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Prepared Bread Crumbs

Crumbs made by drying, crushing and sifting stale bread, with a rolled cracker-style dough also given.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Prepared Bread Crumbs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crumbs

  1. Break pieces of stale bread into small bits.

  2. Put the bread pieces on a baking pan.

  3. Place the pan in a moderate oven, watching closely so they do not scorch.

  4. Take the bread while hot and crisp.

  5. Roll and crush the bread.

  6. Sift the crumbs.

  7. Use the fine crumbs for breading cutlets, fish and croquettes.

  8. Use the coarse crumbs for puddings and pancakes.

Make the dough

  1. Sift a heaping teaspoonful of baking powder into a pint of flour.

  2. Mix in four tablespoonfuls of melted butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, the beaten white of an egg and one cup of milk.

  3. Mix in more flour until a very stiff dough forms.

  4. Pound and knead the dough a long time.

  5. Roll the dough very thin like pie crust and cut out rounds or squares.

  6. Bake until light brown.

Serve

  1. Place stale crackers in the oven a few moments before serving to make them crisp.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

706Calories
21 gProtein
21 gFat
107 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough's structure, which becomes firm and sturdy as more is worked in.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping it rise and turn light in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat that makes the dough tender and gives it a richer flavor.
Milk
Adds moisture that brings the dough together and helps it brown.
Egg white (in the method)
Adds protein that helps bind the dough and give it structure.

The step that matters

Watching the bread in the oven. Dry bread browns quickly once its surface dries, and sugars in it caramelize and then burn. Scorched crumbs taste bitter and dark, so the bread must be checked closely and removed while it is only crisp and lightly colored.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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