Cheesecake is one of the trickiest foods to cut – especially if you want to get those perfectly smooth, restaurant-quality slices when you’re serving it. It is difficult to cut because the cake is so moist and it really sticks to the knife. It helps to use a very sharp knife and wipe the blade with a damp paper towel after making each cut. There is a unique knife that makes cutting cheesecake nearly foolproof, the Cheesecake Knife. This unusual knife has an Ultem resin blade that has several horizontal striations on the blade. The resin is completely nonstick and almost repels even the stickiest of substances, like cheesecake. Those striations are important in the design of the blade because they prevent things you are slicing from gripping onto the blade, as well, such as cheese and butter. The blade of this knife is rather short – just 3 3/4 inches – but it is just about right for cutting into the standard 8 or 9-inch cheesecake.
The design of this knife was patented in the 1940s by Harold Joseph Fairchild, a man who wanted a better way to cut into blocks of Velveeta cheese without the slices getting stuck to the knife. The knives have been a hit ever since, and are available in many sizes – just in case you need a bigger knife to cut into those extra large, ultra-creamy cheesecakes (or blocks of velveta).
I usually use a big, sharp chefs knife to cut juicy slices of watermelon when it comes into season. They tend to be my sharpest knives and, while occasionally it does take a moment to get purchase on the slick melon rind, they do a good job of slicing in the end. I certainly didn’t need to add a knife specifically for cutting watermelon to my collection – but one look at Kuhn Rikon’s new Watermelon Knife and I simply couldn’t resist.
This watermelon-colored knife has a green handle and a red nonstick silicone-wrapped carbon steel serrated blade with seed-shaped holes running down the side – giving it a whimsical look at matches a watermelon. The blade is very sharp and its small serrations easily cut through both the rind of the melon and the flesh. Another positive thing about this knife is that the blade is 11-inches long, which means that it can actually cut all the way across full-sized melons, where shorter knives often struggle. The knife works beautifully and comes with a matching watermelon-colored blade protector to keep those serrations sharp when the knife is not in use – and it also make it easy to transport the knife to picnics safely. I’ll be honest: I bought the knife because I loved its look (and still do!), but it works very well and I’ll definitely get a lot of use out of it this summer.
Platefuls of Halloween baked goods and buckets of Halloween candy aren’t the only things that you can keep around the kitchen as you get into the spirit of Halloween. Something like a Bloody Evidence Chef’s Knife is both a scary, funny and useful prop that you can add to the knife rack. The knife is a real chef’s knife with fired-on blood spatter that will not come off during washing or use, and is completely food safe. Imagine coming out of the kitchen with a big pie to slice up in one hand and this knife in the other! I would think that it would also make a fun gift for fans of the Showtime TV show, Dexter.
