[3 - 3] nice perfect slices like look at this
[6 - 8] [Music] some people call them bread knives but
[8 - 10] we think serrated knives are much more
[10 - 13] versatile than that we use them to cut
[13 - 15] everything from crusty baguettes and
[15 - 17] buttery brioche to tender cake layers
[17 - 20] and squishy tomatoes but there's another
[20 - 21] serrated knife you might want to
[21 - 23] consider because lately i've really been
[23 - 25] enjoying my serrated utility knife we're
[25 - 27] going to prepare the same sandwich with
[27 - 29] these two different knives to compare
[29 - 31] and contrast what they're good at what
[31 - 33] they're not so good at and how different
[33 - 35] they really are first up hannah with our
[35 - 36] winning bread knife
[38 - 40] [Music] we are going to talk about serrated
[40 - 42] we are going to talk about serrated knives or bread knives if you can tell
[42 - 44] this is a serrated knife this is our
[44 - 46] winner right here it has all of these
[46 - 47] points along the bottom
[47 - 51] we use knives like this for really hard
[51 - 53] or squishy things the points get a
[53 - 55] purchase on the food and then the
[55 - 57] gullies in between reduce the friction
[57 - 59] which allows the knife to slide through
[59 - 61] the food easier a really bad serrated
[61 - 64] knife they're surprisingly common i used
[64 - 66] to have one you might too if you think
[66 - 69] cutting bread is really hard if you have
[69 - 71] a difficult time getting clean even
[71 - 73] slices it might be your knife it might
[73 - 75] not be you it might be the knife there
[75 - 76] are all different patterns to the
[76 - 79] serrations some are scalloped so not
[79 - 81] pointy others were really pointy we
[81 - 84] tested nine knives uh the blade length
[84 - 87] ranged from nine and a half to ten and a
[87 - 89] quarter cheapest one cost twenty bucks
[89 - 91] the most expensive one cost two hundred
[91 - 93] dollars we rated the knives on four
[93 - 96] categories cutting how well they cut
[96 - 98] comfort how comfortable they were to
[98 - 100] handle edge retention how sharp they
[100 - 103] stayed during testing and average
[103 - 106] serration width and depth we
[106 - 108] weighed and measured all of the knives
[108 - 111] and one of our key tests was to measure
[111 - 114] and count the serrations on each blade
[115 - 117] the first thing we found here
[118 - 120] the better a knife was the fewer
[120 - 123] serrations it has which was interesting
[123 - 125] to us because you know you'd think more
[125 - 128] teeth would be better at biting in but
[128 - 131] we spoke with experts about this and the
[131 - 133] reasoning behind that is you know you
[133 - 135] exert a certain amount of force into the
[135 - 137] blade and then the blade inserts that
[137 - 139] force into the food
[139 - 141] if you have a lot of serrations the
[141 - 143] force you are exerting into the blade is
[143 - 146] divided amongst those serrations so each
[146 - 149] serration actually gets less force or
[149 - 151] less oomph behind it if you have fewer
[151 - 154] serrations those serrations get more
[154 - 156] oomph behind it because the power is
[156 - 159] divided amongst them so fewer serrations
[159 - 161] actually had more power
[161 - 163] we also looked at the shape of the
[163 - 165] serrations and measured how pointy they
[166 - 168] were pointier serrations were better at
[168 - 170] pointier serrations were better at biting into food
[170 - 173] and the same force distribution theory
[173 - 176] applied here the pointer the serration
[176 - 179] the more loaded with power that very tip
[180 - 182] was the broader the serration or if it was
[182 - 184] the broader the serration or if it was scalloped for example
[184 - 187] you really divided that power out along
[187 - 189] that surface edge so each point of the
[190 - 192] blade had less power behind it so i have
[192 - 194] our winning knife right here from mercer
[195 - 198] fewer very pointy serrations and that
[198 - 200] was the key to its stellar bite all
[200 - 201] right so we are going to make some
[202 - 204] sandwiches because we have these blt's
[204 - 206] with crusty bread tomatoes slippery
[206 - 208] avocados all of these ingredients that
[210 - 213] how good a serrated knife is or isn't
[213 - 215] all right let's start cutting some stuff
[215 - 217] up all right so we are going to start
[217 - 219] with the bread we always for our knife
[219 - 220] testing we use
[220 - 222] a bread from a great local company
[222 - 224] called iggy's this is their francese
[225 - 227] loaf we choose this specifically because it
[227 - 229] we choose this specifically because it has a really rugged crusty exterior and
