What is the best way, and best knife to use, to minimise crumbs when slicing bread, particularly wholemeal? (continued)
Robert Gray
Via email
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For many years, I have used a sharp, finely serrated bread knife. It has been quite acceptably cutting my home-baked wholemeal bread, producing a modest amount of crumbs. But inspired by this question, I experimented and found that our sharp, unserrated carving knife works a lot better. It cuts easily with almost no crumbs. So from now on, our serrated bread knife is relegated to the back of the drawer. The crucial thing seems to be sharpness: if the blade is really sharp, it will cut bread perfectly well; a blunt knife will cut badly and make a lot of crumbs whether or not it is serrated.
I did know someone who had a woodworking workshop next to his kitchen and would use a band saw to cut frozen bread straight from the freezer. But if your bread is already in an eatable condition, a saw isn’t the right tool.
Joe Watson
Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK
The crust on the top of a loaf is the hardest part. Bread knives are typically serrated in order to facilitate cutting through this hard crust. Unfortunately, the serrations on the knife produce a lot of crumbs when cutting through the rest of the loaf. I haven’t used a serrated bread knife in over 40 years because of this.
Instead, I use my plain-bladed carving knife, which I keep very sharp. However, don’t try to cut down through the hard crust on top of the loaf because the lack of serrations on the blade makes this very difficult.
To get around this, I turn the loaf on its side. This has two advantages. Firstly, the side of the loaf is much softer than the crust on top, so the knife cuts through it more easily and less force is needed. Secondly, a tall narrow arch is much stronger than a shallow wide one, so the loaf is structurally stronger to take the force of the knife pressing down on it.
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