A few of you have asked that I share some of my favorite products. I recently acquired a cheese slicer, and I love it. Mr. Handsome and I both really love cheese, and we go through a lot of it. We have a cheese knife, but it doesn’t work as advertised, so for the first three years of marriage, we just used a regular knife.
The slices were always too thick, and every single time I ate cheese, I thought about how great it would be to find something that would cut thinner pieces so we wouldn’t blow through blocks so quickly. During a recent weekend in Texas with friends, I was preparing grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. When it came time to slice the cheese, our friends pulled this out:
It’s a simple design–a marble slab with a wire–and it cuts perfect, thin slices of cheese. I was blown away. This was exactly when I had been looking for!
When I asked our friends where they had purchased it, they sadly didn’t know, but they had an extra one that they had received as a wedding gift and offered to give it to us–as long as we promised to tell them the gender of our baby. They recently had their first child, so they were eager to hear what ours would be. We agreed, which gives you an idea of how excited I was about this cheese slicer.
Thankfully, the item made it home safely in our luggage, and we have already used it about a dozen times. If you’re looking for a similar product, I was able to determine that this is the RSVP Marble Cheese Slicer, but other companies make similar ones. And in case you’re wondering when we are going to announce the gender of our child, we are planning to spill the beans very soon!
Kennedy
That is an awesome cheese grater! Also can’t wait to hear the gender, congrats!!!
Anonymous
That style cheese slicer has been around for at least 100 years, if not more. My great-grandfather patented one in the early 1900’s that would cut a whole block of cheese (which is how cheese came from the dairy factories) into multiple slices in one motion, for grocers to use for customers who wanted sliced cheese. He eventually sold the patent for his invention to the Breakstone brothers, cheese purveyors in New York City.
The wires on those slicers can eventually wear out (fail) or need to be replaced. I know, because I have several packets of replacement wires for my great-grandfather’s model. He needed to sell those replacement parts along with the slicers.
Somewhere around here I have prototypes of hand-held cheese slicers (wire slicers) that he also crafted, but never patented. They look very much like the right-hand side, the working side, of your model. We used one of them when I was a kid. It was the only way to get Velveeta to slice neatly.
Ellie
That’s a very interesting story! Did your great-grandfather invent other things as well?
Anonymous
I loved my cheese slicer! Mine was made of wood with the same handle & wire. Love the thinner & neater slices. As you said, it is great for cutting uniform slices of cheese for grilled cheese. Mine was lost in a move. I have not found another. Thanks for the information on yours.
~C
Beth
-C They have them at MIles Kimball.com that’s were I got mine at. For $9.99.
Cheese Lover
What are your favorite cheeses?
Ellie
We usually just have Colby Jack and mozzarella on hand, and sometimes I’ll buy feta for salads. We enjoy other cheeses, but I don’t usually get around to buying them. What about you?
Ellie
Anonymous
Try Beemster Graskaas sometime, if you can find it. It only comes out once a year, in the summer. It’s made from the first milk of Dutch cows after they’ve eaten the first spring grass in the fields. The cows produce a rich milk with a unique flavor that’s used to make Graskaas. It’s a young cheese, with a taste so fresh and creamy that…you could cry. You’d have to find a cheese shop or a gourmet store that imports it. Supplies are limited, and stores usually only get 1 or 2 wheels of it a year. If you can’t find it, then try a good imported Gouda, but it won’t be as mellow as Graskaas, some of the best-tasting cheese in the world.
You should also try good imported brie, goat cheeses, and some of the English cheeses on the market. Havarti with dill. Jarlsberg. So many choices better than what you find in the supermarket with a blue Kraft wrapper. I think you said you had a Trader Joe’s in your area? That’s a good place to start, as is Whole Foods – the cheese part of their deli.
Ellie
That sounds tasty. Thanks for the suggestion. Yep we have a Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods in Nashville. Both are great stores.
Kelly
If you have the opportunity when traveling from Nashville to Knoxville, stop off in Philadelphia, Tennessee at a place called Sweetwater Valley Farms. They have an amazing selection of cheeses at very reasonable prices. The best part is that they always have a very generous sample table so you can try befor you buy! My hubby and I love to stop in there anytime we are in the area (we live near Atlanta).
Ellie
Thanks, Kelly! We will certainly do that. Kind of ironic that it’s called Philadelphia, since that’s a brand of cream cheese.
Anonymous
My mom used to marvel about a scraping cheese slicer she got. It made such thin slices that I wondered if I was going to be able to get enough to eat. It was, for examlple, like getting one tablespoon of peas instead of a half a cup full. You must realize that this quest for control of the cheese is scary to people at your mercy.
Betty
Awww we cheese too!
Did you get to see Jinger & baby Felicity?
Ellie
Texas is such a large state (and it feels just as big when you’re there, LOL) that Dallas is about 450 miles from Laredo, and we we only had a long weekend off work, so we didn’t. ๐
Ellie
J
I have my grandmothers cheese slicer that I grew up seeing her use daily. Not sure how old it is but older than me and I’m pushing 60.
By the way, why have ya’ll decided to reveal the gender of the baby as opposed to keeping it to yourself? Maybe to save on incorrect gender specific purchases by other folks for you all?
Blessings from Texas
Ellie
We’re just so excited to have found out that we don’t want to wait 3 months to tell people. ๐
Ellie
B
You can get a cheese slice like Ellie’s at Miles Kimball for only $9.99 that’s were I got mine at. I had mine for over 15 years.
Anonymous
We have this cheese knife, and it works great.
http://www.thecheeseknife.com/
Doreen
Those cheese slickers are nice and work well. If you ever want to buy another cheese knife, I have a great one from Pampered Chef. It has a rounded tip, black handle and comes in a sleeve. It works so well I bought another one so I always have one handy if the other is dirty.