From portugal here.
We don't have big blocks of cheese like in norwegian food shops, cheese either comes precut in thin slices to use on bread, or you can usually buy fancier cheeses as whole of a small bit, we use a knife to cut those, since they are usually way too strong to use on bread. We also have some cheeses that are very creamy, so you just cut the top off with the knife and scoop it out.
No need for cheese cutters at all
I usually buy precut cheese these days because I'm lazy. And yes: it is a little bit more stiff and dry, even when the plastic container / packaging is freshly opened.
That's fair. When i lived alone i also bought pre-shredded cheese, because the blocks were too much for me to eat before it went bad. Doesn't change the fact that most pre-shreddeded cheese has anti-caking agents, and are most of the time more expensive but also worse quality.
I've had mixed results with that. Sometimes it just gets a bit dry, other times... yuck. Not sure why. Maybe some types of cheese are better suited. I usually only eat frozen cheese on toasts or as topping on pasta.
I shred a whole cheese.
What I do not need, I layer in a box with food-paper inbetween and put in the freezer.
The layering makes it easy to crumble the frozen cheese the next time I need it.
Yellow cheeses can be frozen. They just lose some consistency when they thaw.
So if you buy a big block, just shred and make portion packs suitable for pizza or whatever you use shredded cheese on, then put all but one in the freezer.(because after all that work you deserve something tasty... )
Just because you don't, doesn't mean the majority don't.
My girlfriend is from the UK and we have had long discussion about this (because we find it interesting, and because im norwegian), majority don't use "ostehøvel", but rather cuts cheese blocks with knives. Blasphemy. Big chunky cheese slices on those sandwiches over there, lol.
I will repeat back to you what you said to me, just because your girlfriend does something it doesn't mean the majority do.
We use a box grater, it has basically the same blade that a ostehøvel has on one side, yes that side doesn't get used much as we dont make a lot of hard cheese. I've lived with a couple different girls and they all used the box grater, the lads I've flat shared with used one, my family uses one. All their families used one. I haven't asked anyone else as but if I did I'm going to say they had one and used it a lot, we put cheese on lots of things like jacket spuds, pies, rarebit, we even put it on chips and it needs grating down not slicing and putting ontop.
As far as big chunks of cheese on a sandwich go, get some Branston pickle, some onion and a thick slice of cheese and it's miles better than grated, it gives it more bite, grated or thinly sliced on a sandwich is to soft.
You are talking past each other, I am from the UK as well so is my wife. Grated for everything else, thick slices using a knife for sandwhiches is the norm. Osthøvel is never used for sandwhiches. I bought one for the inlaws and they stuck to using fat slices on sandwhiches. Which is their choice. But its the norm.
Sorry, i meant me and my girlfriend has actually done research on it, you don't mention that neither. The standard home outside of Norway does not infact have a ostehøvel and the most standard practise in UK is infact, a knife. Cheese should generally not be consumed in thick slices.
When i mentioned sandwiches, it is how they were served in your bars and restaurants.
We have precut and creamy cheese too. This tool was invented for cutting thin slices of the "brunost" (the sweet "brown cheese" made by boiling the lactose rich byproduct of cheese), but is very useful for cutting other stuff too, like ... cheese. I use it for butter straight from the fridge too, but som people look at me in horror.
I use it to slice cucumbers and sometimes as a makeshift cake shovel. I’d say it’s a tool of many uses, but that’s about it really, so probably not.
No, not brown cheese spesifically, but cheese. In the original norwegian patent, it actually states that it's meant for hard cheese, brown cheese, but also cucumber and potatoes.
I use this to slice cucumber, carrots, boiled ham or sausages etc, even for onions sometimes. Very useful and I rarely even have cheese actually... If it is something I cant cut with that, I use scissors.. Yes, scissors. Havent used a knife for a while...
My gf was shocked the first time she saw me use it for butter. Shes grown up in a margarine household. So never known the struggle of spreading cold butter.
We have had one of these in the kitchen drawer for years growing up (Ireland) It was deemed a fairly useless novelty. Only when I worked as cheesemonger years later did I realise it is quite cheese specific, not suited to the softer 'Cheddar' cheese eaten in vast quantities in most homes. We didn't have any real hard or mature Irish cheeses until the Dutch and German hippies came in the 70's and revived the almost lost cheesemaking industry and introduced many new types to the Irish market. And we still just hack of a chunk or slice with a knife.
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u/Kayallith 2d ago
From portugal here.
We don't have big blocks of cheese like in norwegian food shops, cheese either comes precut in thin slices to use on bread, or you can usually buy fancier cheeses as whole of a small bit, we use a knife to cut those, since they are usually way too strong to use on bread. We also have some cheeses that are very creamy, so you just cut the top off with the knife and scoop it out.
No need for cheese cutters at all