Forum: cooking.stackexchange.com
Tags: <bread>
Title: How to get uniform slices from bread?
Question: We make bread for sandwiches a few times a week, but slicing them is always a pain.  The pieces just don't come out uniform. I end up with angled pieces as the knife doesn't end up going  straight  down.  Is there a trick to getting uniform pieces from a loaf?

Answers:
sents: text: Try using a bow style bread knife.
text: It works well because it allows you to put pressure on the opposite side of the loaf.
text: Also, the bow helps you visually line up the slice.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/1148/Chris Cudmore
score: 6
sents: text: Try an electric knife if you have one hanging around for carving meat.
text: The small stroke of the two blades causes far less squashing/skewing of the loaf than the conventional serrated bread knife and leaves only one dimension to focus on, down.
text: When I really need accuracy, I'll cut the loaf in half lengthwise and with the cut
text: faces placed against the countertop, cut slices horizontally off from the bottom of each.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/8315/jontyc
score: 3
sents: text: A serrated blade, sharpened bevel on one side only.
text: Use the flat non-beveled edge against the loaf, the beveled side on the slice being cut.
text: Use a bread board.
text: Keep the knife for bread only, so that it stays sharp, hand wash & dry.
text: Take your time starting through the crust, so you don't crush the loaf.
text: If you start near the loaf center, the two halfs can be slid back together for freshness.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/12608/Optionparty
score: 3
sents: text: A variety of bread slicers are available - it's just a box that you put the bread in, where the sides have pre-cut slots that guide your knife
text: so you get the uniformity you desire.
text: I don't use one of these for two main reasons: You can't adjust the thickness of the slice
text: - whatever the manufacturer decides is what you are stuck with.
text: Some breads just don't fit in them.
text: Most of the bread slicers I've seen are designed for a sandwich-loaf-shaped bread: very rectangular.
text: If I make a loaf of no-knead bread in my cast iron dutch oven, it ends up as a round loaf with too big a diameter to fit in any bread slicer I've seen.
text: But if you're making a rectangular sandwich loaf, getting a bread slicer is probably the way to go.
text: However, I've found that I can get straighter slices by experimenting with the angle at which I am holding and cutting the bread.
text: It will vary by the size and shape of your loaf, but with the big round loaves I was talking about earlier (which usually are not very tall), I find that I can cut straighter if I turn the loaf on its side so that I have a much narrower piece of bread to deal with.
text: That reduces the likeliness of my knife getting stuck.
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/6808/Laura
score: 2
sents: text: I often encounter this problem when using a serrated one-sided blade.
text: Having the bevel on one side of the knife seems to make the knife angle toward the opposite edge.
text: I haven't successfully been able to compensate for this while cutting, so I threw away that (cheap) knife.
text: Maybe this is part of your problem?
text: To be honest, I've had no problem whatsoever when using a blade with both sides sharpened (unless cutting a very wide or otherwise difficult loaf).
answer_details: author: cooking.stackexchange.com/users/3747/Max
score: 2

Summary of the answers:
Try a bow-style bread knife, an electric knife or a serrated blade, and use a bread board or bread slicer with pre-cut slots that guide your knife.
You can try an electric knife or a bow style knife. You can also buy a bread slicer to help you slice.