what is a bread knife used for

To properly cut rounded squash or melon, first cut off the stem or blossom end to create a flat surface. 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. With its straight cutting motion, you don’t have to saw your way through. These changes in texture would cause straight-edged knives to snag and tear, but the bread knife slices through with no problems. Knives are the most important tool in a chef's kit, and they can be used for just about any food prep task from chopping onions and butchering a cut of beef to opening oysters and slicing bread. Bread knives are usually between 15 and 25 cm (6 and 10 in). Why You Need a Serrated Knife. This serration allows you to easily cut through crust without smooshing the loaf, thus preserving the airy quality and volume of a perfect slice. Chefs must work with the best available tools and the right blade will allow you superior precision and skill. Well truth be told, the bread knife isn’t just for bread, and we’re here to tell you why it could become one of your go-to knives in the kitchen. 2. By choking up on the blade, you have more control over it, which allows you to relax your arm as you cut. A go… 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. The serrations grip well on waxy surfaces – so good for carving into pumpkins and removing skin from pineapples, too. Bread knives occupy a niche role in your kitchen blade arsenal. When it comes to sharpening your kitchen knives, there are a few different tools you can use. Home › Top Uses for a Bread Knife – It’s Not Just for Bread. A serrated knife is good at one thing – cutting without downward pressure. [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. One such knife was exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago by the Friedrich Dick company (Esslingen, Germany). What a bread knife will do is enable you to slice bread without squishing it. 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. It’s also the perfect tool for shaping and leveling cakes for decorating, along with cutting delicate slices to serve. 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. The tips of these knives may be rounded or pointed, but it actually makes no difference since the tip of the bread knife isn’t used for cutting. It’s quite easy to learn how to use a bread knife, but it does take practice to make even slices: you simply hold the food in place on a cutting with your other hand, careful to keep your fingers out of the way, and draw the bread knife smoothly back and forth through the food. 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. But, there are different types of kitchen knives that are designed for various purposes. A quality bread knife can also be used to slice through delicate pastries and to divide cake sponges. When splitting cakes, this is also the best knife to use. Use a bread knife to cut perfect slices from soft fruits and vegetables like tomatoes or citrus without covering your cutting board in juices. What is a Bread Knife Used For? This takes some practice in order to achieve every time, but it’s a skill worth mastering. A serrated knife cuts the exterior skin or crust efficiently without harming the delicate interior. They’re distinguished by the saw-like appearance of the blade’s edge. 8 inches is a common length used for a bread knife. You want a bread knife that looks more like a saw than a steak knife. Opt for the sturdiest knife you can afford, since less flexible blades tend to make more even slices. 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. When using a manual bread slicer, the knife should be slid into the guide and, with very little downward pressure, it should be gently used to saw through the bread. Other models, however, may have a rounded end, or an angled tip. Different knives serve different purposes. Additionally, it can also act as the perfect tool for shaping and levelling cakes for decorating, along with cutting delicate slices to serve. 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. What defines them is their serrated blade, which gives them a saw-toothed edge that can make quick work of some of the most rugged items, and also the most delicate ones. If you’re set on sharpening your bread knife yourself, be sure to familiarize yourself with the specifications of your knife as they vary by brand – and be sure to practice, practice, practice! Bread knives are used for cutting bread and are one of many kitchen knives used by cooks. This article is about the item of cutlery. A long, serrated bread knife should be used with a manual bread slicer. Sharp | Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy. The name of the knife does not matter, but a good 'bread knife' will have serrations which are optimally designed for slicing real bread. Meanwhile, the bits between the points … Purchase your foam here: http://www.fabricfarms.com/Upholstery-Foam.html 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. For the mountain in New South Wales, see, "We are producing serrated knives thus bread knives since we started the production of knives in 1889." A bread knife is a long knife with a serrated (or "scalloped") cutting edge. It’s especially well-suited for breaking up blocks of baking chocolate, which is brittle and may snap under the pressure of a straight-edged knife. Bread knives typically come in lengths from seven to ten inches, but a longer knife tends to be more versatile, and there is certainly no shortage of tasks at which this knife excels! "Series 1893 means that in this year, Friedr. But, since bread knives feature serrated edges, it can be tricky to sharpen them yourself. That one trait makes the bread knife useful for both squishy, delicate foods and very firm, tough foods. A bread knife can be used to cut many different kinds of bread. When cutting bread into slices, the key is to keep the knife perfectly vertical so that each slice is the same thickness from top to bottom. 2. Thick as in a crusty loaf of bread. The serrated blades of bread knives are able to cut soft bread without crushing it. 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. A bread knife, or a serrated knife, has saw-like notches formed on the cutting edge of the blade. If you don’t have a cake leveller in your kitchen, a bread knife can also be used to even out your sponge cakes after baking. Bread knives are used for cutting bread and are one of many kitchen knives used by cooks. Just as with savory baked goods, there are many reasons to break out the bread knife for sweets, from cakes to pastries. 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. Serrated knives are also known as bread knives. Let’s cut right to the chase: There are only like four ways to use a bread knife. 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, If you don’t want to sacrifice your bread knife for practice, then definitely seek a professional. Thanks! The wider the scallops are, the better it performs. It can even double as a carving knife. Some people advocate simply discarding a dull bread knife and getting a new one, but with a high-quality knife, it’s worth using a sharpening service rather than replacing it entirely. 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. A bread knife is designed with a long blade that has a serrated edge. If you’re set on sharpening your bread knife yourself, be sure to familiarize yourself with the specifications of your knife as they vary by brand – and be sure to practice, practice, practice! Don’t press down – let the serrations do the work for you. The primary job of a bread knife is to slice bread. Chocolate – The sharp little teeth on serrated knives make quick work of a block of chocolate that we need broken into smaller pieces. 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. It easily slices through food with thick or resistant outer surfaces. Peeling ingredients. 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. 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. You can also use a bread knife to prepare some of the accompanying ingredients for your sweet treats. Prepping other fruits and vegetables, like tomatoes or pineapple, is also a good occasion to break out your bread knife. ), then it’s time to get F.N. 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. You won't use a bread knife nearly as often as a chef's knife, the true workhorse of the kitchen, but for a limited set of tasks, they are necessary. Straight-e With so many different types to choose from, picking out a new set of kitchen knives can seem like a daunting task – especially if you’ve always used that one hand-me-down knife for every task. Fruits and vegetables like tomatoes or pineapple, is also a great alternative for soft bread without squishing.! 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Out your bread knife for this Recipe: Pina Colada Guacamole will this... Firm, tough foods squash and melons, using a knife to make a small incision then... Also easily cuts through soft, delicate breads grip well on waxy surfaces – so good carving... On the cutting edge of the blade rounded end, or an angled tip tough... Many reasons to break out the bread down delicate foods and very firm, tough foods niche...

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