Whoops I pinched the loaf [bread]
Bowen
Sup?Registered User regular
Sup?Registered User regular
So how does one go about cutting a loaf of bread?
I've gotten loaves of Italian bread from our bakery (sooo good compared to packaged bread) but lately they've stopped selling pre-sliced bread. I've tried using all sorts of knives I have at home but they always smush it. The best luck I've had was actually using a turkey carving knife that was powered. I'm assuming it's because my other knives are not the right kind/not sharp enough.
I've gotten loaves of Italian bread from our bakery (sooo good compared to packaged bread) but lately they've stopped selling pre-sliced bread. I've tried using all sorts of knives I have at home but they always smush it. The best luck I've had was actually using a turkey carving knife that was powered. I'm assuming it's because my other knives are not the right kind/not sharp enough.
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Let the knife do the work, don't push down. Just saw.
That explains why the electric knife worked fine and steak-knifes seemed to not destroy it as much.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/8/KitchenBath/Knives/IndividualKnives/PRD~0427528P/Henckels%252BFine%252BEdge%252BPro%252B8%252Bin.%252BBread%252BKnife.jsp?locale=en
You can find ones with finer teeth as well.
Like Tip downwards and on the far edge and you push forwards, then tilt it back as you pull it towards yourself.
this is nonsense
bowen, just get a decent bread knife and it'll last just fine as long as you don't mistreat it
If so I'll get cheap ones because, fuck doing dishes by hand.
Word up. I was going to recommend these as well. I love Henckels' kitchen knives. The Santoku knife is my absolute favorite for fish and chicken. Relatively cheap, excellent quality.
edit: Anyway, IIRC in their most recent tests Cooks Illustrated liked this bread knife in terms of quality vs cost: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00093090Y/ref=wms_ohs_product
but if the knife in question is under $100, it would be much more useful to get a decent, inexpensive honing steel and learn how to use it properly, and then either pay a few bucks for professional sharpening when a honing steel isn't giving you a good edge any more or buy a good sharpener
But it's not really a big deal to wash and dry your knives by hand, plus you avoid the possibility of gashing yourself reaching into the dishwasher for something else.
Unless you're cutting breads with fillings or something, you don't even have to wash it often. Anytime I'm finished cutting bread I just give the knife a 2 second rinse and wipe it with my dishcloth/sponge to get the crumbs off and then dry it immediately.
O_o
I have never had this problem. Always keep your utensils blade down!
I never finish anyth
Bread dulls a knife ridiculously fast. Serrated blades are a paaaain in the ass to sharpen. Hence? Buy a cheap one and replace it when it gets dull. This is assuming you want a nice sharp knife that will cut through bread without smashing the shape. If your standards are lower, of course you could cut it with a dull knife. Same with a normal knife and tomatoes.
also, dont put any nice cutlery in the dishwasher no matter how lazy you are. Its not like stuff gets dried on caked on there or anything.
I've had the same bread knife for half a decade and it still cuts freshly made bread and other baked goods without issue.
The serrated edge is there for a reason, and the only reason you'll end up with smushed bread is if you don't let the blade do the work. Think of it like sawing a piece of wood, you just rock back and forth and the saw bites into the wood on its own.
Same here, except replace half a decade with a decade. It's never been sharpened, but it has absolutely no problems cutting fresh (or otherwise) bread, and I make and buy a lot of bread.
Serrated blades are a pain to sharpen, but what makes you think bread is so hard on a knife?
My mom just recently got one of these for her meats and tomatoes and it works really well. I couldn't recommended it without saying it cuts through anything and if you have ever nicked yourself cutting anything I wouldn't get this because with very little pressure it could take your finger off.
You may even get a Jew scar!
Really? Because I've had the same bread knife since I graduated from college in '01, sliced plenty of crusty bread and it's still sharp enough to take a tomato apart smartly
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
Edit: anyhow, this is getting off topic. Buy one knife and use it for years without sharpening it!
BREAD is hard on knives.
That's absurd. It's bread. It's stainless steel (preferable high carbon) through bread. Maybe you're cutting things other than bread with your bread knife. Maybe you're using a glass cutting board and grinding the knife into it as you cut. Maybe you're throwing your knife in a drawer with a bunch of other kitchen utensils. Maybe your bread is made out of titanium alloy. I have no idea, but you've got enough people here telling you that they've had the same bread knife for a decade or more and have never had a problem with it.
As long as you use your bread knife for bread alone and take care of it, it should last you many, many years. By "take care of it," I mean wipe it after cutting your bread and put it back in your knife block. You don't even necessarily need to really wash it that often.
bread is not hard on bread knives
Are you sure you're not cutting your bread on a glass or granite "cutting board" or something?
If I was cutting a loaf of bread and it tore up my knife, I don't think I'd be eating that bread.
But educate me then. Why do I have to have my other knives professionally sharpened (ideally annually) and steel them all the time to retain a good cut while my serrated can just roll on through? Obviously chicken and celery aren't harder than steel. It makes sense to me that the dulling of blade at the saw points would result in an inferior cut, but is this not the case?
Maybe we're looking at this wrong. Maybe he's cutting his bread with a knife made out of bread.
your logic is a little backwards here
you seem to be assuming that your bread knife is being ruined by cutting bread unless you can understand exactly why it isn't being ruined by bread
when the evidence is the simple fact that we're all cutting our bread with the same bread knife years later
which is not to say that there isn't a perfectly good reason why a bread knife isn't ruined by cutting bread, just that lacking that specific knowledge doesn't change the fact that the bread knife is still doing just fine
His logic is clear, if other knives need to be sharpened annually why wouldn't a bread knife need to be? The problem is in his assumption that in order to retain a good cut all knives should be sharpened annual. That might not even be the problem, the problem could just be how to define a good cut with bread due to it's nature and inability to detect a poor cut?
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The answer is fairly simple. You use other knives far more frequently and in a different manner than you use your bread knife.
What country are you from, cause in America we love our breads, we eat them with every meal.
Canada. You cut bread every single meal? Cause I'm using a Santoku or Cook knife dozens of times during prep for a meal. By "times," I mean the actual slicing motion.
That wasn't a serious post but if you would like to go into use factor I could argue against you.
When prepping meals, how often are your knives in use for each of those cuts? Cutting bread isn't a quick chop and finish, it takes time. Use time across knives has got to be similar, despite number of cuts.