Give stale bread a second chance

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This article was published 06/09/2006 (7003 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If you routinely toss old bread in the trash, shame on you! Those hardened heels and slices deserve a little respect.

Due to a quirk of nature that even scientists don’t fully understand, bread morphs as it ages into a useful ingredient with very different culinary characteristics from fresh bread.

“We always try to keep some on hand,” says Cody Hogan, chef de cuisine at Lidia’s in Kansas City. After the restaurant’s homemade bread turns stale, Hogan uses it to make everything from ravioli filling to fruit lasagna. Stale bread also can be used in soups and salads, as well as in breakfast dishes such as French toast and egg casseroles.

It’s a common misconception that stale bread is simply dried-out bread. The reality is that even a tightly wrapped loaf will turn stale, even though the moisture content remains the same as when the bread was pulled from the oven.

The starch in flour is partly to blame for bread going stale. As bread bakes, water enters the starch granules and causes the simple amylose starch molecules and the more complex amylopectins to swell and soften, says food scientist Shirley O. Corriher of Atlanta, author of CookWise (Morrow). As bread cools, the starch molecules recrystallize, hooking together more tightly than they were originally.

Amylose starch recrystallizes in the first hour or so after baking, which makes the bread firmer and easier to slice, Corriher says. But most of the starch in bread is amylopectin, which takes several days to fully recrystallize. As it does, the bread gets firmer, breaks into crumbs more easily and becomes more opaque, says Carl Hoseney, a cereal grain scientist in Manhattan, Kan.

Other forces also are at work in making bread stale, but scientists disagree on exactly what they are.

“Food is more complicated than black holes,” Hoseney says. “You have so many different compounds affected by so many different conditions.”

Who knew?

Whatever the reason, stale bread is sturdier than fresh bread. “You can soak stale bread and it doesn’t break down or dissolve,” Hogan says.

Over the centuries thrifty peasant cooks have revered stale bread, says Carol Field of San Francisco, the James Beard award-winning author of five Italian cookbooks. Bread was never thrown away but instead was used to stretch soups, salads and entrees to feed more mouths.

“The Italians never waste anything, and bread is the most sacred food of all,” Field says.

According to legend, Italians who die and are sent to purgatory must tally all the bread crumbs they wasted in their lifetime, she says. Before leaving purgatory, they must pick up that many crumbs with their eyelashes.

Crumbs can be toasted and used as a cheese substitute, “poor man’s parmesan,” in gratins and other dishes. Fine crumbs can be recycled as coatings for fried foods, while coarse crumbs can be toasted and added to pastas, soups and salads for crunchy texture.

Crumbs also can be used to thicken sauces and gravies. Because the starch is already cooked, the crumbs don’t impart a raw flour taste, Hogan says.

Other uses for stale bread:

* Panade, a soup traditionally made from stale bread, broth and any vegetables on hand. The bread softens and swells in the broth, adding body and texture.

Another popular Italian bread soup is ribollita (meaning “reboiled”), which at first was leftover minestrone mixed with bread cubes. Today ribollita refers to a thick soup made with layers of cannellini beans, stale bread and a little broth. “It’s the kind of thing you can eat with a fork,” Field says.

* Panzanella, or bread salad. The bread cubes hold together even when doused with vinaigrette. For a smoky flavour, try grilling the bread first.

* Bruschetta and crostini, multipurpose Italian toasts. They are often rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil.

* Croutons, toasted bread cubes used to garnish salads and soups.

* Pain perdu, commonly known as French toast.

* Stratas and frittatas, egg dishes that become more of a meal when bread is added.

So the next time a humble heel or bun goes stale, don’t discard it. Instead, store it in a tightly closed plastic bag in the freezer to await its resurrection.

— Kansas City Star

Cook’s tips

TO MAKE CRUMBS, process stale bread in a food processor with a steel blade (for coarse crumbs) or a grating blade (for fine crumbs).

Truly stale bread produces very fine crumbs.

TO MAKE CROUTONS, cut stale bread into bite-size cubes, drizzle with olive oil and bake at 350 F about 8 minutes, until crisp and golden.

You can leave croutons plain or season them with just about anything, including parmesan cheese, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, butter and chili sauce.

TO SPEED UP STALING, put bread in the refrigerator. “Bread gets staler in one day in the fridge than it does in six days at room temperature,” cooking author Shirley O. Corriher says.

TO FRESHEN STALE BREAD, sprinkle it with water, wrap loosely in foil and heat in a 350 F oven 10 minutes.

Sources: Everyday Italian (Potter); www.bread.com; www.foodsubs.com

— Kansas City Star