[panini]

OK,
I'm not a handy man but a dry wall knife?? The thing with all the large teeth that you cut drywall with? OMG.
Yes, we just tape the circle platform. Yes, we remove the metal plate. Some of the plates will have bowed over the years and that is why you are not going all the way through. We put a cardboard circle under the cake and then place it on the boards. This will give it enough spongyness to go all the way through.
You might want to look for a used food tools slicer. Food Tools is the maker and probably have a web site. One went off on ebay for 400.
I guess I'll just have to fly in and help, since I'm family now
pan

[sadie's mom]

You are too funny! No, the dry wall knives are flat and very very thin which is why I use them. They really do work great for cutting cheesecakes into 8 to 12 slices or when the cakes are frozen, but not if they are 16-plus slices at refrigerator temp.

Are you seriously telling me that when you cut a cheesecake (into 16 or more slices) the way that you described above without freezing that the tips of each slice are perfectly pointed...everytime? Be honest now...you are driving me into alcoholism

You're in Texas aren't you? I think that I'd rather fly to you, the temp here is 2 degrees right now...hurts to breathe!

Laurie

[panini]

I don't recall the sagging tips, but we rarely take the slices out and rarely cut a chilled one. We run most of our coolers around 35. so they are pretty stiff. geez I hope no one speed reads this
We also make a NY style which makes the top pretty tight. We go almost light golden brown.
I will have them take one out of the display case this morning and ask them to slice it 16.
I'll let you know. That's a 10 ".
I don't mind sending you into alcoholism but I certainly don't want to mislead you. Have you tried drinking before you cut? Maybe the tips will become straight

[sadie's mom]

OK you are killing me now!!!!

Here we go...I cut 6 cheesecakes today into 12 slices each. I taped the circles together, I removed the metal bottom and put the cake on a cardboard circle, then I cut the cheesecake with 25# mono-fishing line and I was REALLY, REALLY CAREFUL to go straight down and then I did a "sawing" motion as I added even more pressure to the fishing line. Did the tips break? Nope , could I remove the slices without incident...Nope ! I was making samplers out of most of them and believe me every piece was "jagged". I ended up running my drywall knives between the cuts in order to make them nice and smooth so they would fit together in a nice happy little circle

I think that cutting cheesecakes this way for a wedding is something that I could get away with; but it may just be more of a hassle if I need to make samplers or put pieces into pie slice containers for the deli's that I supply.

Don't you serve your cheesecakes by the slice at your place? And by the way I can personally guarantee you that if I drank before I worked that I would not be in business for long! FYI, I decided to go to a friends and have SEVERAL cold ones tonight I'm feeling reeeaaallly nice!

Laurie

[panini]

I'm beginning to think maybe you should think about going into drywalling
Kinda of a snow day today. All schools closed. no business. This afternoon, a little cerveza for the production side and a nice cheap cab for the creative side. Cal. Lodi
a discussion about this person who is having trouble with her cheese cake cutting.
We did cut a 10" We used the piano/guitar wire. It was 5pm and the mono was 10 feet away. We cut, no problem, no sagging tips but we did get some instability when we tried to remove slices We seemed to have more problems with the cut surfaces sticking together as we tried to remove. So we finished the second bottle and a dozen fresh biscotti and pulled another cake.
Yes we do sell slices. We slice partially frozen.

We used a thin straight slicer.... not good
used the same slicer run through a wet towel... good
used slicer in hot water knife can.... very good
General consensus.. slice frozen... I know this is not what you wanted to hear.Am I hearing that you use these for samples or tastings? Why not bake square for that? I know it is nice to present a maticulus piece to perspective clients, but is that really how their guest will see it? We cringe when we hear large cheesecake. We have never seen a cheesecake properly cut and served buy any c or a++ service staff. and we forwarn clients.
Got to sleep. we will figure this out. I have a very good friend at a well know cheesecake production facility. I'll ask her how she did it before machines.
cheers
pan
oh, we did see a difference when slicing tip first(a little sag) vs cutting heel of the knife first rocking forward. Make sense?

[momoreg]

I've never tried paper between the slices, but maybe that will help stop them from sticking together.

[sadie's mom]

Momo,

What do you mean about the paper in between?

Laurie

[sadie's mom]

Pan,

No I do not use these for customer taste testing these are for samplers that I sell (4 different flavors, 3 slices of each). I make cupcake size or cute little 6" ones for potential brides.

I had greater success when I just went straight down WITHOUT the sawing motion when I got to the crust.

I am not experiencing any problem with the actual cake sticking together it is the crust that is not cooperating. It is jagged or crooked when I try to remove a slice, so of course putting together sample platters is a problem. I have to trim the excess.

Keep the advice coming!!

[Harpua]

Why don't you want to freeze your cakes?

