# carving meat with serrated blades



## the_seraphim (Dec 25, 2006)

ok at work they have some carving knives we have to use to carve turkey or beef or gammon or w/e

my only complaint is that they are as serrated as bread knives... what ever happened to normal knives?

are the serrated ones better?


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## buonaboy (Sep 5, 2007)

In short, NO. Serrated knives are not better, they are a tool ..with a specific use. The serrations tear proteins, witch give the proteins a "tougher" mouth feel and SHRED tender fish. I personally use a nice 10" Wustoff slicer with a scalloped blade and keep it razor sharp. Kitchens often keep some serrated knives around because they require less upkeep. If a cook is too lazy to sharpen a knife, there's no telling what other atrocities are occurring due to short-cutting..... "I_'m sure the raw chicken never touched that side of the cutting board_"

-ciao
Mike


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## the_seraphim (Dec 25, 2006)

thats the thing though... the knives are taken and are sharpened by another company... 

it sickens me the state of the kitchen i work in now... the more i look around me, the more horrified i get...

veg being prepped on red boards, the knives match said boards.... 

then a fresh yellow board being brought out for raw chicken, even though the same veg is to be stuffed into the chicken before being cooked.

i have left my knife roll at work for a week now... and i think i shall be bringing it home, 

my knives are low chromium steel, so they shouldnt be put into a dishwasher and left to dry in the air.... yet they are (if they are even washed at all!)

i mean they are very nice, victoria knives... colour coded (yellow one, red one, black one... which confuses the heck outta me as there are 3 cooked meats! i use the colours to signify which meat i used... red on beef, yellow on turkey, black on gammon or pork or lamb depending on which i have out)

plates are dirty, cutlery isnt polished properlly... me and the head waiter were talking about it and he cant stand it either... we polished plates and cutlery between us the other day... ones that had supposedly already been done (i watched the girls do it... and they were still atrocious) 

crap table service, horrific manners, half the staff are coked out of their skulls the FOH manager actually came in the other day in whites and did a stint in the kitchen as head chef... now admittedly he can cook the menu, but he doesnt seem to comprehend simple things like... if service stops at 10, the kitchen will not be clean till at least 11... at 10:15 hes shouting

it pains me to think that i have work in the morning, its a horrible thing when you dont want to go to work... especially for these reasons

if i didnt have a baby on the way, id quit and find somewhere else... but i need the job, i need the money so i have to behave... sucks, but it has to be done.

feels better to have a rant out of the way....

perhaps i will simply make a list of everything that bugs me and one by one, work out what i can do to remedy it (im the 3rd chef if there is such a thing and far more capable than the sous at management and things other than cooking the menu while stressing) then i shall implement each idea until i hit a wall aka the manager of the place... course i can just ignore him and do things my way... if i can show results then he will probably leave me alone... or i can hit him, depends how he acts lol


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

All the other complaints you had in your rant I could live with, but the one that scares the living cra* out of me is that "half of the staff are coked out"...
Be brave, smile and nod, and hope to heck you make it out of there in one piece before someone throws a mega-coke-fit....


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

Serrated knives for carving is a no no.
Because they tend to shred the meat.
With one exception.
Wusthof makes a knife with a reverse serrate.
In other words, the grind is convex instead of concave, so it's rounded instead of pointed.
This is my favorite serrated knife, it can be used to carve, but my favorite thing about it is the lack of crumbs on the board after slicing bread.
The make a standard long serrated as well as a short one with an offset handle.


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## the_seraphim (Dec 25, 2006)

im fed up of these knives shredding the meat... although i do take a steel to them before i use them... at least if they are sharp they will do less damage...


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## chefinfrance (Dec 16, 2007)

reminds me somewhat of my self 30 years ago, the only way you will find happiness is to work for yourself. keep that as your goal and look to the future. As for the knife, the best I have worked with is a Granton ham knife, scalloped edged, cut smoked salmon so thin you could read the paper through it.
steve
Don't forget there are only two alternatives tomorow you wake up or you don't. I know which one i am choosing


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## greyeaglem (Apr 17, 2006)

I hate serrated knives. They have no place in the kitchen except for maybe cutting bread. I have never used the Wusthof a couple of people here have mentioned, so that's probably an O.K. one. It drives me nuts, all the knives are either serrated or so dull that you could hold them upside down and cut just as good with them. And then no decent stones or steels to sharpen anything on. I've gone back to using the bottom of a coffee cup to sharpen knives. I think the really dumbest thing ever is serrated paring knives. What were they thinking!? I bought a couple of cheap knives that I can at least keep an edge on, but the two places I work don't have specific stations so everybody keeps grabbing my knives because they're sharp. I lost one recently because of this. I think it got knocked into a trash can because at the end of my shift it wasn't around. Good thing it was a cheap one.


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## just jim (Oct 18, 2007)

I think that there are a few uses for a good serrated.
I love to use mine to peel melons for fruit displays.

I keep the serrated parers around for the same thing, but for oranges, etc.
Also hand them to the inept bartenders for their citrus.
If not for those, it's kind of like you said, you might as well try to cut fruit with your shoe.


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## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Was thinking of your post when I was carving pork for Christmas lunch at home here. Started with a serrated knife out of curiousity and got horribly frustrated - it ripped and tore the meat - not a good result. Went back very quickly to my lovely sharp straight bladed carving knife. 

Never again.....


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## breadmeister2 (Oct 2, 2005)

Hollow ground is ideal. It is the same as a slicer, yet the dimples ground into the blade prevent air from being trapped between the protein and the blade causing it to grab and 'stick', it slices beautifully. A good sharp slicing knife works well, but you need to keep it sharp. 

I keep a cheap knife convenient for the 'borrower'. Otherwise, my good knives are only for me. "If you don't like it, buy your own!"


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## the_seraphim (Dec 25, 2006)

my knives are home now... and after a few days care and attention they are sharp again...

as to work... they still have the serrated knives, but it doesnt bother me... i just cook the meat till its fall apart tender (takes all night but what are computer controlled ovens for if not overnighting meat) then lift pieces onto the plates


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