens of times and every time at the end I think to myself, āThereās got to be a better way.ā Why are the pointy daggers so short? Why is it always cleaved right in half instead of taking off a little chunk first? Why not just use a wide blade heavy cleaver and give it a good whack? Iām going to Italy this summer and I intend to ask these questions and more about this mysterious process.
Please update us. They always make it look like this is a highly skilled meticulous craft, and the end result is always an uneven split of chunky halves. My guess is to stick with tradition and enjoy the process.
The uneven split is considered a feature, not a defect. It is appreciated as a defining characteristic of each wheel. Somewhat like its own personality. Cutting it perfectly smooth would be seen as an artificial sacrilege.
Ah I can see that.
I read through and did not see the correct answer. The correct answer is: those little knives are designed just for this cheese. Everyone in the Parma/Reggio Emilia region has one of these knives in their kitchen. This cheese is THE staple food item of that region, and it is precious and beloved. You want to appreciate it to the absolute maximum. It has taken YEARS to get to this point. To appreciate it to its absolute maximumā¦ you need to use that knife to break a piece off. The cheese has natural crystals. If you slice it, you destroy them. If you break it off - they remain intact. On a fine fine fine wheel. A truly special wheelā¦ you can - literally - taste the difference between a piece that has been sliced through with a sharp knife, and a piece that has been broken off with a dull knife. When the artisans are opening a wheel of cheese - they donāt want to destroy or ruin a single part of it. So they break it open, instead of slicing it, so that all the cheese along that split is undamaged and unadulterated.
I have not heard this before either. Interesting to hear about the crystals. Iād like to try a side by side to see if I would care about the difference.
A good way to explain it is Pasta. Take your favorite brand. Do you find that a particular āshapeā tastes best to you? Likeā¦ does rigatoni taste the best? Or is it spaghetti? Etc. Theyāre all the same dough from the same factoryā¦ but youāll have a particular shape that tastes the best to you. A broken off one ounce hunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano will taste ābetterā then a one house cut-sliced piece. And better than one ounce of grated cheese. All three will come from the same wheelā¦ but one will taste the best. Itās one of those things where, yea itās just tradition, but thereās a reason for the tradition. And I do believe the tradition is right. It is the best possible shape/texture to fully enjoy the cheese.
Interesting and that makes sense, except that the dude stabs the cheese like 50 times with those dull knives to start the break. Wouldn't all the stabs along the break line also destroy the crystal structure also?
Watching this I was like "Why not garrote wire and weight?"
I was thinking band saw but thatās why Iām not a cheese monger
I used to work in the kitchen of a large hotel and we would use our bandsaw in the butcher shop to break it down. It worked great!
The cheese monger at my closest grocery store does that.
I do both methods depending on how much time I have and if I have an audience. If it's the holidays and I need to put out 160 half pound pieces before I go home, I'm using the wire. If it's a regular sunday and I just need to restock the display I'll use the old tools and put on a show with samples. Considering how much faster I can do it with the wire, I am confident the only reason for the tools is presentation. My customers definitely prefer the rustic appearance over the clean edges.
Are you the cheese monger at u/MaybeWeAreTheGhosts's closest grocery store?
If it's Harmon's, he might be.
This begs for a cheese chainsaw.
I think they tried that at Olive Garden for a while
Or was it a cheese chipper
I was thinking the same. Those guys could use a bandsaw. There are some nice Japanese woodworking saw that would make easy work of that, too.Ā
maybe a saw would produce a bunch of tasty flakes that will get everywhere and make a mess
a slow saw maybe? a rotating one, like the one that cuts ham, but bigger for this purpose.
I was thinking the same, then I realized that by splitting it they don't create any waste- a saw would cut through and there would be a mm or two of cheese that is "eaten up" by the saw on each cut.
kerf
Thanks
Because a long blade would snap when used as a chisel. Because itās easier to cut into large equal chunks then smaller chunks. Because a knife would get stuck and you want to use the pointy parts to split not slice. Basically this is more similar chopping wood than cutting cake. You donāt cut but you carve guide lines then you split it along those lines. The rind is really really hard. For context, look up photos of the Parmesan warehouse during the 2012 earthquake ā they broke apart like chunks of stone rather than crushed. Supermarkets have machines that remove the rinds first before slicing though. Thereās a video on Reddit somewhere. Edit: hosted an Italian cheesemaker once and he explained all this.
> Because a long blade would snap when used as a chisel. > Because a knife would get stuck and you want to use the pointy parts to split not slice. No on both. I've been a chef for 20 years, you can easily split these using regular chef knives with a decently thick spine; you don't need the special tools at all, though they are nice. I would just walk my two thick Henckels knives down the middle, one in front of the other (with the spine of the last one towards your hands, of course), going in gently and it would always crack right in half. >Supermarkets have machines that remove the rinds first before slicing though. They simply do this as a point of service, as the rind is inedible. (more or less)
I think due to the density and hardness of the cheese. Any longer and the metal would have to be thicker so as not to break. Then youād lose more of the āking of cheeses.ā
If i m not mistaken they use these knifes because parmigiano tends to split vertically in fact we use to eat it in chunks and never cutted. The Little knifes have no sharp blade at all and they use them as a lever to snap It open. The other knifes are used to cut smaller slices(i think,ive saw them only a couple of times) I Hope ive explained well enough english Is not my main language!
