Cheese.

[rhythmaning]

I have long been aware that I have some less than conventional habits regarding cheese, and its consumption - specifically, its division: how it is cut.

 

I like cheese, not hugely - and as a child, I loathed the stuff. I would refuse to eat it. But sometime in my teenage years I came around to the idea, and now I really rather like it. Indeed, in the space of a week, I am going to two cheese tastings: on Friday I went to a pecorino and Tuscan wine tasting at V&C's, and tomorrow I'm off to a beer and cheese tasting at Brewdog. Not that I take it at all seriously, mind.

 

So. Cutting cheese. I have long believed that one should cut cheese like brie our cheddar - that has been cut from a large round - along a radius. There is a typically puritanical reason for this: the best bit is generally at the centre of a round cheese. Cutting along the radius means everyone can share the most centre. Conversely, truncating the cheese - cutting across the radius - is snaffling the best bit for yourself, and greedy and selfish.

 

That is how I cut cheese, even if it is just me eating it. I have no idea where this comes from - it wasn't a family habit (my brother thinks I am bonkers) - but it is deeply engrained. Over a shared meal of cheese, I have to stifle shock when someone breaks my (unwritten, unknown) rule.

 

Unfortunately, very few people seem to embrace my behaviour; they grab the best bits for themselves. I suffer, silently.

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Comments

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

This is good French table manners: "il ne faut pas couper le nez du fromage".

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

It's good to learn I'm not alone!

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on the cheese cutting.

My dad tells a story of inviting someone to dinner and laying on a whole Stilton and watching in horror as the guy scooped out a big bit of cheese from the centre.

I think there is also something about making sure that the edges of the cheese are exposed to air for as little time as possible – so you cut from the currently exposed edge rather than create a new front.

[kittenexploring.livejournal.com]

There are other ways to cut cheese?