[230 - 232] this beautiful soft custardy pillowy
[232 - 234] interior that you really don't want to
[234 - 238] mess up so it's perfect for testing
[247 - 247] perfect even slices
[247 - 249] minimal effort from the user
[251 - 253] comparison i want to show you what
[254 - 257] to cut this crusty of a loaf with um a
[257 - 263] less than ideal bread knife here we go
[264 - 264] oh my god again i didn't realize it
[264 - 266] would be that bad
[270 - 273] it's not even cutting into the bread
[273 - 274] i got to bring in the closer to do the
[276 - 279] it's so much easier and it really comes
[279 - 281] down to those serrations this is a
[281 - 284] beautiful knife and one of the most
[284 - 285] exciting things about it for a
[285 - 287] cheapskate like me is i think when we
[287 - 289] bought it it was 23 bucks
[289 - 291] so this is really a fantastic knife at a
[292 - 295] fantastic value all right so no blt is
[295 - 296] complete without a really good tomato
[296 - 299] the tea in there and you really want
[299 - 302] nice complete slices so your sandwich is
[302 - 303] nice and even you don't have a sloppy
[303 - 305] messy tomato squishing out everywhere
[305 - 307] tomatoes in general are something we use
[308 - 310] for a lot of our knife testings because
[310 - 312] they have that firm exterior and a very
[312 - 314] soft interior so that's a lot of
[314 - 316] textures to tackle you want a knife that
[318 - 319] so we're going to go ahead and slice
[319 - 322] this up and see how well these knives do
[322 - 324] oh no hesitation
[324 - 327] bites right in no squishing
[327 - 329] everything is nice and even i can really
[329 - 332] control the thickness of my slice
[333 - 335] you know a really sharp chef's knife
[335 - 337] also does a great job on tomatoes but
[337 - 340] because they have that firm skin on the
[340 - 342] outside i really love a serrated knife
[342 - 344] for this task because those teeth just
[344 - 346] give you the perfect bite into it all
[346 - 348] right so i also want to show you slicing
[348 - 350] a tomato with a
[350 - 353] not so good serrated knife
[353 - 355] oh my gosh it's not biting in it's kind
[355 - 357] of dangerous it's like spinning the
[357 - 359] tomato in my hand
[359 - 361] it's totally shredding the skin and
[361 - 364] squishing it oh gosh
[364 - 368] uh yeah that's very terrible the
[368 - 371] skin is shredded
[371 - 374] ragged the slices are super uneven check
[374 - 377] that out uh just compared to these over
[378 - 381] here i mean that is the most perfect precise
[381 - 383] i mean that is the most perfect precise crisp round so
[383 - 386] a really good serrated knife can make a
[386 - 391] huge difference
[392 - 392] for a long time at america's test
[392 - 394] kitchen we've said there are three basic
[394 - 396] knives that you definitely need one is
[396 - 398] the eight inch chef knife
[398 - 401] another is the paring knife which we
[401 - 403] like a three and a quarter inch one
[403 - 406] and the third is the bread knife which
[406 - 407] hannah has been telling you about and
[407 - 409] it's a 10 inch bread knife it's got
[409 - 412] serrations so it's also called a
[412 - 415] serrated knife however there is a knife
[415 - 418] that i happen to love
[418 - 420] that's a good add-on and that's this one
[420 - 423] it's the utility serrated knife it's
[423 - 425] about half the length of our bread knife
[425 - 427] it's got the pointed tip like our paring
[427 - 430] knife and it's you know about five and a
[431 - 433] it's almost as long as an eight inch
[433 - 435] chef's knife so it's got some of the
[435 - 437] attributes of each of those knives but
[437 - 440] it puts it in a smaller package than the
[440 - 441] chef knife or the bread knife in fact
[441 - 443] several years ago i did a story about
[443 - 445] knife sets and i really complained about
[445 - 448] all these knives these utility knives as
[448 - 450] filler that they were really not neither
[450 - 452] fish nor foul they weren't paring knives
[452 - 453] they weren't chef's knives they weren't
[454 - 456] bread knives what were they for so we
[456 - 458] actually decided to take a serious look
[458 - 461] at them and we tested eight knives they
[461 - 463] were priced from about seven dollars and
[463 - 464] fifty cents all the way up to about a
[464 - 466] hundred ten dollars and we put them
[466 - 469] through all kinds of paces we we did
[469 - 472] tomatoes we cut crusty baguettes we
[472 - 476] sliced hard salami and recorded big
[476 - 478] squashy bacon lettuce and tomato
[478 - 480] sandwiches with avocado in there because
[480 - 482] that's a real challenge for a serrated
[482 - 484] knife along the way we rated them on
[486 - 490] three sharpness blade design and handle design
