Better Bread Means Better Bread Crumbs

You’re buying it so you can turn the heels into bread crumbs that keep forever when they’re stored properly in a cool, dry place. Going to The widely traveled chef, who’s a partner at Portland’s Ava Gene’s,, home cooks should make a big batch and “store them in your pantry, ready to finish a pasta, salad, gratin. . . anything that wants a toasty crunch.” In short, they should be thought of not as something you need for a method but as an impromptu addition: Think of how much better toasted, salted bread crumbs would make a bowl of mac’n cheese. For McFadden, the quality of bread matters, too: “The better the bread, the better the crumbs.” He likes to make crumbs with whole-grain, crust-on bread.

Bread crumbs are also part of Prueitt’s romanesco salad with quartered eggs, pine nuts, capers, and herbs, for which making fresh toasted bread crumbs is part of the method. It’s an essential for a dish that’s an intersection of textures: the richness of egg, the silky steamed romanesco, and the crunch of the bread crumb garnish.

Make Your Own Bread Crumbs 3 cups or so, depending on loaf size Ingredients A quarter loaf, a half loaf, or any variation on chunks of bread (that you’ve reduced to crumbs in one of the methods above) Olive oil Put simply, to make bread crumbs, reduce large pieces of bread into smaller pieces of bread. The best method depends on the characteristics of the bread you’re using and the type and amount of bread crumbs you are looking for.

If your bread is not terribly old and still has a little life left in the crumb, take a piece of the bread and grate it on the coarse holes of a box grater over a bowl. Grating bread on a microplane can as well work if the bread is not completely dried out and has some yield or softness.

If your bread is quite hard, cut it into chunks and pulse in the food processor until the crumbs are the consistency you desire. This method is faster than the box grater and works well if you are hoping to process a larger amount of crumbs.

If your bread is completely dry, crush it in a mortar and pestle until the crumbs are the desired consistency or place inside of a cloth bag (thick plastic can work but is prone to tearing) and smash it with a rolling pin, meat tenderizer, or any blunt object of your choosing. Add a little olive oil to the bread crumbs (barely covered with oil, with a texture closer to dry than damp) and stir. Place the sheet pan with the lightly oiled bread crumbs in the hot oven.

When the bread crumbs turn an attractive shade of reddish brown (time varies going to ovens; keep an eye on them), remove the sheet from the oven and pour the bread crumbs onto a plate to stop their preparation. When the pan is hot, add a thin stream of olive oil and the bread crumbs.

Very Good Chicken Cutlets 2 servings Ingredients 4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs Salt 2 cups flour 1 egg 3 cups incredibly fine bread crumbs Olive oil for frying (enough to fill about two inches of your pot) Lemon, cut in wedges for serving Chicken breasts cut into scallopine and pounded flat are most often used to make chicken cutlets. That’s great if you have a whole chicken that you are planning on breaking down and using in other recipes.

If you do not have a whole chicken and are instead planning on visiting the butcher and buying chicken breasts so you can make chicken cutlets, don’t. Using a meat tenderizer, pound the chicken thigh flat until it is considerably wider and about 1/8th of an inch thick.