I am a giant fan of utilizing the correct software for the job within the kitchen. No shock there, but I regularly get that FOMO-y feeling that one thing new or completely 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 lovely, with their blade patina and sculptural wooden handles. I questioned 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 Check Kitchen’s top pick for serrated bread knives, with its snub nostril and pointy tooth. The black plastic deal with is grippy, chunky, and practical. It instantly changed its predecessor, a nostalgia-inducing however low-performing stainless quantity that I received in Paris for reasonable as a result of it had a crack within the deal with.
Trying on the Steelport 10-inch Bread Knife at my favorite trade show, I daydreamed about the way it may 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 … might or not it’s 18 instances higher? I cannot let that concept waggle round. It was not 18 instances 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 stage of hardness could make the metal just a little brittle however permits the blade to be slim, 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, generally known as the backbone, is rounded, one thing you may recognize should you’re utilizing it for a very long time, as it will probably 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 might 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 ideas; a uneven ocean versus rolling seas, if you’ll.
I assumed this may make a noticeable distinction so I began chopping 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 way of sandwich bread with the best of ease, with zero harm to the bread itself, the alternative of the manhandling you’d give the loaf should you went at it with a boring chef’s knife. I used to be needlessly involved when chopping vertically into delicate croissants and much more so once I minimize horizontally by way of the crispy, laminated goodness such as you would do to toast it or to make a croissan’wich, however each blades simply sliced by way of, leaving clear edges and neat corners of their wakes.