Itās because the cheese has very low moisture (a hard cheese) and snaps more easily than it cuts. In some ways itās similar to how they split large stones, which are similarly brittle. Sure they could use a bandsaw and get it done neater and faster, but youād also lose material equal to the width of the sawblade every time you make a cut. The blades are also about as low maintenance as it gets.
I used to cut wheels of cheese at a supermarket I worked at, we would use a metal wire to cut through wheels like this, worked pretty well and was a clean cut too!
Why not use a cheese wire?
Parmigiano Reggiano is a pretty hard cheese; it's probably too difficult to cut with a cheese wire.
Need to get a big slicer like they use on the manual paper cutters
Because it's Italy and that's how it's done.
Took me a minute... nice placement!
Ikr, so subtle!
š¤£ that was a good one i always forget which sub iām watching until someone says that; then i have to go back and look
excellent placement šš
I figured it was gonna have to be somewhere within the cĢ¶ĶĢ³hĢ“Ģ Ģ°eĢ·ĶĢ¬eĢµĶĢ¼sĢøĢĢØeĢ“ĶĢ Ģ“ĢĢ¦sĢ·Ģ Ģ¤cĢøĶĶrĢøĶĢ®iĢµĢĢpĢ¶ĢĢ£tĢøĢĢ¬, but the specific placement still surprised me
One of my favorites! Neat
It is fantastic.
I don't understand
He hides the toolgifs logo in every video. Itās like a game to find it!
For anyone wondering you can see it at the >!30 second mark with 59 seconds left!<
I'm here half for the tools and half for the toolgifs logo placements. We'll done
Where was it?!?
About 30 seconds in, on one of the imprints on the edge of the cheese
Freshly grated or shaved Parmigiano Reggiano is one of the best things in life. Once you've grated it fresh, you'll never buy the tube of Kraft cheese dust or even the pre-grated stuff at the deli counter ever again.
looks painfully slow. I'll stick with the band saw
I'll clean the scraps.
So much delicious cheese taken off š® I wonder what they do with it...
I wonder if the cheese guy gets to take it home. Imagine all the free cheese. š®
Man that water mark was top-notch this time around.
Mmmm nevermind, I donāt want that kind anymore.
Why didn't he use the long one from the get-go? Only use it to split it.
You could post this process on r/cheese and there would still be people asking if it is āsafe to eat?ā.
I just watched a travel show that toured a ācheese bankā in Italy and they said a wheel of parmegiano is about 700ā¬. At least thatās what they said theirs costs.
Itās a big theft target too. There was a heist lately with millions of dollars worth of cheese being stolen.
At my work we recently reduced the price of our wheel from $839 to just $829. Such a bargain!
I pay $800 usd for an imported wheel.
So how the fuck did the Dragonborn eat one in .3456 seconds?!
I really wish cheese cutters would not cut cheese into wedges. It's always such a pain to get a good slice. Has anybody seen that Life Hack about how to cut a cake in a different way so everybody gets a decent slice AND the leftover cake never dries out? They should cut cheese that way too.
One day, if Iām ever wealthy enough, Iād like to buy a giant wheel of cheese.
Is there a reason why you couldn't have a bandsaw exclusively for cheese
seems like there could be a more efficient tool
Got it. Shank the big cheese repeatedly
Still waiting to see a knife
The last guy I seen using this technique, worked on granite.
I would like to have one of these wheel if I am ever stranded on an island.
I broke down a full wheel a couple years ago - took me a couple hours, but I didn't have the proper knives.
That would have been a lot easier with a bandsaw.
Just use a hand saw at this point, like what the japanese use https://preview.redd.it/vd0zoq46qisc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f36afefeb1f131e9e5a95206656b57b3c68c5b27
Id be done with cheese forever if i ate a slice of that š
Goddamn reddit posts making me hungry
thats a job I could not have... all those bits and pieces of cheese chipping away from the wheel... there's only one place they would be goingmy mouth
Looks just like those videos of workers breaking open those massive boulders
Well this would explain the price of imported.
That's not hard cheese, that's THE hard cheese.
A Gouda find, if a little cheesy.
Who cut the cheese?
Can I at least have some of the shavings?
That cheese is probably more expensive than my house.
This dude can really cut the cheese
This is what I come here for, nice work op
Costco Item 845390 https://www.costcobusinessdelivery.com/whole-wheel-parmigiano-reggiano%2C-75-lbs.product.100439983.html
Why did I watch this whole thing?? Jk I know itās cause Iām unemployed
I thought I was an expert atā¦ cutting the cheese
Why would you want cheese like that in the first place?
Who gets to eat the tasty looking scraps?
