Cheese on a wire

The Cheese Wire

(Credit: Cooking.com)

There are tons of different cheese slicers out there that all promise to cleanly cut pieces off that big brick of cheese in your fridge. But all you really need is a wire. The Cheese Wire is one of the simplest cheese slicers you'll ever see: it's a length of heavy-duty wire attached to two wooden handles, which protect your hands as you cut. To use, you just place the wire on your cheese and pull down. The Cheese Wire will glide through, leaving you with clean slices.

The Cheese Wire actually incorporates piano wire: it's food-grade, of course, but the thickness of a piano wire is ideal for cutting cheese. Cheese won't stick to a wire the way it can stick to a knife, and it doesn't crumble the way it can if you have to force a knife through it. The natural wood handles can make the Cheese Wire easier to use, as well. I've used wires meant for slicing cheese in the past that had little more than a ring at the end to pull with. The handles offer a much better grip. The Cheese Wire is also cheaper than the average cheese-slicing gadget, with a price tag of $4.95.