Using Stale Bread in Your Cooking

Using Stale Bread in Your Cooking

Perhaps the two heel ends of the bread always have a habit of going uneaten in your house, or perhaps you regularly find yourself confronted with whole loaves of stale bread that you simply forgot was there before you opened a new package.  Whatever the reason, you don’t have to feel wasteful and throw that bread out!  There are many uses for stale bread, and you’ll find that all of them are quite tasty.

First, there are a few general uses which can be addressed right away.  If you have small bits, you can put them in the oven at a very low heat to dry them out completely and then the can be ground up, either with a meat grinder, or simply crushed with a rolling pin.  This is a great way to make your own breadcrumbs for things like fried scallops or stuffing, without needing to resort to buying from the store.  You’ll also find that if you have larger whole pieces, you can cut them into neat squares and dry them into croutons or crackers for soup.  They can be a great deal more tasty than regular crackers, and you might find yourself doing this whether the bread is stale or not!

If you have hard, dry pieces of bread, heat up a griddle that has been well buttered and dip the bread into hot salted water before browning it quickly on both sides.  This traditional dish is a great remedy for a cold morning when you realize that you only have dry bread in the house and you want to eat something with butter or syrup.

You might also want to make a great side dish or sandwich spread with your stale slices. If your bread happens to be rye bread, put some bacon fat in the frying pan.  When it is hot, use it to brown both sides of the bread in question and then put a poached egg on each slice.  Between the bacon fat and the egg, the bread will become quite moist again.  You can try this dish with ketchup, barbecue sauce, or any other dipping sauce you might like.

If you’ve got a lot of stale bread to work with, consider making the delicious dessert, Brown Betty.  Layer stale bread over chopped apples in a greased baking dish, starting with the bread on the bottom.  For every layer of apple, add cinnamon and brown sugar, more if the apples are very tart, and put breadcrumbs on the top mixed with some butter.  Cook covered at first and then bake for an hour, and you’ll find that this dish is delicious with a gentle covering of cream or ice cream.

As you can see, there are plenty of uses for stale bread, so take some time, and think about how you can use those hard-as-glass slices!