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Poor Man's Guitar Cutter


Kerry Beal

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A couple of weeks ago, while looking for a double handled cheese knife on e-bay to cut caramels, I happened upon this little number that is used to cut cheese into cubes.

It has fixed wires 7/8 inch spacing and cuts 24 pieces.

I cut some pates de fruit with it tonight, but the pieces are kind of small. I suspect it might work quite nicely for ganache, given that I prefer to make small pieces.

Should tide me over until I finally aquire a real guitar, which seems to be taking a bit longer than anticipated.

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What a neat gizmo. Where was it made?

Jmahl

The Philip Mahl Community teaching kitchen is now open. Check it out. "Philip Mahl Memorial Kitchen" on Facebook. Website coming soon.

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I always love these "ebay" posts. I just discovered ebay myself and bought a dental vibrator (thanks to this forum's suggestions) as well as vanilla beans (again, another forum suggestion) and a dehumidifier so I can continue to practice during the summers.

The one item I really wanted to try, but might not have enough $$ for, is a vacuum mixer. Of all the crazy ebay things to try, that is one I would like to try the most.

Edited by ejw50 (log)
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What a neat gizmo.  Where was it made? 

Jmahl

It is made by Prince Castle which is an american company, not sure exactly where this unit was put together however. It's old, they don't offer anything like it anymore. I bet Andi would know more about it.

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Kerry,

Didn't you purchase one from D&R after all of your hard work getting a deal for eGulleters?

Didn't end up getting it. By the time everyone decided to look at other options I didn't quite get around to it. I don't know if anyone ended up getting one. I felt very guilty for getting Nicolas from DR all worked up, then not coming through. I'm working on one from Germany, but we'll see what happens.

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  • 1 year later...

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I needed to cut a small sample batch of ganache today, but didn't want to be bothered to pull out the guitar and clean it after. I had found this little cheese cutter at Value Village a month or so back, and decided to use it to cut my ganache.

Worked a treat - the wire goes right though the entire width of the cheese cutter, unlike the set up on some of the marble cheese cutters I have seen.

I think it cost me about $2.

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gallery_34671_3115_18085.jpg

I needed to cut a small sample batch of ganache today, but didn't want to be bothered to pull out the guitar and clean it after.  I had found this little cheese cutter at Value Village a month or so back, and decided to use it to cut my ganache.

Worked a treat - the wire goes right though the entire width of the cheese cutter, unlike the set up on some of the marble cheese cutters I have seen.

I think it cost me about $2.

O that is so good. So clever. I just love unexpected bargains like that. Good going. ...think my DH could put together something like that... :wink:

Darienne

 

learn, learn, learn...

 

We live in hope. 

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My "poor mans version" is a "Kook-e Kutter" picked up from a bus-tub of assorted crud at Nicholson's (www.nicholsons) a large new & used bakery supplier in Vancouver.

What this is, is a trough of about 12" long that is divided into 3/8" wide sections. The hinged top part is a frame strung with piano wire and cuts only in 3/8" wide slices. The wire is one long piece and is only tightened by only one (1!) key that looks very much like a guitar (the musical kind) key.

This device is used to cut logs of cookie dough into 3/8" slices and I use it quite frequently for this purpose.

However.....If I pour my ganache into 1" tubes, I can slice the ganache into 3/8" "coins" which are pretty much ideal.

For squares I use my wheeled cutter. Matfer does make a device like this, basically a rolling pin with anywhere from 24-36 s/s discs, but this retails for somewhere around $300. Nicholsons sells the s/s discs for around $2 a wheel. It's pretty simple to string them on a piece of threaded redi-rod and turn some wooden handles and spacer blocks.

Works fairly well for cutting ganache.

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My "poor mans version" is a "Kook-e Kutter" picked up from a bus-tub of assorted crud at Nicholson's (www.nicholsons)  a large new & used bakery supplier in Vancouver.

What this is, is a trough of about 12" long that is divided into 3/8" wide sections.  The hinged top part is a frame strung with piano wire and cuts only in 3/8" wide slices.  The wire is one long piece and is only tightened by only one (1!) key that looks very much like a guitar (the musical kind) key.

This device is used to cut logs of cookie dough into 3/8" slices and I use it quite frequently for this purpose.

However.....If I pour my ganache into 1" tubes, I can slice the ganache into 3/8" "coins" which are pretty much ideal.

For squares I use my wheeled cutter.  Matfer does make a device like this, basically a rolling pin with anywhere from 24-36 s/s discs, but this retails for somewhere around $300.  Nicholsons sells the s/s discs for around $2 a wheel.  It's pretty simple to string them on a piece of threaded redi-rod and turn some wooden handles and spacer blocks.

Works fairly well for cutting ganache.

Can you post a picture? I'm curious as to what this looks like.

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  • 5 years later...
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