The Best Bread Lames | America’s Test Kitchen (S24 E2)
For the best-looking bread, you need the right scoring tool.
Read our full review on Bread Lames:
Get exclusive access to every recipe, review, and more:
Sign up for our free newsletters to receive more delicious recipes, cooking tips, and exclusive content:
ABOUT US: The mission of America’s Test Kitchen (ATK) is to empower and inspire confidence, community, and creativity in the kitchen. Founded in 1992, the company is the leading multimedia cooking resource serving millions of fans with TV shows (America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country, and America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation), magazines (Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country), cookbooks, a podcast (Proof), FAST channels, short-form video series, and the ATK All-Access subscription for digital content. Based in a state-of-the-art 15,000-square-foot test kitchen in Boston’s Seaport District, ATK has earned the trust of home cooks and culinary experts alike thanks to its one-of-a-kind processes and best-in-class techniques. Fifty full-time (admittedly very meticulous) test cooks, editors, and product testers spend their days tweaking every variable to find the very best recipes, equipment, ingredients, and techniques. Learn more at
If you like us, follow us:
Today I learned that these fancy bread lames are simply box cutters. I also learned I have a whole box of bread lames sitting in my utility cabinet that I got from Amazon for next to nothing.
I have the wood one. It's very nice. No need to buy one but it sure is nice. Lots of hard work followed by a fancy tool. Just fun and practical.
Wire Monkey Lame for the win. Used it for 10 years now. Better than holding a razor blade.
I have never seen a biggest waste of money.. no one needs this except maybe a bakery. I actually thought this was a joke..until I realized it was a real ATK test!
Lame is to baking as crappie is to fishing.
Okay, now I'm just hungry!
This is so…. lame
dadam tsst
Or you could just use a single edge razor blade. They’re about 10 cents each.
what?! doesn't anyone keep a sharp flexible paring knife? mine will cut your eyeballs just looking at it. like, DO NOT use it for tourne if you value your thumb.
After I'm done shaving, I use my Gillette fusion. It makes five cuts evenly spaced.
I like a single edge razor blade box cutter. The blade is just as sharp, you have great control, it has it's own built-in blade cover when you aren't using it, and it costs under a dollar. But what I like most is that when you put in a new blade, your fingers don't have to be anywhere near that sharp edge. Handling double-edged razor blades makes me nervous.
So nobody thought that Lan Lam should do this segment?
Many years ago I worked as line cook part time to make some extra cash. Anyway one of the restaurants I worked at had a very talented lady who was the restaurants Baker, and a Pastry Chef who I learned to bake bread from and her tool of choice for cutting slashes in her loaves of bread before baking was razor blade that she taped on one side. She also never used a razor blade more than one or two days
Twenty-eight bucks for a razorblade holder? Does it make the bread toooooo????
My grandmother's method was to use a scissors and she made great bread. Also used them to cut pizza and it turns out it's still the best tool for that too.
Unitaskers are evil
Good to know. Thank you!
This is lame (pun intended, different pronunciation). These are basically just razoblade holders. Any small sharp knife will do the exact same job. No need for another unitasker.
That is why I always have a straight razor at hand!
Just like the old west, you can find me stropping my razor, ready to 'shave' my loaves of bread!
In my kitchen, though, not in The Tonsorial Palace of the olden days!
I would find it hard to shave my beard with a lame, though …
I could try that, though.
Not on me.
Adam, are you ready for a trim?
I've got the one with the handle shaped like a baguette. If I buy a new lame, I won't buy the same thing again. The way it holds the blade is not reliable and secure. Sometimes if you hit the dough at the wrong angle or you go too slow, the blade will experience more force and might even slip out of place and have to be re-seated, which is annoying. I'd prefer the ATC picks that clamp down on that blade.
great opportunity to have Lan Lam milling about in the background but alas
Make hundreds of loaves a week. Lames are fine, but I've never felt the need for one. You can buy a bulk pack of utility razor blades for a couple bucks from a hardware store. They work fine. For anything more decorative surgical scissors are your best friend
Bought one with a cover. Without one, you need to store it in a box. Takes up too much space in my tiny kitchen. Covered, sits in the utensil drawer for the 1 minute I use it per week.
I came here for a bread 🦙Much disappoint.
A single-edge razor blade (dedicatedly kitchen) works well, but some people are afraid of it. As with anything sharp, safety comes first.
❤
Thank you!
Wonder if Rossini would appreciate the pun on his opera
The Baker of Seville. Someone at that company loves opera.
I've got too much stuff in my junk drawer now…😮
You guys are the best. Thank you.
I use scissors but I don’t do anything decorative
I'm good at sharpening knives so I just cut down an old butter knife and put a very sharp edge on the tip and like other people have said you just need a good sharp knife that you're comfortable with.
I shaved down a disposable bamboo chopstick and just put it through the center of a razor blade. 😁Instant curved lam. It works perfectly fine even though it's not exactly the pinnacle of craftmanship
This is such a weird unitasker item. Keep your knife sharp and you really don't need this.
I've seen someone fix a razorblade on a sonic toothbrush, cuts even super high hydration doughs like butter
I use a sharp surgical scissor and make interesting marks on the bread. A scissor is so much easier, but can’t make big ears.
I've always just used my serrated bread knife and I've never had any issues. Now, I've never tried really intricate designs so I'm going to purchase the least expensive one I can find to try my hand at those designs.
Serrated bread cutter is the best bread cutter
🇺🇸🌎🌎🌎🌎🇺🇸
Serrated bread cutter works very well.