Many fruits and vegetables have tough outer skins or rinds that are not easily pierced without damaging the soft inner pulp.
In order to cut a slice from a tomato, for example, knives or utensils having serrated edges have been developed. Such a knife and utensil are respectively illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. Des. 269,244, issued June 7, 1983; and No. 2,938,267, issued May 31, 1960.
While these knives and utensils are generally useful for their intended purpose, it has been discovered that they often cut too deeply into the soft pulp of the fruit after piercing the rind.
The serrated blades, in other words, are too much of a good thing, in that there is an excess of tearing power provided by the serrations that often damages the soft pulp of the fruit.
The present invention addresses the discovery that only a single serration disposed along a curved edged blade is sufficient to pierce and cut through the skin of a tomato without tearing the inner pulp.