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Comment by Rnonymous | Hacker News Reader

Step 1. Buy yourself a good bread knife. Step 2. Buy good bread.

Is that sufficient for every family to make 22 slices of bread a day with no added waste, like the article says?

I vaguely remember slicing bread at home because my parents thought buying unsliced bread built character, and it mostly wasted it and covered everything in crumbs because they never sharpened our knives.

You don't (and can't, really) sharpen a serrated bread knife.

You can sharpen a serrated knife with a vise (or jig) and a round or conical file, one tooth at a time. It is a very tedious thing to do.

I know some chefs and they all say that once a bread knife in their restaurant is done they recycle it and buy a new one - sharpening just doesn't work that well on serrated knives unless you send them to be professionally sharpened in an industrial machine, but then it's literally easier to buy a new knife.

There's woodworkers who buy unsharpenable saws and throw them away when they're not sharp anymore. There's also those that buy sharpenable and sharpen them themselves or send them to be professionally sharpened. Do what you like.

I do it with my family of 3, and see no reason why it wouldnt work with a bigger family. Its up to you if you rather spend money and time on the store bought bread shaped sponges, or on slowly fermented & risen bread.

Tip: forget the bread knife. Just get a normal straight-edged knife and keep it sharp. Once it's through the crust it will cut as well as a bread knife (actually better, because it's easy to keep a straight edge sharpened which you can't say about a serrated edge unless you have a special sharpener) and you won't get a spray of breadcrumbs. Does need to be reasonably sharp, but I'm not talking razor-like. Try it.

I keep a reasonably sharp straight edge knife (not razor-sharp), but find getting through the crust a chore with it (crust != crust, to be fair), and thus prefer serrated. Breadcrumbs all over are annoying though. Maybe keep a razor-sharp straight edge just for bread?

Worth a try!

I usually have success puncturing the crust first and then "levering" the knife to create a wide cut that's easy to finish afterwards. Some bread just falls apart on its own, though, this works best on more firm bread.

at that point, you have a bread knife again, except it's isn't serrated. to my view, bread crumbs are unavoidable every time you cut bread crust, no matter how

I did to that before i bought my current serrated knife. But as others mention my non serrated would not get through the crust of sourdoughs. And the you end up crushing the bread and getting uneven slices. It was indeed cleaner than the crumbs i get now.

In some places here in Sweden and in Israel shops sell good bread and have a slicing machine [1] available free of charge, of course the bread will dry out faster sliced but if you consume it the same day it's is not a bad compromise

[1] https://api.ggmgastro.com/img/1000/1000/resize/media/catalog...

3. Don't be too poor to afford these things.

I agree its hard to get used to the price of good bread, but the question is if its really expensive. Here, in Amsterdam, a good sourdough is around 2-3 times more expensive than store bought bread. But for me store bought bread has zero substance, i feel like i eat air, without taste, which is also costly.

So in my opinion, the value/price is much better with a good bread. Id rather spend money on something with value.

* Id rather spend money on something with value.*

Sure. But you have to have enough money to choose that. But I've been in the position where spending 2-3 times more on bread meant that later on, I'd go hungry. Buying two loaves is generally better than one if you are doing poorly. At the time, I was handwashing clothes in the sink using water heated in a boiler, since I couldn't afford the gas to heat air or water.

Er, "artisanal bread" is actually made like this.[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-RnRvSGFgY

Two things about that: that is a wild generalisation, and so what?

Wild generalisation: sure there are equipment which shapes the dough automatically at that scale. Not every bakery has the volume to justify investing in it. So depending on where you buy your bread it might have been formed by such a machine, or by a dude in the back.

And even where the bread is made at massive scale: so what? The only question which should be asked: does it taste good? If they gave the dough the proper time to rest and rise then it will taste good. The fingerprints of the person forming the dough is not the important ingredient there.

I don't know about step 1 but step 2 is very difficult in much of the US.

Besides those, learning proper slicing technique is required

A bread slicing wood board to manage crumb waste also helps

Can’t beat crunchy toasts on thin sliced bread. Slicing machines are no match for really thin slices

An artisinal loaf of bread large enough for two people to consume before it goes stale costs ~$10 where I live.

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