I’ve been shopping for a new cutlery set, and am undecided whether the knives need to have serrated edges. I’ve always thought that serration makes a knife easier to cut, but I’m not much of a chef, so may be mistaken.
So how about you? Serrated or not?
(poll to follow)
Some of each. If you try to peel potatoes with a serrated knife, it will skip and you’ll cut your thumb off. You need a serrated blade in a big bread knife and a smaller one to cut tomatoes. Also steak knives are usually serrated.
Like Blob said, it depends on what you’re doing. You can’t chop a carrot with a serrated knife and you’ll never get through thick crusted italian bread with a chef’s knife.
I agree. Serrated knives are for bread and tomatoes. Smooth knives for everything else.
Try slicing raw chicken with a serrated knife and you’ll understand why you need at least one smooth knife.
The only thing I use a serrated knife for is bread. I have no problems with a regular chef’s knife on tomatoes, but I do keep mine well-honed and get them professionally sharpened once a year.
As a former professional cook, mechanical engineer, and designated blade-sharpener by friends and coworkers, I have to disagree. A scalloped blade can be useful for cutting leavened bread products (though I find that a well-honed fillet knife works as well or better) but any adequately sharp knife should be able to slice tomatoes and other delicate fruits far better than any serrated knife. Serrations are made for sawing, which is necessary with tough, fiberous materials like sisal or hemp wound fiber or corrugated cardboard, but not for any vegetable matter that you can digest.
I know that certain knives promoted on television shopping networks or by shady direct marketing organizations proclaim the benefits of serration for food preparation, but the reality is that serration simply improves the perceived performance of poor quality steel with insufficient hardness to hold an edge and ultimately makes the knife difficult or impossible to resharpen. The reality is that a good quality knife made of an adequately hard steel, periodically honed on a flat stone, will be able to smoothly cut any edible food.
Stranger
I agree. A serrated or scalloped knife will make hash of a ripe tomato. A properly sharpened chef’s knife will work well even on the ripest fruit.
Serration or scalloping can work well for steak knives. Yes, a really sharp non-serrated knife works better, but it takes work to maintain the edge, especially when people are cutting against ceramic plates. Also, you might not want to give a sharp knife to a child.
Another thing: you don’t really need a whole set of knives. A chef’s knife and a paring knife are enough for almost all kitchen work. Your money is better spent on these two knives than on a full set.
Finally, the best knife in the world is no good if it’s dull. Either find a local person who knows how to sharpen a knife properly, or learn to do it yourself. Also, invest in a sharpening steel (preferably a smooth one) and use it frequently.
A lot of stainless steel knives have fine serrations that help them keep cutting well without sharpening. They’ll never cut as well as properly sharpened non-serrated blade. But I think most people can’t properly sharpen a knife themselves, so they might as well use the serrated versions instead of a dull smooth blade.
Funny. I have a scar on my left index finger to prove serrated knives and carrots are not a good idea. (I was 14 when I did that.)
I have a 7-inch Santoku knife and a paring knife, and a set of 4 (sharp and smooth) steak knives. That’s it. I prep everything with the santoku and the paring. I chose the santoku because it’s shorter than a chef’s knife but still hefty, and I have small hands, I find it easier to use. So that’s my recommendation. Find a really good knife you can afford, and make sure you heft it and “play” with it a little to see if the weight and size are good for you. That and a good paring knife will get you through the vast majority of your food prep. Oh, I do have a pair of kitchen shears, too.
I suppose I could invest in some fancy collection, but I have all I need. I can’t think of a time I was cutting stuff and thought, “man I wish I had some other knife for this.”
Steak knives should be serrated, a bread knife should be scalloped, all other knives (chef’s, paring, etc.) should have smooth edges.
I’ll often grab a steak knife to cut a tomato, unless I’m already chopping up other vegetables with a chef’s knife, then I’ll just go ahead and use the chef’s knife, it works fine. The only other thing that a serrated knife is handy for is cheese, I find it goes through a block of cheddar better than a smooth bladed knife, but YMMV.
