Posted by Gerard Jones on May 25, 1997 at 18:28:35:
In Reply to: cutting bread posted by Amy Perry on May 08, 1997 at 11:16:15:
: Hi! My friends and I are working on a project and we want to find a better way to cut homemade bread our moms make in the breadmakers. When we use a knife it is practically impossible to cut neatly. Sometimes my parents have even cut themselves. What methods do professional bakers use to cut bread uniformly? Is there a special blade or kind of knife that would be best? We are looking for a way to use lasers to do the cutting. Have you ever heard of this?. Could you give us some suggestions on where to start with our idea? If you know please send us an e-mail message.
I have a commercial bread slicer, $800 used at auction but used to cut it by hand for sandwiches before getting the machine.
I found a couple of things help, a decent pro bread knife, serrated and long and straight. I always take the razor sharp edge off them by running the edge across a marble slab, I was taught this years ago by a french baker who said the serration does the cutting, not the sharpness and like this you never get cut.
The other trick is refrigerate the loaf if possible, this firms up the mie (crumb) and makes it more manageable, a fresh warm loaf will wobble or flatten under pressure from the blade and being held. At the least cool the loaf in front of a fan til its stone cold.
Don't underestimate the skill you need to develop to cut straight slices by hand, I can't explain how, you just have to do it til you can, start slowly with the loaf on its side.