Straight-e Serrated knives work just as well as so-called tomato knives to cut tender tomatoes into thin pieces. Why You Need a Serrated Knife. Not only can it easily tackle large, crusty artisan loaves, it also easily cuts through soft, delicate breads. Let’s cut right to the chase: There are only like four ways to use a bread knife. One such knife was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago by the Friedrich Dick company (Esslingen, Germany). The wider the scallops are, the better it performs. Hard skin fruit like pineapple or vegetables like pumpkin can also be peeled with the bread knife so long as one is careful not to flex the blade. It’s also the perfect tool for shaping and leveling cakes for decorating, along with cutting delicate slices to serve. When it comes to thick-skinned squash and melons, using a straight-edged knife can actually be dangerous. The serrated blades of bread knives are able to cut soft bread without crushing it. A bread knife is a kitchen staple because, despite its name, it can perform a wide variety of tasks. Because of its design, these knives tend to remain sharp far longer than straight-edged blades, but the serrations also make them harder to sharpen at home. It glides with effortless ease through breads, soft vegetables, and fruits, and creates paper thin … If you do a lot of cake work, look for a bread knife with a more rounded handle so it’s comfortable to hold horizontally when leveling cakes. In the meantime, you can prolong the sharp edge of your bread knife by properly cleaning and caring for it, by following the rules of kitchen knife safety, and making sure you’re using the best cutting board for your knives. [2] His knife had sections of grooves or serrations, inclined with respect to the axis of the blade, that form individual small cutting edges which were perpendicular to the blade and thus cut without the excessive normal pressure required of a scalloped blade and without the horizontal force required by positive-raked teeth that would dig into the bread like a wood saw. It’s also perfect for removing the bark from a pineapple. Of course, with practice also comes a higher chance of destroying your favorite bread knife, so it might be best to leave it up to the professionals – not to mention, many knife brands might offer knife sharpening services and even “lifetime guarantees”, but such services can be nullified if you destroy your knife by trying to sharpen it yourself. Bread knives can also be used to slice cakes with soft, fluffy textures, as they can cut through them without knocking the air out of the sponge or damaging the overall shape. Sharp Guide to Buying Shiny New Kitchen Knives, How the Rockwell Hardness Scale is Used in Kitchen Cutlery, The Best Knife for Cutting Veggies – Hint: It’s Not Just One, Elevate Your Kitchen With Damascus Steel Patterns. You might wonder why in the world you need a different knife for each task, or why you would ever need a knife “just for bread”. The serrated edge moving back and forth across the bread should cut the bread rather than downward pressure. The Superior series bread knife consists of a thin, 2-millimeter blade (which is a hair over 1/16 of an inch) that’s tapered from spine to edge to reduce wedging. A bread knife, or a serrated knife, has saw-like notches formed on the cutting edge of the blade. Tougher foods are no match for a bread knife either. It’s rare to find a single tool as versatile as a bread knife. Sharp! The primary job of a bread knife is to slice bread. These changes in texture would cause straight-edged knives to snag and tear, but the bread knife slices through with no problems. Bread knives are used for cutting bread and are one of many kitchen knives used by cooks. When splitting cakes, this is also the best knife to use. A serrated knife is great for cutting or slicing food like melons, tomatoes and bread as these tend to have a tough exterior and a soft interior. These knives tend to be fairly slender and have a bit of flex to the blade. A long, serrated bread knife should be used with a manual bread slicer. In English, it’s labeled simply as a “bread knife.” You can also use a bread knife to prepare some of the accompanying ingredients for your sweet treats. For slicing real bread, a serrated blade is the tool of choice. Its large serrations allow it to grip the crumb and the crust of bread to cut it, without having to press down on the bread to do so. Additionally, it can also act as the perfect tool for shaping and levelling cakes for decorating, along with cutting delicate slices to serve. A quality bread knife can also be used to slice through delicate pastries and to divide cake sponges. This design enables the serrated knife to cut easily through food items with tough exteriors and delicate interiors, such as crusty loaves of bread. You can even use a bread knife to cut loaded sandwiches into more manageable pieces. If you don’t want to sacrifice your bread knife for practice, then definitely seek a professional. Chocolate – The sharp little teeth on serrated knives make quick work of a block of chocolate that we need broken into smaller pieces. ), then it’s time to, 6 Types of Knives to Keep in Your Kitchen, The F.N. Of course, with practice also comes a higher chance of destroying your favorite bread knife, so it might be best to leave it up to the professionals – not to mention, many knife brands might offer knife sharpening services and even “lifetime guarantees”, but such services can be nullified if you destroy your knife by trying to sharpen it yourself. Use a bread knife to easily cut the chocolate into small, manageable pieces suitable for melting or mixing into doughs and batters. Some can double as a carving knife. 2. This keeps your melon from rolling all over the cutting board. 8 inches is a common length used for a bread knife. Use your paring knife to make a small incision, then pry the line up with the tip of your blade. These act just like a saw, slicing through food as you move the knife back and forth, rather than using downward pressure. Chefs must work with the best available tools and the right blade will allow you superior precision and skill. Bread knives are usually between 15 and 25 cm (6 and 10 in). This article is about the item of cutlery. Of course you can use a bread knife to slice all kinds of breads from baguettes and brioche to bagels and biscuits. Opt for the sturdiest knife you can afford, since less flexible blades tend to make more even slices. An offset serrated knife uses an offset handle to ensure the cook's knuckles will not touch the cutting surface when the blade has cut all of the way through the food. Many kitchen knife sets will include this knife, although they are easily purchased separately. Discover, create, and experience the flavors of the world with F.N. Aside from bread which it effortlessly excels at slicing, it’s also fantastic for leveling cakes, cutting sandwiches and slicing a range of fruit and vegetables too. To properly cut rounded squash or melon, first cut off the stem or blossom end to create a flat surface. Not only does it easily slice through the delicate sponge of a cake, its blade is also longer than most other kitchen knives, meaning you can slice through the entire layer in just one pass. You want a bread knife that looks more like a saw than a steak knife. Copyright © 2019 F.N. Sharp | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy. A go… And if you’d rather spend more time cooking and less time sharpening your knives (who doesn’t? Peeling ingredients. Prepping other fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes or pineapple, is also a good occasion to break out your bread knife. Bread knives occupy a niche role in your kitchen blade arsenal. The knife's long serrated blade works well to slice through food that is hard on the outside and soft on the inside, such as slicing through the hard crusts of bread. Although this particular Fibrox Pro knife is marketed as a Bread Knife, it is in fact far more versatile than that which is why it gets our Best Choice spot in today’s Best Bread Knife review. Use a bread knife to cut perfect slices from soft fruits and vegetables like tomatoes or citrus without covering your cutting board in juices. Dick exhibited during the biggest international fair in Chicago", Cutlery and Allied Trades Research Association, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bread_knife&oldid=983816990, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 October 2020, at 12:09. But, since bread knives feature serrated edges, it can be tricky to sharpen them yourself. This serration allows you to easily cut through crust without smooshing the loaf, thus preserving the airy quality and volume of a perfect slice. This gives a bread knife some distinct advantages when it comes to cutting certain types of food – especially bread since it’s designed to slice right through crusty loaves without crushing the soft center. 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