28 Comments
I have a vivid memory of eating breakfast at my boyfriend's house for the first time and having no idea how to use the osthyvel. There I was, awkwardly prodding at the cheese block whilst his family watched in amazement. At least it helped me remember the word!
My mum held a party for her birthday one year, and one of the guests, a little confused, used the edge of the cheese slicer to carve off a big chunk from the end of a block of cheese.
I'd probably rephrase this entirely, e.g. Jag har en osthyvel för gul ost. If I had to put it as above, I'd just a dash for clarity: Jag har en gul ost-hyvel. The sentence is technically ambigious the way it's currently written, but nobody would ever interpret it to mean that the cheese has to be yellow. :)
No, you're thinking of rakhyvel (which is a type of razor). But they do both contain hyvel, which means "plane" (a tool used to smooth surfaces, usually for carpentry).
1715
That's what I meant. I supposed that both rakhyvels and osthyvels are special kinds of hyvels.
If we're nitpicking, rakhyvel is a safety-razor while rakblad is a razor blade.
- 888
Äggharpa 'egg harp' is a funny word for it. More neutral would be äggskivare I guess.
Tack. I was actually thinking of this http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandolin_%28k%C3%B6ksredskap%29 which is apparently called a Mandolin (and not a compound word involving hyvel)
A small clarification: köksredskap is just the Swedish word for cooking utensil.
I think that they aren't referring to a knife but rather a special thing that Swedes use to cut cheese, just google osthyvel to see what they mean.
Indeed. A cheese knife (ostkniv) is another utensil for the fancy way of eating cheese and fruit.
- 1699
I grew up in an area that produced much cheese, but we didn't have any fancy implements for cutting it, apparently. :) Tack, alla!
Oh! It IS a "plane" - with an attached shovel to pick up the resulting slice. I grew up with the thin wire slicer (and a knife for fancy occasions), unfamiliar with this brilliant tool.
Most I've seen have had unpainted wooden handles, but that might just be my mum's preference.
