If you love making homemade bread, you already know that cutting into that very first slice is always a lot of fun. The thing is, homemade bread is sometimes a little stiffer than regular store-bought bread, so you need the right knife in order to cut it correctly. Many home bakers wonder whether you can slice bread with a meat slicer.
You can slice bread with a meat slicer, but you still have to cut it in a certain way and with the right type of blade if you want to be successful. We’ll explain how to do this.
How To Cut Bread With a Meat Slicer
Meat slicers are made to cut meat and certain other foods, but they are not really set up to cut bread. So if you’re going to use a meat slicer to slice your homemade bread, you have to keep a few things in mind.
The first rule of thumb is to use a serrated blade to cut the bread. If you use a thin blade, it won’t cut the bread properly and you may have a mess on your hands. Serrated blades are specifically made to slice through both thick and thin bread, and they work especially well on homemade bread.
Serrated cutting blades also allow the bread to be cut properly with much less crumbling, so the slices of bread come out much neater in the end.
In short, serrated cutting blades are much neater and much more efficient than other types of blades, especially the thin ones. In fact, this type of cutting blade is good for other foods that tend to be messy when you’re slicing them, including certain types of cheese. Serrated blades are good for numerous types of foods, but they are especially effective at slicing bread.
Another tip when slicing your bread with a meat slicer is to partially freeze the loaf of bread before you slice it, which makes it easier to slice the bread without making a mess. Don’t freeze it all the way, but keep it in the freezer long enough for it to be firm enough to cut through without being difficult. Some people keep it in the refrigerator overnight instead of freezing it, but that’s up to you. The colder and harder the bread is, the easier it will be to slice.
Finally, before you start slicing the bread, cut the loaf in half and place the flat surface of the loaf next to the blade so that the blade is cutting something smooth. This allows the blade to cut more efficiently so you get bread slices that are the perfect size and width.
All these suggestions make it much easier to slice homemade bread into even slices. Using a thin blade and bread that is too soft makes the process a lot less tidy.
Tips for Slicing Bread With a Meat Slicer
Another way to make slicing homemade bread much easier is to use just the right amount of force when operating the meat slicer. Many people are tempted to push the bread into the blade and end up using too much force. Instead, you should allow the slicer to do the work itself and allow the bread to simply glide through the blade on its own.
This means you should simply touch the slicer with one hand and watch as the blade cuts through the bread. Don’t put too much pressure on the slicer as you work. It should be a smooth action that doesn’t require you to work hard.
Clean the blade thoroughly each before each use to avoid cross-contamination. Starting out with a super-clean meat slicer keeps the bread and everything you slice afterward a lot healthier.
As you can see, it’s a lot easier to use a meat slicer to cut through bread than many people realize. Just follow the above tips and you’ll always have evenly sliced and tasty fresh bread in the end.