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Dessert

Fried Bread for Garnishing

Fried bread slices shaped and fried in butter, then brushed with flour and egg white to adhere as a garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Fried Bread for Garnishing

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Cut the stale loaf into slices ¼ inch thick.

  2. Shape the slices into diamonds or other desired shapes using a paste cutter.

Fry and finish

  1. Fry the shaped bread in fresh butter until pale brown and deeper brown.

  2. Dry the fried bread well.

  3. Brush the side of the bread with flour and egg white.

  4. Allow the bread to dry before serving.

  5. Arrange the fried bread alternately around the dish to be garnished.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Stale loaf of bread
Its drier crumb holds its shape and crisps when fried rather than turning soggy.
Fresh butter
Fat for frying that browns the bread surface and adds rich flavour.
Flour
Light dusting that helps the egg white coating adhere and set on the bread.
1 egg white
Thin coating that sets as a glossy, binding layer on the bread's surface.

The step that matters

Fry until pale brown and deeper brown. Frying in butter browns quickly, and the butter's milk solids can scorch. Removing the bread at the right colour keeps the garnish golden rather than bitter, and drying it well keeps it crisp.

“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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