A decent serrated bread knife should be able to carve through crusty breads, split cake layers, slice squishy tomatoes, and easily cut stacked sandwiches with ease. If you’re tired of your knife making a mess out of your food, here’s what you should look for in a new one.
In this video from the America’s Test Kitchen YouTube channel, Lisa McManus explains what makes a decent serrated bread knife. After they tested nine different knives ranging from $US20 to $US200 on 23kg of tomatoes, 18 yellow cakes, nine loaves of Challah, 30 rustic loaves of bread, and nine tall BLT sandwiches, here’s what they found:
- Good serrated bread knives should be at least 25cm in length.
- It’s better to have a blade with fewer, broader, and deeper pointed serrations. They’re favourite blade had only 30 serrations, and the worst had 54. Also, rounded serrations don’t work very well.
- Narrower blades of just 16 degrees or less make for a better serrated blade.
- Your bread knife should have a comfortable, grippy handle that feels secure in your hand instead of a smooth handle.
If you’re curious what they chose as their favourite, America’s Test Kitchen went with the fairly cheap Mercer Culinary Millennia 10″ Wide Bread Knife ($US15 ($20)). You can learn more about their testing methods at the link below.
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