----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 6:45
AM
Subject: [RecipesAndMore] Tips
STALE BREAD GETS SECOND LIFE
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 different
culinary characteristics
from fresh bread.
After the bread turns stale, You can use it
to make everything from
ravioli filling to fruit lasagna. Stale bread also
can be used in
soups and salads, as well as in 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
staling. 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.
Thrifty peasant cooks have revered stale bread,
it was never thrown
away but instead was used to stretch soups, salads and
entrees to feed
more mouths.
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.
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 flavor, 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.
Bread puddings are filler-up desserts that can be
fruity, chocolatey,
boozy or a combination, depending on the
recipe.
Day-old loaves can be used in French toast.
Fresh bread gets too
soggy. You can float a slice of stale bread in
French onion soup, top
it with cheese and broil it.
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).
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-degree oven 10
minutes.
LR FROM NOTTINGHAM
ENGLAND
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