I am an enormous fan of utilizing the correct instrument for the job within the kitchen. No shock there, but I incessantly get that FOMO-y feeling that one thing new or totally different is likely to be higher than what I personal.
A number of months in the past, I checked out a set of carbon metal knives made in Oregon by Steelport. They had been stunning, with their blade patina and sculptural wooden handles. I puzzled if I used to be maintaining with the Portlandians, and notably their bread knives, once I in contrast it with my cheap however high-performing Mercer Culinary Millenia.
The Mercer is America’s Take a look at Kitchen’s top pick for serrated bread knives, with its snub nostril and pointy enamel. The black plastic deal with is grippy, chunky, and purposeful. It instantly changed its predecessor, a nostalgia-inducing however low-performing stainless quantity that I acquired in Paris for reasonable as a result of it had a crack within the deal with.
Wanting on the Steelport 10-inch Bread Knife at my favorite trade show, I daydreamed about the way it would possibly work even higher than the $25 Mercer. At an astounding 450 bucks … transient pause right here as the author pulls out a calculator and divides 450 by 25 … may or not it’s 18 occasions higher? I can’t let that concept waggle round. It was not 18 occasions higher, however I will allow you to surprise for a second if it was perhaps a pair.
Leaving worth out of it for a second, high-end bread knives of this high quality have lots going for them. The Steelport is sort of good-looking, with a burl-wood deal with and grey blade that stand out from the less-interesting knives in your block. At 65 on the Rockwell C scale, it’s a notably exhausting blade. That degree of hardness could make the metal just a little brittle however permits the blade to be slender, extraordinarily sharp, and in a position to maintain a ripping edge for a very long time. The deal with is a bit more “multi-planar” than most knives, and it’s fairly snug. The highest of the blade, often known as the backbone, is rounded, one thing you may recognize when you’re utilizing it for a very long time, as it could actually preserve blisters from forming in your index finger; extra knives ought to do that. There’s additionally a finger nook on the blade heel, which may make you’re feeling extra slotted into your grip. One distinction between the 2 knives is that the Mercer has pointier serrations in comparison with the Steelport’s extra rounded suggestions; a uneven ocean versus rolling seas, if you’ll.
I believed this would possibly make a noticeable distinction so I began slicing stuff up, shopping for and making loaves, then tearing into them with one knife then the opposite over the course of a few months. Each of them went by sandwich bread with the best of ease, with zero harm to the bread itself, the other of the manhandling you’d give the loaf when you went at it with a uninteresting chef’s knife. I used to be needlessly involved when slicing vertically into delicate croissants and much more so once I reduce horizontally by the crispy, laminated goodness such as you would do to toast it or to make a croissan’wich, however each blades simply sliced by, leaving clear edges and neat corners of their wakes.
