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Bread Crumbing

A method for making and using homemade breadcrumbs from leftover bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bread Crumbing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the crumbs

  1. Save all leftover bread bits.

  2. Dry them until crisp.

  3. Roll the dried bread.

  4. Sift through a fine sieve to create crumbs.

  5. Store crumbs in a covered can or jar.

  6. Season crumbs with a little salt and pepper.

Bread the item

  1. Sprinkle crumbs on a board to bread an item.

  2. Beat 1 egg with 2 tablespoons of cold water in a saucer.

  3. Coat the item in crumbs.

  4. Dip it in the egg mixture, ensuring it is fully coated.

  5. Remove the item from the egg using a broad knife.

  6. Return it to the crumbs.

  7. Toss to coat again.

  8. Be gentle when handling to avoid breaking the egg coating.

Mold and coat

  1. Grease a mold with melted butter.

  2. Fill it with crumbs.

  3. Press the mixture in.

  4. Turn out onto a well-crumbed board.

  5. Cover with crumbs.

  6. Dip in egg and crumbs again.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Leftover bread
Provides the crumb base; drying it until crisp lets it grind into dry, crunchy crumbs.
Egg
Acts as the binding coat that helps crumbs cling to the food before frying or baking.
Cold water
Thins the beaten egg so it coats the item evenly without becoming thick and clumpy.
Butter
Greases the mold so the pressed crumb mixture releases cleanly and browns lightly.

The step that matters

Handle the egg-coated item gently. The egg coating sets into a thin film that holds the crumbs. Rough handling tears this film, so crumbs fall away and the coating becomes patchy.

“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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