[490 - 492] sharpness blade design and handle design and we had lots of different people of
[492 - 494] different size hands and different skill
[494 - 496] levels tried the knives to really see
[496 - 498] what they liked the best in the end this
[498 - 500] was our favorite it's called the
[500 - 503] zwilling pro five and a half inch
[503 - 505] serrated prep knife and this was one of
[505 - 507] the more pricey ones at about a hundred
[507 - 509] dollars we do have a best buy by
[509 - 512] kangshan cutlery that's about half the
[512 - 514] price but this one really was superior
[514 - 516] some of the things we loved about this
[517 - 519] knife it has about four and a half inches of
[519 - 522] it has about four and a half inches of serrations with an unserrated tip and
[522 - 524] heel now manufacturers do that because
[524 - 526] they don't want the serrations to be a
[526 - 528] weak point in the knife but that also
[528 - 530] meant that we got this lovely little tip
[530 - 532] that was very sharp and pointed not all
[532 - 534] of them had that and we were able to use
[534 - 536] this to core tomatoes and do all kinds
[536 - 538] of detail work it's a thicker knife it's
[538 - 540] a little bit more rigid and has more
[540 - 542] structure and that's nice when you're
[542 - 543] doing things like cutting through hard
[543 - 546] salami the longer floppier bread knife
[546 - 548] has a little more trouble with that the
[548 - 551] heel it's actually got a pretty high
[551 - 554] stance it's wedge shaped and that meant
[554 - 555] when you're cutting things your knuckles
[555 - 557] are not hitting the cutting boards and
[557 - 559] that's a real big problem for especially
[559 - 561] for people with larger hands in terms of
[561 - 563] the sharpness this started out the
[563 - 565] sharpest and it ended up the sharpest we
[565 - 567] cut tomatoes at the beginning and end of
[567 - 569] testing and this one didn't lose any
[569 - 571] quality along the way some of them
[571 - 572] started out dull and with a serrated
[572 - 574] knife it's a little bit hard to sharpen
[574 - 576] one of the beauties of serrations is
[576 - 578] that they don't get dull like a straight
[578 - 580] edge knife as fast
[580 - 583] they can eventually dull out but this
[583 - 586] one started sharp ended sharp okay so i
[586 - 589] have the same bread loaf that hannah has
[589 - 591] this is from iggy's bread of the world
[591 - 593] based here in cambridge mass it's got a
[594 - 596] hard crust and a fluffy open crumb
[596 - 599] interior and when you cut this with a
[599 - 601] bad knife you just get a mess and it's a
[601 - 603] little bit of a challenge to get through
[603 - 605] this crust i'm gonna try to cut this
[605 - 607] this is the large franchisee loaf and
[607 - 609] it's one of my favorites it makes
[609 - 612] amazing toast for one thing okay
[612 - 614] first thing i notice is that
[614 - 617] this knife is not as long as this loaf
[617 - 619] of bread and that's gonna be a problem i
[619 - 621] can turn it up on its edge
[621 - 623] um and i might do that because it's it's
[623 - 625] got a little bit more of a match there
[625 - 627] but i can't do the thing where i would
[627 - 629] normally do cutting across i'll try but
[630 - 632] we'll see what happens
[632 - 635] this thing sinks right into this bread
[635 - 637] oh my goodness but i'm kind of traveling
[637 - 640] around going forward and back
[640 - 642] trying to it works it works it's not as
[643 - 646] easy but wow nice and clean wow we did this
[646 - 648] but wow nice and clean wow we did this with some lesser
[648 - 651] serrated utility knives and they just
[651 - 653] couldn't even get into this bread
[653 - 656] this length is just about
[656 - 657] a little bit would have been overmatched
[657 - 659] if it wasn't for the incredible
[659 - 661] sharpness and the really terrific
[661 - 663] serrations on this that bit right into
[663 - 665] that leathery crust so i put this up on
[665 - 667] its side but you know that's a little
[667 - 668] precarious and
[668 - 670] it really didn't come out quite as
[670 - 672] evenly i have a little bump here the
[672 - 674] slice is not quite as straight as it
[674 - 676] should have been so i'm going to cut
[676 - 679] another one with it flat nice really
[679 - 682] does a good job although i will say
[682 - 685] you know again i've got a really thin
[685 - 688] fat bread slice here which you know give
[689 - 691] give me that 10 inch bread knife hannah
[691 - 694] because this thing is too short i think
[694 - 696] it'd be better for something like
[696 - 698] tomatoes so we're going to cut those
[698 - 700] next so i'm going to slice this tomato
[700 - 703] but first i'm going to take the core out
