Cheese slicer
The cheese slicer is a kitchen appliance for planing of cheese . It was invented and patented in 1925 by the Norwegian Thor Bjørklund (1889–1975), a master carpenter from Lillehammer . Mass production began in 1927.
history
Bjørklund was annoyed that his typical Norwegian cheese ( brunost ), which he enjoyed so much, could never be cut into even and especially thin slices with a knife. Inspired by his work with wooden planes, he designed such a tool for cutting cheese. After patenting this food cutter on October 10, 1925, he initially manufactured these kitchen gadgets in small series. The sales success prompted him to set up Thor Bjørklund & Sønner AS in Lillehammer in 1927 together with a business partner . In the following years, production methods, materials and design were constantly refined, and sales at home and abroad rose steadily. As usual with good ideas, imitators soon found themselves, although patent protection exists. But the market competitors made the smallest design changes that were not protected by the patent. Neither side shied away from going to court. Nevertheless, there were cheese slicers in large numbers in the 1970s who operated with dumping prices. Bjørklund & Sønner manufactured the 50 millionth plane in 1975, in many sizes and designs. But in 2009 the company had to file for bankruptcy. So it was easy for the multi-group Gudbrandsdal Industrier (GIAX) to buy Thor Bjørklund & Sønner AS . But he continues to produce cheese slicers under the well-known brand name at the same location.
description
Cheese slicers are widely used in the Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands , as cheese consumption is high here. In addition, the traditional cheeses in these countries are hard enough to be sliced.
The first planer consisted of several small parts and its manufacture required almost 50 work steps and takes about an hour. The typical cheese slicer usually consists of a more or less decoratively shaped piece of steel with a continuously adjustable knife on the surface. The thickness of the cut material is adjusted using an adjusting screw. The cheese , usually Parmesan or other hard cheese , or the truffles are cut into wafer-thin slices with the help of a slicer and placed over the main course.
The cheese slicers that are used in the Scandinavian countries have a ground opening instead of the adjustable knife, which can be easily bent in order to vary the thickness of the cut product slightly.
A special type of cheese slicer is the Girolle , which is used for scraping Tête-de-Moine cheese in Switzerland .
Another Swiss development is a heavy wooden version with an adjustable blade, which is especially suitable for hard and extra-hard cheese and is used for slicing cheese .
Cheese slicer with cuttings
Girolle for Tete de Moine
Cheese slicer for hard and extra hard cheese
competition
There has been a world championship in cheese slicing for several years. This takes place every two years in a different country and the participants come from more than 20 countries around the world. One of the winners was the Ghent cheese maker Callebaut Vanhaver, who won the World Championships in 2017. The aforementioned runs a sales point in the center of Ghent with this notice on the shop window Meester Kaasrijpers. World Champion 2017 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Käsehobel, SMS & Co: Inventions from Fennoscandinavia. University of Greifswald, September 20, 2016, accessed April 4, 2010 .
- ↑ February 27, 2010 - 85 years ago: A patent application was filed for the cheese slicer. WDR , February 27, 2010, accessed April 4, 2020 .
- ↑ World Championship Cheese Contest in the USA, 2018.
- ↑ Seen and photographed on September 26, 2019 by user: 44Penguins .