What's a good knife for eating crusty sandwiches?

August 8, 2019 8:15 AM

I like to use a knife and fork when I eat big sandwiches with thick, crusty bread. What knives are actually good for that?

I've had trouble finding a knife that's good for thick, crusty, gluteny sandwich breads, like baguettes, or the Italian loaf for a meatball sandwich, or the Cuban loaf for a Cubano.

I have the same trouble cutting thick crust pizza with a knife and fork.

Steak knives don't seem to work well, and regular table knives aren't right either.

Can you recommend a good knife for eating foods like this with a knife and fork?

Thanks!

posted by kristi to Food & Drink (11 answers total)

You need a serrated edge to get through that crustiness. Our steak knives have serrated edges and work fine for that purpose.
posted by cross_impact at 8:20 AM on August 8, 2019 [16 favorites]

I think you want a tomato knife (though not necessarily that one). Id personally opt for one with a bit more heft and forego the (fairly common) forked tip. You need something with teeth to "bit" and get into the sandwich without crushing out the contents in much the same way you would if you were slicing a tomato.

Before i went mostly japanese i preferred Henkel to Wustoff, this knife looks like what i would want (though its not cheap)
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 8:21 AM on August 8, 2019

I usually use a smooth steak knife, but a serrated steak knife might do what you want as it's sorta a smaller version of a bread knife.

Googling just now, I discovered there is such a thing as a serrated tomato knife, which might be really ideal.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:22 AM on August 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have this Global serrated utility knife. Heftier than a steak knife, more manageable than a bread knife. Seems like it would fit the bill exceptionally well.
posted by supercres at 8:25 AM on August 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

On the steak knife front, you want one like this guy with a rounded tip and a straight blade. Your common curved steak knife is made for cutting meet off of bones, while the straight blade is good for long, straight cuts. Not having the point means you aren't stabbing plates or pizza boxes whilst cutting through food.
posted by bfranklin at 8:30 AM on August 8, 2019

Best answer: You want this knife from Victorinox. Lightweight nonslip plastic handle that fits comfortably in the hand and doesn't feel anywhere near as cheap as it is, thin springy stainless steel blade that's strong as hell, wicked sharp, serrated to make sure it stays that way, round tip to make it harder to stab yourself. You can get them in a range of handle colours if you don't like black; all mine are red.

I've had mine for ten years, never sharpened them, and they still do a bang-up job of everything from fine-slicing tomatoes to dismembering and skinning huge Queensland Blue pumpkins. Great little knives. Good for steaks, too.
posted by flabdablet at 8:43 AM on August 8, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I was just about to recommend the Victorinox knife flabdablet linked to. They are the best!
posted by amf at 8:46 AM on August 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

I had a cheap serrated knife from the grocery store that was WONDERFUL for slicing through bread and pizza. It was a little longer than a steak knife, had shallow but well-pointed serrations, and an unremarkable wooden handle. I had it for at least 15 years, until (I think this is what happened) I tragically threw it out in an "empty" pizza box. Now every time I cut a sandwich I miss that thing.
posted by DingoMutt at 9:33 AM on August 8, 2019

I inherited my mom's set of 60's era Inoxbonomi knives that we used at the table growing up and they are still going strong. I recently bought another set because we lost a few of the originals. They're similar to the Victorinox, but less expensive.
posted by Poldo at 1:53 PM on August 8, 2019

Response by poster: Well, many of these are pretty similar - which is helpful: it gives me a lot of info about the sort of thing I want to look for.

It looks like the Victorinox is ahead with two recommendations, so perhaps I'll try that.

I'm looking forward to trying them out on a variety of sandwiches!

These are all great suggestions - thank you very much!
posted by kristi at 7:23 PM on August 9, 2019

Thanks for the question! It's just prompted me to go pick up another set of 6 from eBay for cheap, since some of our crappier table knives have been lost over the years and we could use a few more of the good ones.

Cheers!
posted by flabdablet at 12:32 AM on August 11, 2019