The tomatoes right now are so ripe and delicious that they practically melt in our mouths. We should know - we've been eating enough of them! They're also so ripe that they can get easily bruised or mangled as we try to slice them up for salads and sandwiches. Do you remember the best tool for cutting up a tomato?
Our favorite tool for the job is still a serrated knife.
Instead of cutting straight down, we gently draw the serrated knife through the tomato in a slicing motion and with very little downward pressure. It seems a little counterintuitive to use such a big, long knife to cut up a delicate little tomato, but we've truly never gotten a cleaner cut or more precise slicing with any other knife.
We think this is because serrated knives are usually the sharpest knives in the kitchen. We mostly use them for slicing loaves of bread, so they never get the hard work-out of our chef's knives and paring knives. Their edges stay sharper for much longer.
Is this how you cut your tomatoes or do you have another method you like to use?
Related: Home Cooking: Slow Roasting Tomatoes
(Images: Flickr member visualdensity licensed under Creative Commons and Emma Christensen for the Kitchn)
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I actually have a tomato knife--one of my aunts has starting giving me knives every christmas. the christmas she gave me the tomato knife she also gave me a really nice santoku. I thought the tomato knife would be a waste, but it is actually quite useful and really good at cutting tomatoes. it is serrated and really sharp so it slices tomatoes without bruising. the only problem with the knife is that, although it is really good at slicing tomatoes, it isn't very good at cutting the top part off.
Using the drawing technique you describe is the important part. So long as it's sharp, any knife will do. I hit my 10 year old Santoku with a steel a couple times to be sure it's edge is clean and I can run through ripe tomatoes with no problem.
Any of my Shun knives. I keep them all super sharp, and hone them on a weekly basis. It depends on what I plan on doing with the tomatoes.
I use the chef's knife for dicing, the utility for slices, the paring knife when I want to stuff the tomatoes, and the bread knife when I want to use the tomatoes in sandwiches.
I absolutely love shun knives.
I also use a regular serrated knife that came with my KA knife set. It's easy and I don't have to buy another knife that does only one thing.
I use a henckel's chef's knife - cutting a tomato is a great way to see how sharp your chef's knife is and whether it needs a little more honing.
The Global tomato slicer knife is amazing.
But it's true, a good test of seeing if your chef's knife is sharp enough is to run it through a tomato and see how it does.
I always use a serrated knife as well. However, if I've already started my chopping with a non-serrated knife, I'm not going to dirty another knife. So, I poke a slit in the tomato and that makes it much easier to slice or start chopping.
My Cutco cheese knife is incredible on tomatoes. It's got really sharp and tiny serrated teeth, and with the big holes in it, the slices don't stick. It's also smaller, so easier to handle if I dice with it too.
I have used a serrated knife in the past, but after having my knife (santoku) sharpened it works just as well. Though one good trick is if your knife isn't that sharp, start your cuts with the very back of the blade--that part doesn't get used as much and is often a bit sharper, plus you can use the corner.
The **best** knife I ever used for slicing tomatoes was given to me in a $5 gift exchange. It is a simple Messermeister serrated tomato knife with a red plastic handle and matching sheath. It beats my Santoku any day. http://www.messermeister.com/index.php?act=GetContent&cid=2&pcat=26&prodID=381
My mom (and thus I) always uses a paring knife, often one of those cheap ($1) paring knives, and she sharpened it every time she was about to cut tomatoes. It works fine. Hate trying to cut them without sharpening them first, though.
My bread knife works the best!
The best Tomatoe knife in the world has got to be Cutco Culery Trimmer knife. They also just released a Santoku style trimmer. If need help with any Christmas knife gifts you can call me 401-265-6386 or visit http://Cutco.Auctivacommerce.com
Kyocera has a serrated ceramic knife for tomato slicing. I have one and it works great!