Last Updated on June 10, 2023
Have you ever tried to slice bread with a regular knife? It’s agonizing. Especially if you have a fresh loaf in your hands that you can’t wait to slather with some creamy peanut butter.
Fortunately, today there are handy bread slicers to assist you on your journey to get that perfectly cut bread slice. In this post, we’ll take a look at the best tools for the purpose. Wonky peanut butter sandwich, be gone!
How to Cut Bread?
Whenever you slice bread, you should do it with a serrated bread knife. The sharp serrations allow you to chisel through the hard crust, which would simply crush and tear if you try to cut it with a regular knife like a chef’s knife.
Thanks to the sharp serrations on the bread knife’s edge, these knives give you more cutting force without actually applying pressure. This comes in handy when slicing delicate ingredients that are easy to mash, like sourdough bread, tomatoes, or even grapes. They are also handy when you want to cut your cake into layers.
How to Achieve Perfect Slices?
Sticking to your serrated bread knife lets you slice even fresh bread without mangling it. But when you do that, you might notice your slices aren’t flat or uniform in thickness.
To get perfect slices, you can have your bread sliced at the bakery where you got it in the first place. However, that’s not an option if you regularly bake your own bread or want to customize the thickness of your slices yourself.
From there, you basically have two options. You can either get an electric bread slicer or equip yourself with a good serrated knife and a bread-slicing guide.
Not sure which way to go? Let’s see what these tools can do for you.
Electric Bread Slicers
As the name suggests, an electric bread slicer is a tool to uniformly slice bread loaves. You probably often see these machines at bakeries, as they are mostly made for industrial use.
These days, you can also find smaller electric food slicers intended for home use that can fit into a corner on your countertop. These machines are often called food slicers, meat slicers, or deli slicers, but you can definitely use them to cut bread.
With an electric bread slicer or a general-purpose food cutter, you don’t need to worry about crushing or deforming your bread. Thanks to their automatic serrated blades, these machines can cut through the bread like butter, even the thinnest slices.
But if your device doesn’t have system support to keep the bread and the blade aligned on each cut, like an electric carving knife, making uniform slices might still be an issue. In that case, you can combine your electric food cutter with a bread-slicing guide.
Bread Slicing Guides
Bread-slicing guides are designed to help you slice bread at home quickly and evenly. You simply place the bread in between the slotted sides and cut through the slots one by one using a bread knife.
A good bread-slicing guide should be durable but also easy on your knife where it might come in contact with it. Sharpening a serrated knife is harder than sharpening a regular knife. Some knife sharpeners can sharpen a serrated knife too, but not all of them. And if your slicing guide is made of a very hard material, it might curse your bread knife with a permanent blunt edge.
To use a bread-slicing guide, you also need a bread knife. As with any tool you get, a good bread knife makes a difference. And don’t use your bread knife for hacking all sorts of things apart, we know those serrations are tempting, but a serrated knife isn’t made for sawing through hard ingredients.
The key to cutting bread with a bread knife is to be gentle and confident. A sharp serrated knife does the heavy lifting when slicing bread. All you need to do is to move the knife back and forth while lightly pressing the knife downward.
With a good, sharp bread knife, you should be able to slice through your bread only in one swipe. Stand aloof from sawing the bread. If that’s what happens when you slice through it, that might mean that your bread knife could use a sharpening session.
The Best Electric Bread Slicers
Ostba Electric Food Slicer
The Ostba electric food slicer is one of the best electric food slicers you can get. It offers you the ultimate precision for various cuts — from super thin to ¾ inch — so you can slice paper-thin vegetables, salami, medium-thick ham or bread, or chunky stakes.
The machine features a ring-guard cover that prevents food debris from building up on the cutting surface. All the parts, including the blade, slide-rod extension, food pusher, and food carriage, are removable, making cleaning this tool a breeze.
The 200-watt motor can power through meats and hard veggies more effectively than the other motors with less power. It doesn’t make much difference if you only want to slice bread, but getting a general-purpose food slicer rather than one designed to slice bread only is a much better investment.
