don’t feel the need to make sure my bread knife fits my
hand like a glove. And since serrated blades are difficult, if
not impossible, to sharpen at home, a bread knife won’t last
you as long as your chef’s knife will.
You’ll find bread knives with pointed teeth, scalloped
teeth, and microserrations. I find that the best knives have
wide sharp teeth, a forged (not stamped) blade for better
sharpness and weight, and a good length. My first bread
knife was the Zwilling J. A. Henckels Twin Pro S 8-inch
Bread Knife (about $85), and it served me well for about a
decade. My current bread knife is the F. Dick Forged 8-inch
Bread Knife (about $65). It works just as well as the
Henckels. If you’re on a tighter budget, you could do worse
than the Victorinox Fibrox bread knife (around $25).
- A 6-Inch Boning Knife
Sure, you don’t think you’re going to be doing a lot of
boning in your kitchen. . . . Wait, that came out wrong. Let’s
start over: you may not be removing the bones from many
chickens or pig’s legs right now, but I hope I’ll be able to
convince you that those are both goods skills to have under
your belt. It not only saves you money (lots of it), but it also
increases the deliciousness you are able to produce in your
kitchen (we’ll get to why later on).
A boning knife should be thin and moderately flexible,
with a very sharp tip. The idea is that you want to be able to
get that knife in between all the meat and the bones,
working your way in, out, and around structures that aren’t
necessarily straight. A thin, flexible blade aids in this
process. A good boning knife should also be made with a