Snip v. Slash
Speaking in bread geek: how do you slash, people? I’ve never been satisfied with my slash technique, so now I’m experimenting with the snip.
Slash is what you do to the bread loaf right before it goes into the oven so that you will get those lovely exploding patterns. I don’t have a good slasher or lame, all I do is tear. I’ve tried taping a razor blade to a flexible spatula; I bought a lousy lame, all to no avail. So, now I’m snipping with scissors.
The ongoing sourdough starter experiments continue. I’m taking some of my favorite Bertinet formulas and substituting my sourdough starter for the usual pre-ferment. Yesterday’s batch was the best ever, fully developed flavors, nice crust and soft crumb.
Now, if I can figure out how to get the ale flavor that I like into the sourdough starter that would be pretty cool.
This is only starter level bread geek speek, if you want to hang with the big boys at Sourdough Companion who talk about ash content and potassium like you and I speak about toast, then that’s where you need to go. For now, I’m happy pushing the limits of my starter and occasionally making some toast.
Maybe I’m a slacker or have low standards, but I’ve always found using my chef knife did a good job on my slashes.
WHen I’ve used scissors, the cuts seem to pull too much at the insertion point.
I’ve tried to get a decent grigne using a razor blade and an X-Acto Knife, but to no avail. I HAVE had success with a serrated bread knife – quick, yet gentle strokes, give me a good cut.
Hope that helps.
Ciao Foodslut! Great name!
I’ve recently had excellent results using my fancy new ceramic knife. It’s thin and super sharp, and I’ve cutting much deeper than I did before, practically 3/4’s of the way through the loaf.
I still like the snip when I make rolls and want a nifty little star shape on top of the roll.
I’ve got lousy serrated knives, so it just tears instead of properly slicing. Hey, whatever works, right?? :–)