[703 - 705] and the nice thing about this knife this
[705 - 706] utility knife it has a little pointed
[706 - 709] tip of a paring knife so you know if i
[709 - 710] were going to be doing this with my big
[710 - 712] old bread knife that has a rounded tip
[712 - 715] i'd have to get out a paring knife this
[715 - 717] is one stop shopping here so you're just
[717 - 718] gonna go in with that point and i'm
[718 - 720] choking up on the blade here because
[720 - 722] with the paring knife you're usually in
[722 - 724] really close so i'm holding it almost by
[725 - 727] and i'm going in with the point
[727 - 730] and i'm just going around that core
[730 - 733] so we'll get in my slices
[733 - 734] and there we go
[734 - 737] now i'm just going to slice this tomato
[739 - 742] wow it's just like silk
[742 - 744] it's just like silk and you know i'm able to get really even
[744 - 747] slices because it's not moving it's not
[747 - 749] sliding around it's not struggling so
[749 - 751] one of the things we learned in this
[751 - 753] testing is definitely all utility knives
[753 - 755] are not created equal this one was on
[756 - 758] the higher end but the less expensive
[758 - 760] ones weren't as good if you're going to
[760 - 763] get an extra knife to add on that's
[763 - 765] going to make your life easier you want
[765 - 767] one that really performs and while we
[767 - 770] hate to recommend a pricier knife in
[770 - 772] this case it's worth it we're going to
[772 - 775] put together our blt's and then we're
[775 - 776] going to compare and see how the knives
[776 - 778] do all right so we've got our sandwiches
[778 - 781] the ultimate test here lisa and i are
[781 - 782] going to cut right down the center of
[782 - 784] these and see how it goes
[784 - 788] one two three
[796 - 796] okay here we go the reveal
[797 - 799] [Music] nothing fell out
[799 - 800] nothing fell out it worked
[800 - 803] absolutely gorgeous this looks so good
[808 - 808] so this knife really did it i was able
[808 - 810] to cut through this sandwich nice and
[810 - 812] neatly nothing moved or shifted but i
[812 - 815] have to say during our testing the less
[815 - 817] good utility knives uh
[817 - 819] made a mess everything went flying and
[819 - 822] they were sawing and squishing and you
[822 - 824] know you don't want to go there so
[826 - 829] good job so as we saw both knives have
[829 - 831] their strengths and weaknesses um and
[831 - 833] you know in particular the serrated
[833 - 835] utility knife has some issues with
[835 - 837] length it's you know with those large
[837 - 839] loaves of bread it's a little short you
[839 - 841] need that length of the bread knife that
[841 - 843] little short utility knife it's just not
[843 - 844] going to cut it sorry
[847 - 848] [Laughter] yeah you know i agree if you're going to
[848 - 851] yeah you know i agree if you're going to buy just one toothy knife like this you
[851 - 853] probably should get a serrated knife or
[853 - 854] a bread knife but i will say you know
[854 - 856] there are really two camps with knives
[856 - 858] the minimalist and the maximalist do you
[858 - 860] want to get the three knives that we've
[860 - 862] mentioned before a chef's knife a paring
[862 - 863] knife and a serrated knife and do
[863 - 865] everything with those you know you can
[865 - 866] and that's great and that works really
[866 - 868] well or you can have some fun with it
[868 - 870] you know you can tinker you can add
[870 - 872] knives to your collection you can pull
[872 - 874] them out for particular tasks that they
[874 - 876] just really like shine at and um both
[876 - 879] ways are great i have our second place
[879 - 881] uh utility knife right here we got this
[881 - 884] for our wedding and apologies to cousin
[884 - 887] eden but when we got it i was like oh
[887 - 889] like what is that knife that's such a
[889 - 891] random knife i'm never gonna use that
[891 - 893] but i've been married for eight years
[893 - 896] now and i have slowly fallen in love
[896 - 898] with this knife you know my husband too
[898 - 899] but no the knife over the eight years i
[900 - 903] really have come to love it and i use it
[903 - 904] all the time all right so do you
[904 - 907] absolutely need this knife no but it's a
[907 - 909] great addition to anyone's kitchen lisa
[909 - 911] and i have both fallen in love with ours
[911 - 913] and it's really fun to use the perfect
[913 - 915] knife for the task at hand for more
[915 - 917] information on the utility knife and the
[917 - 919] serrated bread knife check out the links
[919 - 921] below and make sure to ask us your knife
[921 - 923] questions in the comments and hit that
[923 - 926] subscribe button