I’ve wondered the same as OP and never saw one in real life.
Probably it’s a regional thing, like how in some countries (as I recently discovered) they don’t know what a cheese slicer is and just butcher cheese with a knife.
Of course you had to be Dutch. I swear, all my Dutch friends have like 3 of those an a couple of those electric grills with mini pans for melting cheese below
In all fairness, the slicer isn’t even useful for all cheeses. It’s convenient for Edam and similar ones though.
The cheese slicer is a great Norwegian invention and much used in all the Nordics. And The Netherlands. And Germany?
I think it mostly boils down to “what is cheese” to you. If you think you can even have an argument about whether you should cut “cheese” with a cheese slicer, then you come from a place where they make sense.
In my fridge I’ve got parmigiano, gorgonzola dolce and I just finished a rare piece of emmenthal. A slicer would have been useful only with the last one of those.
But my sandwiches! I hear all my fellow northerners cry. They’re great with brie or toma. No slicer needed.
It’s it? Where do you live? I’m in California in the US.
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 2 days ago
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Why would you use a knife when you can cut anything with a spoon, if you give it a bit of force?
CanadianCarl@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Why would you a spoon, when you can use a spork? It is the ultimate utensil.
ogeist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You fancy people, I use rock, rock never fail.
SARGE@startrek.website 2 days ago
Because we have knives already in our kitchens, and they don’t take up extra space in a drawer that would otherwise go to another more useful utensil.
Also my cheese slicers have all been cheap as shit and snap after a few months, and the nice heavy duty one I had with a replaceable wire got lost in the move earlier this year and they discontinued it and I’m sad.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Why do you have knives in your kitchen, when everything you could do with a knife can be done with a spoon?
Siethron@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I prefer the spife
Flamekebab@piefed.social 1 day ago
Hands off my knorks!
Flamekebab@piefed.social 2 days ago
The texture and flavour of a hard cheese cut with a cheese slicer is different from when one cuts with a knife. I like both but on a sandwich the cheese slicer wins every time.
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Flamekebab@piefed.social 1 day ago
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. I’ve eaten both, side by side, because it’s a really interesting difference.
If you’ve decided that your reckoning is better than my experience then we’re done here.
DV8@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Cutting the type of cheese you use a slicer on, with a knife, compresses the cheese more. Young cheese is solid, but too fatty and soft to really easily slice through. You can ofcourse, but the quality of your slice will not be similar to the easily and reproducible quality you get with a slicer. Especially if you need many slices.
vateso5074@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Might just need a sharper knife, then.
CentipedeFarrier@piefed.social 1 day ago
“Instead of getting the tool designed specifically for the thing, just get a different tool that isn’t designed for the thing, and then learn to make really precise difficult cuts!”
I come from cheese country, and genuinely, no, you are wrong. A sharper knife isn’t the problem, the surface area of the blade is the problem. Even an oiled ceramic knife doesn’t cut cleanly through many cheeses (ceramic is extremely sharp, oiling is to attempt to prevent buckling and breaking because the cheese sticks to the blade). A wire cheese slicer is consistent, and safe and easy enough for a child to use (I know because that was my first experience with one, around 5-6).
DV8@lemmy.world 1 day ago
No. There’s different types of tools for different types of cheese.
Flamekebab@piefed.social 1 day ago
Nope. The tools work very differently.
Kornblumenratte@feddit.org 1 day ago
Just use a cheese slicer. You’ll find out that it’s impossible to cut cheese with a knive to the same sliceness.
0x0@infosec.pub 1 day ago
Lol you can’t even get close to that thickness with a knife
Diddlydee@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Flamekebab@piefed.social 1 day ago
Are you saying you think a cheese slicer does 3mm slices and therefore knife cuts are comparable?
Saapas@piefed.zip 1 day ago
People are pretty handy if they can make those long and thin slices of softer cheese with a knife