Cutting soft cheeses
As you may have already noticed, when you have to use a "soft" cheese in a recipe - their exact name is "soft cheese" - such as Camembert, Munster or Mont d'or, it's not easy to make anything other than thick slices.
9,489 5/5 (2 reviews)
Keywords for this post:CheeseStuffCutCrustDecrustSoftColdSoft pasteLast modified on: February 20th 2024
Cutting soft cheeses
Well, yes, you can, with small cubes for example, but unfortunately you run the risk of obtaining a kind of cheese purée...
It's quite normal though, with this kind of cheese, unlike Comté for example, the center is very tender, and so is the rind, which is usually eaten (yes, it's a question of taste too).
So with these "soft" cheeses, it's impossible to cut them properly?
Well, normally not, but there's a very simple trick.
The trick is to put the cheese in the freezer for 1 or 2 hours, depending on its size. Say 1 hour for a cheese like camembert or saint-marcellin, and more like 2 hours for a cheese like mont d'or.
At the end of this time, the cheese has hardened, but is not frozen, so it can be cut much more easily.
This is particularly effective if you need to decrust (remove the rind from a cheese), which is normally almost impossible, but after this passage in the cold becomes perfectly feasible.
Be careful not to freeze the cheese completely, as this time it would be almost impossible to cut as it would be too hard.
The best thing to do is put it in the freezer for 1 hour to start with, then come and feel around to see if it has firmed up sufficiently. If not, go back for another 30 minutes or 1 hour, and so on until you reach the right texture.
Once you've finished cutting the cheese, you'll need to let it come back to temperature, unless you're going to cook it afterwards, in which case there's no need.
To sum up: to be able to cut a soft cheese, nothing beats a little time in the freezer to firm it up.
It's quite normal though, with this kind of cheese, unlike Comté for example, the center is very tender, and so is the rind, which is usually eaten (yes, it's a question of taste too).
So with these "soft" cheeses, it's impossible to cut them properly?
Well, normally not, but there's a very simple trick.
The trick is to put the cheese in the freezer for 1 or 2 hours, depending on its size. Say 1 hour for a cheese like camembert or saint-marcellin, and more like 2 hours for a cheese like mont d'or.
At the end of this time, the cheese has hardened, but is not frozen, so it can be cut much more easily.
This is particularly effective if you need to decrust (remove the rind from a cheese), which is normally almost impossible, but after this passage in the cold becomes perfectly feasible.
Be careful not to freeze the cheese completely, as this time it would be almost impossible to cut as it would be too hard.
The best thing to do is put it in the freezer for 1 hour to start with, then come and feel around to see if it has firmed up sufficiently. If not, go back for another 30 minutes or 1 hour, and so on until you reach the right texture.
Once you've finished cutting the cheese, you'll need to let it come back to temperature, unless you're going to cook it afterwards, in which case there's no need.
To sum up: to be able to cut a soft cheese, nothing beats a little time in the freezer to firm it up.
Lasts posts
Butter vs. grease
We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?December 1st 20259655
Getting out of the fridge early
Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?November 24th 20251,0935
Who's making the croissants?
When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...November 23th 2025989
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.October 8th 20252,7095
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?September 3rd 20257,5183
Other pages you may also like
Croutons
Do you use croutons, that typically French trick of toasting small pieces of bread on the side to add to a recipe? They're just delicious, but you need to know 2 or 3 things about them. .December 30th 202010 K5
The 3 secrets of Parisian flan
A flan Parisien, or boulanger, is a simple yet delicious cake. A cream, a mixture of milk, eggs and sugar, is poured into a raw pastry base and baked in the oven until the pastry and cream are cooked. This is the simplest version of the recipe, probably the original one, but nowadays the cream...July 21th 202316 K4.7
Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.
Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...March 26th 201245 K4.5
The window-pane test in bread-making
The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...June 16th 202196 K 23.9
Cooking time for pasta
What is as good and simple as pasta? Not much, I think, and it's so easy to prepare: boiling water, salted (or not, depending on your taste), a few minutes of boiling and it's ready. The only "difficulty", so to speak, is the respect of the cooking time and the risk of, unfortunately, overcooking...July 18th 201924 K4.6
Post a comment or question
Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.