I use a smooth Global 14cm vegetable cleaver for pretty much everything apart from bread. I sharpen it on a whetstone and it holds its edge really well. I love that knife. I would grab it if my house was burning down. If I need something longer, I use the Global 18cm Oriental cook’s knife. For bread, I have a long serrated knife. For peeling, I have a proper Lancashire peeler. We actually have a whole knife roll filled with different Global knives and cleavers, all but one (bread knife) smooth, but the 14cm’s the one I really use.
(Why does the spellcheck have a problem with Lancashire?! Yorkists! )
I am interested in this quote because my advice to people about buying knives boils down to my actual experience. I really only use two knives for everything - a 10" chef’s knife and a 6" boning knife. I find the combination of a big hefty hunk of sharp steel and a whippy little razor of varying thickness meets 99% of my prep needs. I find other knives stiff and suited more to scraping than cutting.
I find I can use the tip of my boning knife for scoring, with something like an apple in hand I can peel it with heel of the knife and the flexible blade lets me debone, defat or trim meats and vegetables. So am I right in believing that if more people learned to use one it would make their lives easier?
Another checking in for non-serrated, except for bread. We’ve got a large santoku for most everything veg-related, a smaller one for when we have just gotta cut up a couple of lemons or something on the small cutting board, and a paring knife. Not a lot of meat cookery in our house. And I’ll echo the suggestion to go buy just a few good knives and a honing steel a la carte - I bought a middle-of-the-road knife set a few years back, and now only use the chef’s knife from it occasionally, and the bread knife rarely. Every other knife languishes in the block and on the magnetic strip. Could have saved the $250 and put it towards the Henckels that I love so much now.
Also, it’s amazing what you can do with a pair of stout kitchen shears. 
With some few exceptions, serrated blades are marketed to people who can’t sharpen their knives. Aside from those few exceptions, I loathe serrations. Gimme a straight edge knife, if you please.
Yes, I am a “Knifeknut.” 
Yep, this is the right answer. If you use a steel after every 20 minutes of cutting, you will never have to have them sharpened.
As an aside, nothing will dull a chef’s knife faster than using it on bread.
The only serrated knife in the block is the bread knife.
Different people will use diferent techniques to use knives, but in general, three or four knives will suffice for the vast majority of even professional or enthusiastic cooks. I have 8" chef’s knife, a 6.5" santoku, a 6" boning knife, and a 3" paring knife, plus a scalloped bread knife and a few other specialty tools. For the most part, I use the chef’s knife and santoku somewhat interchangeably (the santoku is used for finer slicking and fine chopping of vegetables), the paring knife for trimming and dressing vegetables or slicing cheese, and the bonding knife only occasionally for trimming or deboning meat.
This isn’t true. A (non-sharpening) steel simply aligns (“trues”) the wire edge of the blade. A sharpening steel (that with an abrasive coating) can help hone out any notches or abraded areas to maintain the edge of the blade between cuttings, but keeping the edge consistently sharp requires periodic sharpening on a flat stone or sharpening kit that can keep the edge angle consistent.
Stranger
To be clear, I use a honing steel that trues the blade, and get professional sharpenings once a year. They’re something like $3 or $4 a blade and well worth it. With normal home use, you don’t really need to get it done more than once a year.
[QUOTE=
This isn’t true. A (non-sharpening) steel simply aligns (“trues”) the wire edge of the blade. A sharpening steel (that with an abrasive coating) can help hone out any notches or abraded areas to maintain the edge of the blade between cuttings, but keeping the edge consistently sharp requires periodic sharpening on a flat stone or sharpening kit that can keep the edge angle consistent.
Stranger[/QUOTE]
Yeah it is true, and a steel does not align the blade. It removes burrs. Look at the magnetic tip of the steel to see them. I dont use a diamond steel at all. I’ve been a chef for 25 years and once I knew what I was doing, I’ve never had to have my knives sharpened. Most people I see using a steel are using it wrong.