Kalorik 200-Watt Electric Food Slicer
Electric food slicers usually come in different price tiers, and this Kalorik food slicer is on the bargaining side of the spectrum.
Its powerful motor lets you cut a variety of ingredients from soft to hard, like tomatoes, onions, cabbages, half-frozen deli, hard cheeses, and of course, bread.
The serrated blade steps up a notch, letting you go from thick to thin slices. The stainless steel blade is also removable, so you can take it out and give it a wash or take it to a professional sharpener when it calls for it.
However, some user reviews complain about the ergonomics of the machine for holding the food. On top of that, the manual is incomplete, and removing the blade is rather confusing.
The thing is, the Kalorik food slicer comes with a 200-watt motor. None of the other bargain food slicers on the market have such power. Despite its downsides, this is the most powerful food slicer you’ll get in this price range, and if you learn to get around those downsides, it’ll serve you for long years.
Cuisinart Electric Knife
The Cuisinart electric knife features two blades, one for slicing bread and one for carving meat. It’s very easy to take the blades out and give them a wash or just toss them in the dishwasher. The handle is quite comfortable and accommodates both right and left-handed people. It starts easily via its one-touch on-off trigger.
The whole set is customizable. You can get the two blades and the chopping board that also works as a display. The wooden display block is pretty but also takes up space, so you can choose whether you want it.
The only drawback for the Cuisinart electric knife is that its plastic handle chasing doesn’t feel super strong and might crack if you tackle it with hard ingredients.
Hamilton Beach Electric Knife
Most people use an electric knife to carve a turkey for Thanksgiving or Christmas. However, thanks to the serrated blade, they can also slice seamlessly through the bread — and other delicate ingredients. A perfect gift for this holiday season!
This electric knife is a better option than a food slicer for kitchens with limited space. It features a stainless steel blade and a knife, both with ergonomic handles.
One downside is that the machine does heat up over extended use, but it shouldn’t happen when you’re simply slicing bread.
The Best Bread Slicing Guides
Mama’s Great Bamboo Bread Slicer
Longevity is a major struggle with bread-slicing guides. The plastic ones easily break apart if you drop them on the floor or might not even endure your knife’s slashes.
Mama’s Great bamboo slicer is one of the most durable bread-slicing guides you can get. The cutting board of this slicing guide is made of thick bamboo, and the guide parts are made of high-quality birch plywood.
Because it doesn’t have any assembly points, there’s no risk of breaking them either, which compensates for its high price tag. It’s most probably the first and last slicing guide you’ll get. For that reason, we say it’s a good bang for your buck.
Mountain Woods Brown Oak Adjustable Right-Handed Fiddle Bow Bread Knife
This bread knife allows you to cut even slices of bread and doesn’t take up a lot of room in your kitchen. The thickness is adjustable, letting you cut from 1 inch thick to very thin slices. All you need to do is move the guide by turning the brass thumb screw on the corner.
As for the blade, we already talked about how serrated knives are harder to sharpen, and the design of this bow knife looks like it would be impossible to sharpen properly. But it’s made of double-ground stainless steel, promising you years of use without sharpening.
TCOTBE Bread Slicer
This bread-slicing guide is much more compact than its competitors, which makes it a star pick for small kitchens. There are 4 slits on the side ranging from 15mm to 30mm, so you can cut paper thin or chunky slices to your liking. Made from non-toxic, high-quality durable plastic, this bread slicer guide is sure to serve you over long years.
The downside is that you need to remove the last slice you cut and place the bread in the slicer again for each slice. It’s not a problem if all you need is a few slices, but it can be a real deal breaker for busier bakers and cooks.
Over and Out!
Whether you prepare large batches of grilled cheese and french toast or simply want your pop tarts to be perfectly identical, a bread slicer can save you time and energy. They guarantee you get even and identical slices every time and work with any type of bread, from crusty sourdough to a ciabatta.
Cutting a few slices of bread is plain sailing. But when you need lots of slices, the task can turn into a daunting one. Moreover, delicious bread deserves to be served in nice, envied slices. If you, or the chef of your family who likes to bake, occasionally slice up a whole loaf of bread, these tools can help you get through it.
