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Using Dental Floss to Cut Soft Cheese and Cakes

Stop crushing your delicate cakes and smearing your expensive goat cheese. Learn why a simple piece of string is vastly superior to a kitchen knife for delicate slicing.

Using Dental Floss to Cut Soft Cheese and Cakes

The Failure of the Knife

You have spent hours baking a towering, incredibly soft, moist layer cake. When it comes time to cut a slice, you press a large chef's knife down into the frosting. The thick wedge shape of the knife blade acts like an axe, displacing the cake sideways, compressing the airy crumb, and smearing the frosting all the way down the slice. The result is a squished, ugly mess.

The same physical problem occurs when slicing soft, sticky cheeses like fresh mozzarella, goat cheese (chèvre), or a ripe brie. The cheese clings aggressively to the wide, flat metal of the knife blade, tearing the cheese apart and ruining the presentation.

The Physics of the Floss

The solution is to use a cutting tool that has virtually zero surface area and zero thickness. In professional kitchens, chefs use a cheese wire. At home, you can achieve the exact same results with unscented dental floss.

  • Because the floss is microscopically thin, it passes straight through the delicate structure of the food without displacing it sideways or compressing it.
  • Because there is no flat metal blade for the sticky cheese or frosting to cling to, it makes a surgically clean, pristine cut without any smearing.

Step-by-Step Clean Slicing

You absolutely must use UNSCENTED dental floss. Mint-flavored floss will transfer an awful toothpaste flavor directly into your expensive cheese and cakes.

  • Step 1: Pull out a length of unscented dental floss (or clean, unflavored fishing line, or heavy cotton sewing thread) about 18 inches long.
  • Step 2: Wrap the ends of the floss tightly around the index fingers of both hands, pulling the string completely taut between them.
  • Step 3 (For Cakes and Cheese Logs): Hold the taut string horizontally above the food. Press it straight down, firmly and smoothly, all the way to the cutting board.
  • Step 4: The Crucial Release. Do NOT pull the string back up through the top of the food, or you will pull the slice apart. Once the string hits the cutting board, simply let go of the string with one hand, and pull it horizontally out the side.
  • Step 5 (For Splitting Cake Layers): If you need to cut a thick cake horizontally to add a layer of filling, first use a knife to score a shallow line all the way around the equator of the cake.
  • Step 6: Wrap a long piece of floss completely around the cake, resting it inside the scored line.
  • Step 7: Cross the ends of the floss in front of you. Grab the ends and pull them in opposite directions (tightening the noose). The floss will effortlessly slice through the exact center of the cake, leaving two perfectly flat, uncrushed layers.

Beyond Cake and Cheese

This hack applies to anything soft and easily crushed.

  • Use it to slice logs of raw cinnamon roll dough or cookie dough. A knife crushes the round roll into a flat oval; floss keeps them perfectly circular.
  • Use it to slice hard-boiled eggs cleanly without the yolk crumbling.
  • Use it to slice delicate roulades, Swiss rolls, or Beef Wellington without tearing the pastry.

Keeping a dedicated box of unscented dental floss in your kitchen drawer is the cheapest, most effective way to guarantee professional-looking presentations.