Background: If bread sits on my counter for two days, I start thinking about what I’m going to do with it next. I have a three day rule for most leftovers (unless they are preserved in some way) and bread. (These kinds of things are passed down in families. Many of these are things my mom did or made or suggested when I asked her about this.) Here are my favorite ways to use old bread:
- Make Croutons.
- Use it for a Panade in meat loaf, meat balls, or extra-lean-meat burgers.
- Make toast points for hummus, tuna salad, or caviar if you are feeling fancy.
- Make French toast.
- Turn it into breadcrumbs.
- Use it in frittata di pane (or bread frittata or egg casserole with bread)
- Make stuffing or dressing for poultry.
- Make a strata.
- Use it on the top of French onion soup.
- Make bread pudding.
- Throw it in the fridge or freezer and decide later.
Why It Works
- If I make croutons, I’m more likely to make a salad. However, croutons could also become bread pudding or dressings or stuffing or bread crumbs. You are essentially preserving them by heating the moisture out of them.
- While panades are great for meat loaf and meatballs (because they are cooked quickly) a panade can work well for burgers made with lean meats and wild game, too.
- I mean, they are just big croutons. You can save time with the cutting and change up the kinds of dishes you serve them with.
- This is one my mom used to do that I’m slowly introducing to my family. So far, so good.
- This is basically the move when I’m long on stale bread and tight on fridge and freezer space. It’s the most compressed move. Also, there are a million moves you can do with breadcrumbs.
- You might be noticing a theme with old bread: soaking it in milk and/or egg and then cooking it works in a bunch of different configurations.
- A departure from the egg and milk combos, this is a good move when you need to use up bread and have extra stock and mirepoix or trinity around.
- This could be almost identical to the frittata di pane if you use the same ingredients, but a strata is necessarily layered and can go in many directions, including directions that don’t involve eggs. The oldest strata I could find was a very Midwestern dish of bread, white sauce, cheese, bread white sauce, cheese, and topped with seasoned bread crumbs (from The HAND-BOOK of HOUSEHOLD· SCIENCE by JUNIATA L. SHEPPERD, M.A. an INSTRUCTOR IN DOMESTIC SCIENCE, SCHOOL AND COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.)
- It’s like a giant crouton raft, covered with cheese, afloat in goodness.
- Warm bread pudding with cold ice cream is pretty great.
- I store my croutons, toast points, and breadcrumbs in the fridge to dry them out faster and more thoroughly. Seal them or they can take on the aromas in the fridge.
Mods:
- Try going savory with the French toast.
- Try the big cheese crouton on top of other soups besides French onion. I mean, tomato seems like a no-brainer.
- Change up the flavors and seasonings and make a stuffing that doesn’t remind you of thanksgiving at all.