You don’t need to struggle to get through that super crust hard sourdough. You will be able to slice with ease with one of these top sourdough knives.
While not everyone prepares their own sourdough bread (yet, if you’d like to, we have a sourdough guide for beginners here!), many of us at least enjoy it, if not weekly, then at least on occasion.
If you want to crisp up your sourdough so it tastes fresh, learn how here.
But whether you make it or buy it, when that hot, crispy loaf finally makes it to the table, and is ready to be sliced–it’s not always so easy. Actually, it can be a real struggle if you’re trying to use a regular chef or even a bread knife.
Good sourdough has a nice crust–the crustier the better. And it’s not always so easy to get through it. Just any knife doesn’t do.
So which knife is the best for slicing sourdough?
We tested and sliced lots of bread. Specifically, we sliced up some Spice & Zest Sourdough by Chaya Suri Leitner. When it comes to introducing the Jewish palette to sourdough, Chaya Suri was one of the frontrunners. Besides producing her own sourdough, she also teaches a course to aspiring bakers. You can learn more about her sourdough course here.
#1 Pick: Mercer Culinary Wavy Edge Bread Knife
After all the testing, this Mercer was definitely our favorite. It also happens to be the knife recommended by Spice & Zest so we feel very validated! It’s nice and heavy and strong and gets through the bread with the least amount of effort. It’s also stood the test of time–one of us has been using this daily for 1 ½ years and it still does the job well and hasn’t needed sharpening yet.
#2 Pick: Mercer White Culinary Offset Bread Knife
This bread knife, also made by Mercer, has an offset blade, which Renee feels helps a lot when cutting hard sourdough. It somehow helps the blade glide better through the crust. Renee has been bringing her offset knife to the Shabbos table every week for the past 3 years, even though it looks a bit weird and doesn’t quite fit the aesthetic. She still likes how it does the job. We all thought it performed really well too.
#3 Pick: Solid Oak Bow Bread Knife
This is another one that we like. Some might like that rustic aesthetic. We think it feels the coolest to use, but it’s hard to cut the whole loaf across. We find it works best if you first cut the loaf in half and then use it to slice into smaller slices, as shown in the images
If the wood gets old-looking for repeated washing, it can be oiled. How do you oil your wood so it maintains its beautiful look? It’s really easy and we have a post on it here.
Also shown is the Hast Bread Knife. While Hast Knives are our absolute favorites in the kitchen (particularly the Chef Knife and the smaller Santoku), we don’t find that the bread knife is suitable for sourdough. It’s definitely the prettiest on the table and it’s great for challah, but it’s not for the super crusty hard sourdough.
We use the mercer knife for regular challah. We have found that for very hard sourdough it slips, and we have had bad accidents here. You need to be super careful that the blade cuts into the crust before you start cutting back and forth. Hatzlocha
Yes. We have this one too and had a pretty bad accident with the knife slipping. Like R says. Make sure to get into the crust a bit before really slicing down. Recently I tried using a big blade icel knife and I actually think I like it better even though it’s not really a bread knife.
We use the mercer knife too. Always be careful! It’s not the prettiest but you can’t sacrifice pretty when you’re cutting such crusty bread
Hi! Is this specifically for when the bread is hot? I’ve had other recommendations, but found that they didn’t work on warm bread well.
We have this for sourdough, it’s excellent! We like how the handle is a bit prettier for the shabbos table than the black handle on the Mercer https://amzn.to/4ehbwQZ
I bought the black Mercer 4 times since Ahuva at Homegrown Kosher recommended it back in 2021. Best one! Buy the blade protector and treat it like you would any sharp knife… for hot bread I think the best one is the bow knife
Do these knives really work? Would buy because a)we need a sour dough knife & b)could be the new knife we purchase for Rosh Hashana. I bought the Hast knife based on your previous recommended and it really DOES NOT work well.
Tzippy, we wrote in the post about the knives that we liked and why. We only recommend what we love and use ourself.
About the Hast knife, we are surprised to hear you did not like it. It’s our absolute favorite in the kitchen for chopping vegetables etc. although we do not recommend the serrated one for sourdough