How the heck do you slice homemade bread?

[MiaPia]

So I've been making my family's bread the past few weeks. The bread is yummy, and everyone loves it. However, it looks AWFUL because I can't figure out how to slice it. I wait until it's cool, and use a serrated knife, but the slices come out so uneven. I even bought a NEW serrated knife in case my old one was dull, but it still gave poor results. Then I tried using my electric knife - it STILL looks bad.

So what gives? Is there some secret to getting nice, even slices out of homemade bread? Is there some special brand of knife? What? I'm getting tired of eating ugly toast, no matter how yummy it is!

[jjawm]

An electric knife is what works for us. Perhaps yours is dull? My dh is our expert bread slicer.

[lotus.blossom]

This is an issue for me as well. I don't mind it for morning toast but the bread is not very practical for sandwiches since it is so thick and uneven. I have a bread slicer- its a wooden holder with slits about 1/2 inch apart and it makes a uniform slice but only when my bread is dense (like whole wheat anadama bread) it doesn't work well for sourdough. Is your crust very hard? I also find that if the bread is dense and the crust is soft it works the best.

[UUMom]

Very sharp serated knife. It's the only thing that works for us.

[forestrymom]

Electric knife.

[vbactivist]

this is why I started making rolls a lot. Because they were easier to slice for sandwiches.

[VikingKvinna]

The problem might be with your bread and not your knife (or it might be with both). Have you tried different recipes? Look for ones that are actually called "Toast and Sandwich Bread" or "Sandwich Bread." They will be easier to slice.

Also, is this bread-machine bread or a loaf you shape by hand? I always had a heckuva time slicing our ABM loaves, because they were so high and cylindrical and weird looking to begin with. Now that our ABM is broken I find it much easier to slice bread b/c my homemade stuff doesn't rise as high in regular loaf pans (w.w. too, which makes them not quite as light and fluffy) so my bread is more rectangular than square. That said, they're still pretty lumpy and homemade-looking. But we are used to it, I guess.

Keep practicing. Try different recipes, try rolls. HTH.

[Pogonia]

We've been making homemade, ww bread in a machine for 10 years and slicing has always been a problem. Usually I haul out the bread slicer and electric knife, but then it's only worthwhile if you are slicing quite a few slices, or the whole loaf. I don't like doing that because it dries out faster. So I usually just use a serrated bread knife and give my husband the slices that are way too thick on one end. He likes bread better than I! :

[Shantimama]

Years ago someone told me to lay the bread on its side while slicing it. It always works that way for us. Every so often I try slicing it without tuning it on its side and I end up with a mess.

[tabitha]

we had this issue for a year or more, and the only thing that changed was ... us. we use a sharp serrated bread knife and we just got better at it. cutting bread is a breeze anymore, but it took a lot of practice.

[HappiLeigh]

What everyone else said. If you get really desperate, you can buy a bread-slicing contraption too. My mom had one for a while and I think it worked pretty well.

[slymamato3]

Wow, I had no idea this was a problem for so many...we have a great serrated bread knife but even with that I am not as skilled at slicing as DH...sounds like the right knife and some practice is the solution.

[cristeen]

Consider that it may be neither the bread nor the knife, but the person doing the cutting.

Generally speaking, wait until the bread is cold, lay the loaf on it's side, and let the knife do the work. If the knife is sharp enough, it should cut through with minimal pressure.

If the problem however is the uneven-ness of the slices, that has nothing to do with the knife. There are bread slicing guides you can buy that you set the loaf into and slice where they show you. There are also special knives with guards on them so that when you line the guard up with the end of the loaf on each slice, they're all the same width. Or you can just practice. Practice, practice, practice. Just like slicing a roast or carving a turkey, the more you practice the better you'll get.