1,560 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

The right bread knife

We almost all have a bread knife in our kitchen, that is to say the knife we use almost exclusively to cut bread.
Is this knife efficient, is it really the one you need? Here is some information to guide you in your choice.

12 K

Keywords for this post:Knife Bread Size Blade Cutting Saw

Last modified on: September 15^th 2022

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

The right bread knife

découpe de pain

First of all a statement: It is not easy to cut bread with an ordinary kitchen knife, the blade is too small, it does not allow to cut a bread beyond a baguette, and its small handle does not ensure a good grip.
You really need a specific knife for that, and which has, if possible, the following characteristics.

couteau à génoise

1) A serrated blade
That is to say with teeth, we often say "saw knife", as opposed to a smooth blade, which allows an easier cutting of the bread.
You will sometimes read, here or there, that you should not "tear the bread crumb" with a serrated blade, but this is nonsense.

2) A long blade
This is the main defect of bad bread knives, their blade, although serrated, is not long enough to allow a good cutting. With a long blade, your gesture will be more ample, therefore easier, and the cut more regular.

3) A wide handle
It is absolutely necessary that you have a good grip on your knife, so that its handle is comfortable and well adapted to the size of your hand.

4) Practical materials
It is not an obligation, but your bread knife must be easy to use and maintain, which in my opinion implies both a stainless steel blade and an abs plastic handle or equivalent that does not fear water.

With all these criteria, it is quite simple to find the ideal knife, the choice is quite vast fortunately.

To make a long story short, the main defect you will encounter is a blade that is too short. I advise you to opt for a blade of 10 inches (25 cm) minimum.
You will easily find a lot of bread knives with a 8 inches (20 cm) blade, which certainly cut, but are much less efficient than a 25 cm blade.

taille des lames des couteaux à pains

The trick I suggest is to look for, or go to a professional store, and choose what they call a "sponge knife", which is a saw knife with all the criteria we just mentioned and a 11 inches (28 cm) blade.
You will be delighted with its efficiency, to easily cut from the smallest to the largest loaf, and to make even slices.
The next time you go to your bakery, look at the knife that the sales team uses to cut the bread for the customers, it is exactly this model.

To sum up: For your bread knife, you need a stainless, long (10 inches (25 cm) minimum) and serrated blade.

Lasts posts

Butter vs. grease

We often read in a recipe where a pastry is put into a mould that, just before pouring, the mould should be buttered or greased. But what's the difference between these 2 terms?
December 1^st 20252,7445

Getting out of the fridge early

Very often when you're cooking, you need to take food or preparations out of the fridge, to use them in the recipe in progress. There's nothing tricky about this: you just take them out of the fridge and use them, usually immediately, in the recipe. But is this really a good method?
November 24^th 20251,7385

Who's making the croissants?

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20251,593

Oven height

When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8^th 20255,4965

The importance of sieving

In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3^rd 20259,5273

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other pages you may also like

Tranché, dissociated, failed, in short... missed!

When preparing a sauce or a cream, there's always a (small) risk that the creamy preparation you're working on will suddenly separate into two parts of different textures: a liquid part, for example, and a more or less solid part, or even become lumpy. It's terribly frustrating, but we'll see...
June 19^th 202314 K5

Clean your mixer easily

If you use a "bowl" or "blender" mixer, as opposed to a plunger, you've probably noticed that it's a bit of a hassle to clean it after use. And yet, with a simple trick, it can be done very quickly. See how here.
June 26^th 20248,6705

Should I believe my oven?

Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .
July 4^th 201133 K4.6

Choosing a chopping board

It's a no-brainer, surely? If you want a chopping board, just find a piece of wood, and Bob's your uncle! You can happily chop away with a knife and not damage the table or worktop. But in reality, it's a bit more complicated than that. You need to be careful what you are buying, in particular the...
May 8^th 201251 K4.6

The art of the charlotte

In cooking, a charlotte is a delicious moulded dessert, with biscuits around the outside that have been soaked in a flavoured syrup, filled with a light cream or mousse. The charlotte is left to set in the fridge before being turned out and served in slices. It is very light and a lovely sweet...
February 27^th 201347 K4.3