# What is the right way to slice cheese? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757 "2006-02-23T05:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/1 "2006-02-23T05:47:55Z")
I have an annoying gap in my culinary knowledge. I don’t know how to slice cheese. I mean from a wedge-shaped block. Do you cut parallel to one edge, so that each slice is smaller than the last? Do you cut it into smaller wedges, so that each slice is too thick at one end and too thin at the other? Do you cut at random angles all over the cheese (my method - probably the worst)? There must be one true method that is employed by People Who Know What They’re Doing, but I don’t know what it is. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/2 "2006-02-23T06:56:58Z")
The right way to cut from a block of cheese is so that it will fit in your mouth. Beyond that, you’re on your own. I have four different types of tools for slicing cheese, and use each according to the cheese and its use. This does not even count the 3 different styles of graters I have. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/3 "2006-02-24T01:25:12Z")
So I guess I will continue with hacking off random chunks. Wow, this thread has really galvanized the doper community. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/4 "2006-02-24T01:26:50Z")
You grate from a wedge, you slice from a block. Or say fuck it and buy singles. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/5 "2006-02-24T01:31:52Z")
Against the grain. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/6 "2006-02-24T02:04:17Z")
Hack at it with an ax. My slicing method is to work from the sharp end of the wedge, cutting uniformly-thick slices as I work towards the edge. Size isn’t as important as thickness, in cheese as in life. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/7 "2006-02-24T02:40:37Z")
You do like I saw on Letterman last night and carve it to look like a guy’s head. Bend some pipe while you’re at it. ---
**Author:** ![edwino](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@edwino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwino)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/8 "2006-02-24T03:25:14Z")
You said cut the cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/9 "2006-02-24T03:48:59Z")
For brie and camenebert, or other cheeses the come in a wedge shape, the point or “nose” is supposed to be the best bit. It’s considered very bad manners to cut off the point. You should slice parallel to the sides, preserving the wedge shape. If it’s somethinbg like Cheddar, it doesn’t matter how you cut it. ---
**Author:** ![filemat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@filemat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filemat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2006, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/10 "2006-02-26T23:08:56Z")
I have actually put some thought into this (before the Q was asked) because I am Swedish and we eat a lot of cheese. Thus; Assuming you’re using a cheese cutter, the best way to cut it is to have the cheese laying flat down on the table (just as you would expect) but with pointed side pointing towards yourself and apply the cutter to the edge now furthest away. You will have to apply reactive resistence to the cheese with your fingers at the pointed edge as you cut. For this reason you should still have the plastic wrapping or some other such, protecting the cheese from contact with the fingers. The reason for this positioning of the cheese is that the pressure is the greatest as the cutter is farthest away from you. Because you apply greater pressure on this wider side, this side will “chip down” at a more equal speed as the (now) inner pointed side. If the cheese is in the commonly used “point away” position, then the cheese will turn into a slope very soon. I think you are beginning to understand why the Nobel prize is Swedish now, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/11 "2006-02-27T02:49:56Z")
I cut a relatively thick wedge and then cut slices off the wedge so that everone gets a triangular, flat shaped piece of cheese, kind of like a thick pizza slice. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/12 "2006-02-27T07:17:04Z")
Cool, my little thread has some replies. Thanks everybody. **filemat** - so do you cut parallel to the side so that each slice as an even thickness, or do you cut it into little mini-wedges? **Shalmanese** - Don’t you get a couple of slices that are nothing but rind that way? Or am I not understanding. I had no idea there would be so many different answers! I was expecting that there was One True Way that everybody knew but me. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2006, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-way-to-slice-cheese/345757/13 "2006-02-27T08:04:39Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > **Shalmanese** - Don’t you get a couple of slices that are nothing but rind that way? Or am I not understanding. Well, it depends on what cheese your talking about. I’m talking about hard or semi-hard cheeses and I buy mine off the wheel so I usually have a wedge about 30 - 60 degrees and 5 inches high or so. I cut off say, a 15 degree wedge, then trim off the rinds and discard them and then cut into slices.