[momoreg]

Harpua, I was wondering the same thing. Cheesecake freezes very well, and you might not notice any difference at all.

The paper between slices is something they do in delis and diners. I've never attempted it myself, but I believe they push the paper in (like a "V", so it's actually two-ply)just after slicing it. I went online looking for the exact technique, but maybe someone here can give you more specific instructions.

[sadie's mom]

I have frozen them sometimes when I've had several weddings on the same day, and you are correct there is not a noticeable difference. But the majority of the time they are baked fresh the day before delivery, I take pride in that.

When I get my new building done I'll be able to dedicate one fridge to a lower temperature just for the ones that need to be sliced. Perhaps then all of my concerns will be a thing of the past...thanks again.

[panini]

GodMother,
You seem to be doing a lot of this. Have you looked into a manual (less expensive ) cutter. Food Tools makes them. They not only cut butpaper the product.
I'm thinking wholesale in January and will probably get one myself.
Our freezers are actually part of our production, we really don't store anything. Our freezers are all -10. This will give you a moister product when thawed.
pan
I will look for a link to Food Tools. They are out of Calif.

Hi sadie's mom ! Foodibear here !
I just realized since I have registered in as Foodi4lif but am using foodibear I hope somebody else doesn't already have that name

Anyway I have been making Pumpkin cheesecakes and many other kinds for a long time and I use plain'ol dental floss exclusively ! If you are having trouble wiith your slices holding up how long are you waiting after the cake comes out of the oven before you slice ??? I recommend 24 hrs in the fridge . These kinds of cakes need time to set up and you just can't rush it ! So you just need to plan your timeline accordingly!
I would also check your oven temp with a thermometer you can buy at the supermarket ! They cost about 5 bucks . Some times ovens can be as much as 50 degrees off high or low so I would establish your oven's accuracy!

There are ways to tighten up your formula some so it has more stability when you go to slice ! I use an instant read thermometer to check the cheesecake for doneness and usually pull it out somewhere between 155 and 160. Another way is to add a couple of egg yolks along with the whole eggs to the formula to help tighten it up a bit. You can also reduce the amount of sourcream or cream in your formula or add some more cream cheese to the formula(like another 8oz maybe). Over mixing of the filling is a no no and will steal body from your filling so just enough to encorporate the ingredients fully and no more!
Also when adding fruit don't puree it completely. Such as bananas or berries. If you do it will in effect add more liquid which has no real body of its own and cause you to have to bake the cheesecake longer to set it up . And somehow the flavor of whatever fruit you're pureeing will tend to get lost in the cake so leave some of it a little chunky. This is standard practice when making quickbreads too !
As far as the dental floss goes I just grab a hold of a decent sized length and run it under some hot water and then pull tight and visually assertain the very center of the cake and using a kinda sawing motion pull down and when I hit bottom I grab the floss with my left thumb and index finger on the side of the cake where I'm pulling the floss thru flush right up against the side of the cake and then gently pull thru with the other hand ! This prevents any filling from leaking out the other side when your cutting. Now you cut the cake into quarters and then keep cutting in half until you reach 16 or 8 or 12 or whatever amount you want .
If you want to remove the bottom plate you will need a source for corrugated 10" cake circles(this will work for 9" cakes). If and only if the top of your cake is plain just sprinkle a little sugar across the top of the cake . This will keep the circle from sticking to the top of the cake ! When you are done flipping you can take a small brush and just brush off any excess sugar.
First remove the outer ring, now place a 10" cake circle ,centered on the top . Now flip it over. Now using a very thin knife and proceding ahead slowly and carefully remove the bottom plate from the springform pan. Don't rush....take your time! Now place another cake circle white side down on top of the the now newly exoposed bottom (make sure it is centered) and flip it back over ! The cake will be easier to cut if it is a few inches off the table ...say on a turntable if you have one . Now you can cut the crust with a thin knife to eliminate those pesky jagged edges !Just my thoughts !

My latest cheesecake endeavor is a Cranberry(marble) Orange oatmeal cookie crust cheesecake! I hope this helps !
foodibear

[sadie's mom]

Now that I have been using the fishing line the middle caving in has not been the problem; it's the jagged crust. I use removable bottoms not springform as these are MUCH easier to work with, I just don't think with as many cheesecakes as I make in a week that I'm going to want to take the time flipping each one over and then cutting the crust. Although I do appreciate the input!
Like Panini said, I may want to look into a slicer. This will let me focus my time on creating new flavors (currently 132) and not on something as silly as slicing!
Keep the ideas coming!

[panini]

Laurie,
Just wanted to post this cutter to show you. good price.
Item number: 7575516317 ebay
132 flavors??????
Ok, lets see. I would like to get a sample of each. Would that be possible to get tomorrow. Thank you so much
pan