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).
Linda
October 2, 2012These work nice but the best I have found (and it does double duty) is a cheese knife (or as we affectionately call it The Klingon Blade). The hole that keeps the knife from dragging in cheese does the same with a cheesecake for nice clean slices.