Bread Knives
About Bread Knives
If you were only allowed to have only one knife in your kitchen, then you should choose to have a bread knife. This is because it is so versatile. It can do the job of both the chef’s knife and paring knife relatively well and also can deal with situations in which either of them don’t work.
The difference between other knives and a bread knife is quite noticeable. Instead of a smooth and even blade, a bread knife has a blade that is serrated like a saw. Unsurprisingly, the function of this blade is also similar to a saw. It can cut through soft and hard objects alike without crushing them. This is because of the difference in the way you use a bread knife. Instead of applying direct downward pressure, it is the sawing motion that helps you cut with a bread knife. So, before you go shopping for bread knives, read this article to know more about them. Having a better understanding of kitchen knives will help you make better purchase decisions.
Four best bread knives for your kitchen
The tool that you use for any job can dictate how well you will be able to do that job. And in a kitchen, a knife is probably one of the most important tools. So, you should always make sure not to compromise on the quality of your knives. You will feel the difference between a poorly built knife and a good one when you hold them both in your hands. It becomes even more apparent when you start using them. Therefore, rather than buying any bread knife, you should get the one that is pleasing to work with. Here is a list of the four best bread knives you can consider buying.
OXO Good Grips 8-inch bread knife
This is a relatively small bread knife. But this small knife is good for most home users. When you read eight inches, don’t think that it is the length of the whole knife. That is only the length of the blade. The handle measures another five and a half inches. The total length is, therefore, thirteen and a half inches. Like you might already know, bread knives are not too sharp by design. And because of that, you can put this knife in a dishwasher without damaging it. However, the best thing to do is to wash it with your hands and dry it with a cloth before storing it in a knife holder.
Victorinox 10-inch bread knife
There are so many reasons for you to get this bread knife from Switzerland. For one thing, having a slightly curved one makes it easier to cut with a serrated knife. The steel is also of high-quality material. Then there is the contrasting black handle made of Fibrox, which is really comfortable to hold and work with. And to make things even better, this knife comes with a limited lifetime warranty. Now that’s all the good part. But life is all the good things in the world; this knife is a bit pricey. It costs around 150 AED. But that’s a price worth paying for if you want a good knife that will last you a lifetime.
Tojiro small bread knife
This knife is only a third as long as a standard bread knife. Including the blade, this compact bread knife measures only nine and a quarter inches long. The blade alone accounts for the majority of it and is only two degrees short of six inches. The handle of this knife is made of wood and is held in place by means of three metal rivets. You might not expect a short knife like this to have a lot of flex, but this knife is surprisingly flexible for its size. One downside is that people with large hands might not find it comfortable to hold this knife. Because of the wooden handle, you cannot put this knife in the dishwasher.
Wusthof classic bread knife
If you want a high quality professional serrated knife and do not mind paying a little more for it, you should go for the Wusthof bread knife. The German-made blade of this knife has high carbon content. And like you would expect for a knife of this calibre, the ten-inch blade offers a high level of precision while cutting. If you are paying huge bucks for a knife, then it better last for a lifetime. Luckily, Wusthof knives come with a lifetime warranty. Lastly, its sleek design can easily qualify as artwork and decor in your kitchen.
Tips on how to buy Bread Knives
Choosing a knife might not feel like a difficult task. But a good knife can do a lot to your cooking. As slicing and chopping is an inevitable part of cooking, you should put in a little more thought than usual to find the knife that fits your hands and purposes. However, this is easy if you know what criteria to look for in a knife. Here are some tips that you can follow when you shop for them.
- Look at the blade – The most important part of any knife is, you guessed it, the blade. Also, it is in the blade that there are most varieties. Differences start from the type of material to the forging process and the shape and type of the edge. One thing that we all will and should bother to look at is how sharp the blade is.
- Construction of the handle – Next in line of importance after the blade itself is the handle. That is the part you will be in contact with the most. The first thing to look for in a handle is how comfortable it is to hold in your hands. It shouldn’t feel slippery, nor should it feel too hard.
- Weight – This one is something most people will not remember to consider. The weight of the knife might not be so apparent the first time you hold it in your hands. For non-experts, it will take some time to understand if a knife is too heavy or too light. There is no one right weight for a knife, either. Rather it depends on your personal preference.
- Balance of the blade and handle – Balance refers to the point on the length of the knife where the weight is felt the most when you hold the knife in your hands. A good knife will have its balance towards the hand of the holder. If the knife is too blade heavy, it will be difficult to work with it for an extended period of time.
Apart from these major points, there are several minor things to consider in a knife. That includes things like the quality of the bolster and how smoothly it blends between the blade and the handle, the difference in thickness between the heel and the tip of the knife, and the design. Finally, don’t forget to check out other products from Home & Living .
Question & Answer
How to sharpen bread knives?
The method for sharpening a staggered knife is a bit different from how you sharpen a regular knife with a smooth blade. Because the blade is not continuous, it is not possible to sharpen a bread knife using a regular sharpening steel or whetting stone. Therefore, the best way to sharpen while accounting for the unique shape of a bread knife is to use a ceramic sharpening rod. Choose a rod that will allow you to sharpen a tooth for a tooth. To do this, the diameter of the rod shouldn’t be too wide. Another method is to use a Spyderco Sharpmaker.
What is the use of a bread knife?
The serrated blade of a bread knife allows you to deal with some tricky situations. Suppose that you want to cut citrus fruit like an orange. The outer skin of the fruit is slick and tough. It will take you more time to cut if you are using a regular knife with a smooth blade. But the inside of the fruit is soft. So, it becomes impractical to use a heavy knife to cut the fruit as it might crush its pulp. On the other hand, a regular paring knife might take more time to cut through the outer skin. That’s when you need a bread knife. And like the name says it, a bread knife is also helpful in slicing bread.
How long should a bread knife be?
The ideal length of a bread knife depends on the purpose that you are using it for. The easiest way to understand is to check if the knife is long enough for you to make the sawing motion without having to lift the knife blade from the subject. As you can imagine, this entirely depends on what you are cutting. Some things are easier to cut and do not require as much sawing, while tougher things require more sawing to cut. The length of a bread knife varies from seven inches to thirteen or fourteen inches. But a nine-inch knife will serve you for most situations.
Where to buy a bread knife?
Bread knives are a really versatile and handy tool to have in a kitchen. If you are looking to buy a bread knife online in Dubai, look no further as you are in the right place. You will find anything from the best bread knives to antique bread knives to buy in Shops.ae. All you have to do is to look for the knife you want using our product search engine . This will also let you find the best one among them by comparing the prices and features of different knives.
There are more than 500 shops and brands offering bread knives here on Shops.ae. These include some of the popular brands like Shun, Wusthof, Global, Victorinox, Zwilling, Tojiro, and Calphalon.