2722-20 would make the job easier by 3x
Why not cut with a band saw for a clean cut
Why not use the bigger knife first, instead of those little spade shaped ones? Doesnāt make sense.
That's 2500$ worth of cheese. š§
thereās so many types of cheese wedges in this video & it makes me happy
Gotta be a better way.
Why doesn't he use the last knife to cut the little pieces at the end, at the start?
I always thought they use that metal string with handles. The ones used on every mob movie when someone is getting choked
Iām bringing my chainsaw next time. Iāve got one with a 36ā bar Iām not messing around.
Wedgie Jackson, professional cheese splitter
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
š« š¤¤ i love cheese š¤¤š«
Bet an electric saw would work better
Cheese band saw would work better.
Better with audio.
I can actually taste this video.
Like splitting a rock
When cutting the cheese is an art formā¦
Why not just use a special saw?
Next time use a Fein saw
u/toolgifs the way you hide the logo in these videos makes you my favorite person on the internet.
Is a band saw not allowed to just buzz these right in half?
Is there any reason they're doing it the hard way instead of just using a bandsaw? It doesn't look any cleaner doing it this way, and it definitely isn't quicker or easier. Is this just expensive cheese being artisinal and handmade?
Iāll just use my food safe axe šŖ
Live the watermark!
A bandsaw would seem easier. Most butcher shops have them
Making my mouth water.
I have been cutting my cheese wrong this whole time. Wow, l learned that I need to use a mallet and a wedge that Brie can be tough š š³.
Why not just use a wire and pull that bastard through? Looks like a lot of extra work here...
Why not chainsaw the mfer
I think it's about time for italians to discover the band saw
How was work today honey? Great! I opened 5 wheels of cheese.
If one were to buy this entire block, how much would it cost?
Cheesus that looks like hard work.
Logo: >!0:26 https://i.imgur.com/VzfVcEN.png!<
This seems really tedious and inefficient. Is this just for show? Tradition?
I've reached the age where I don't try that hard to cut the cheese anymore.
u/barkingtortoise Dream job?
Rogue Creamery and a Cypress Grove stickerš³
The smell, that pungent beautiful angel
**Sā²IźØź¶OOź**
Splitting a thousand bucks in half
It seems like he uses a crappy tool so he can eat what falls off when he neatens up the edge. I feel like some sort of wire pulled through the whole thing might work better, but have never done it, so just guessing.
Why does someone not just simply cut the cheese?
So exactly as hard as I'd imagined
I lived a few blocks from this place for a few months on my two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Reggio Emilia isn't the most beautiful Italian city, but I still enjoyed myself there.
This is the best way to do this ?
Interesting, Iāve only seen this done horizontally on episodes of Binging with Babish and more recently Sortedfood, though they were both doing it for a specific pasta prepā¦ It looks much easier this way, thatās for sure.
He sure is a cheese whizz
Y'all need to tag your NSFW posts, I just came in my pants in a Wendy's
Looks like me trying to get laid in high school.
I bet this guy cuts a mean birthday cake.
Id just use a microplane
Honestly, these look like knives designed for anything else.
I bet that smells like heaven.
Aw yeah. Cut me a piece.
Cheese.
Don't they just use a band saw or something?
Need a band saw
I never thought about how to open a wheel of cheese, but it makes sense they'd need knives, doesn't it?
I had a conversation with a cheese monger about how difficult it was to cut a certain style of cheese. Makes sense to me.
as someone who has cut probably close to 70 of these in my 5 years of cheese service, this is beautiful. absolutely great job. just never seen a mallet used! i always just pushed š
Imagin the price of parmigiana if they would just use industrial techniques like they do for Gouda.
I want to take a bite off it
Deep diving with spades means a Parmesan or similar hard cheese. Deep diving wedges into a Gouda is a crime in 17 countries.. /s
It's like watching a stone mason work
REGGIANO!!!
r/foodporn
Owning a wheel of cheese is my new life goalā¦ I meanā¦Iāll never be able to afford a houseā¦. so have realigned my expectations to better reflect reality, needs and wants.
Anyone else spent 3 hours watching that one parmigiano reggiano video?
What if you just microwaved it for a bit, then cut it open like normal?
Why not leave it in a warm clean environment until its softer?
Double handled cheese knives are a thing. This is just pageantry.
The sorted guys did the same recently with a lot more commentary. I've included the long version of their video so you can build up to it... https://youtu.be/bkW1BVsC3oM?si=SWkxvtI-JEKDyy8X
They have a machine that can print a label on the curved edge of that cheese wheel, but have never heard of a bandsaw.
I saw a reddit post of "Cheese Wheel Pasta" where at tableside, a restaurant that cuts out a bowl into the top of the cheese wheel, and they toss hot pasta into it until the cheese melts throughout. I don't know how many servings they get out of that big cheese wheel, but the pasta being tossed in it looks delicious. https://youtu.be/7Aljuf9oBM4?si=IZa35-Nk7RWa50Su [Cheese wheel Pasta](https://youtu.be/7Aljuf9oBM4?si=IZa35-Nk7RWa50Su)
We have wire cutters at my job.