Stale bread can be repurposed into bread crumbs, croutons and crouton stuffing, among many other uses (Image: The New York Times)
Got stale bread? Turn it into bread crumbs, croutons and crouton stuffing.
I have always felt that bread was sacred, so all my life I have tried to save the scraps of stale bread and try to repurpose them into cubes for croutons or make bread crumbs. What an easy way to save money on food! To save stale bread, it’s best just to let it dry out in an unsealed container, like a paper bag, at room temperature.
The holidays will put pressure on you to produce all sorts of meals for family and guests. In my book, The Refrigerator Files: Creative Makeovers for Your Leftovers I have a long list of scrumptious dishes where stale bread is called for, ranging from French toast to cream desserts with many tasty main dishes in between.
For starters, here are some tips about how to make all-purpose breadcrumbs and croutons. A favorite in my house for Thanksgiving, I will follow with my go-to recipe for crouton stuffing for The Bird.
Easy Recipe for Breadcrumbs Made from Stale Bread
Just grind your dried bread scraps in a food processor (better) or a blender. You can add dried herbs if you like, but I prefer to keep the flavor neutral for use in both sweet and salty dishes. Grind to your preferred coarseness and put in a sealed jar. For guaranteed freshness, keep in refrigerator.
If you don’t have a blender, place broken-up dried bread pieces in a sealed plastic bag and bang them with a roller. Then roll them until the desired texture is obtained.
What to Do With Stale Potato or Corn Chips
Stale potato or corn chips make good crumbs, too! If they’re soggy, crisp them up in a warm oven. Make sure they are not rancid.
Sometimes recipes call for “soft breadcrumbs.” For these you need not-too-stale bread (2 to 4 days old). Pull the pieces apart with a fork in order not to mash them. When measuring, spoon them lightly into the measuring cup. If not using right away, store them in a tightly-sealed container in the fridge for up to a few days. They will start to mold after that.
Easy Recipe for Croutons Made from Stale Bread
Cut dried bread slices into cubes, if possible. Even broken pieces are OK. Sauté gently in cooking oil. (I like a combination of canola and olive oil.) Be careful that they don’t burn. Add a little salt and pepper and some dried herbs (optional) and put in a sealed jar, which should be kept in the fridge to prevent them from becoming rancid.
Another way is to place bread cubes on a baking sheet and put in a 300° F oven 20 to 30 minutes until they are completely dry and crisp. These croutons are taste-neutral and can be used in sweet puddings.
Easy Recipe for Crouton Stuffing for Turkey Made from Stale Bread
In the past, I have gone the route of chestnuts, sausage, assorted other concoctions, but I always come back to basics: bread stuffing. It is easy, economical, and the taste combines smoothly with the turkey and gravy without hogging the limelight. As Thanksgiving approaches, start saving all those end pieces from your bread loaves. But this is an all-purpose poultry stuffing — Try it on chicken any time of the year — that has proven its worth over the years. It is endlessly adaptable. My preference is for sautéed croutons (see above), as they have built-in flavor.
In a large skillet over low to medium heat, melt
2 to 3 Tbs. vegetable oil
Add and sauté until wilted:
1 medium onion, chopped
1 stalk celery,chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
(Optional) ½ c. mushrooms, sliced
(Optional) the chopped liver and heart from the bird
Add:
3 to 4 c. croutons
When lightly browned, add:
¼ c. parsley, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
1 Tbs. herbes de Provence
Or herbs of your choice (sage is superb)
Season with salt and pepper
Stir in:
¼ c. white wine
(Optional) 1 Tbs. whiskey (a nice addition!)
¼ c. chicken stock
Add a little more chicken stock if stuffing seems too dry, but be careful not to let it get soggy. Spoon stuffing lightly into bird’s neck and breast cavities. Fasten with toothpicks or sew shut. Got turkey or chicken livers? If your crowd doesn’t like turkey or chicken livers, chop and sauté them separately anyway, but put them aside. Then when you make the gravy, add them and let them simmer a while. At serving time, strain the gravy. The livers will have added depth to the flavor. Save them for recycling in, say, rice or couscous, or for a dip.
Bon Appétit!
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Jocelyn,
Love this post! Have been chopping up stale French bread in the cuisinart for years to make bread crumbs (mostly for my meatloafs). Since the bread is really hard, I am sure to bang it with a meat hammer first into smaller pieces, so as not to tax the cuisinart.
I also put my bagels in the freezer after a couple of days of being fresh, i.e., before they can go really stale. I then defrost them in the microwave for one minute on high — the result: fresh warm bagels! (They can then be put into the toaster, too). This is one of my best cooking tips. “Fresh” bagels on demand!
Once you’ve dried out the bread, it keeps forever in the freezer. Been doing this for years. I use for bread crumbs, croutons, certain soups…
Oh, and things like onion/garlic peels and carrot ends go into a bag in the freezer, and then we can make our own vegetarian soup stock.
Very little food goes to waste in this house, and even what does go bad goes into compost and is recycled into the garden.
Hello All,
Mom used to make a supper or brunch dish with stale bread called Stratta. Layers of bread, cooked cellery and onions and grated cheese. Then she poured a custard mixture of eggs, milk and seasonings over all and let it sit overnight. It was then baked like a bread pudding. I’ll put the recipe on the site if I can find it.
I do the same overnight idea with stale bread and a custard mixture, cinnamon, grated lemon peel, etc, for oven baked french toast.
My Mexican friend Francisco would use stale bread in a wonderful soup called Sopa de Ajo. (Garlic soup) A chicken based broth with lots of cooked garlic and chunks of stale bread. I think there was an egg involved as well….
Peace, Mike
Your ideas are so good, Mike. The Mexican soup reminds me of French onion soup with gobs of melted cheese over blobs of stale bread. Your mom and you have it down: milk and eggs combined can do anything. You can make wonderful puds with stale raisin or other sweet breads or muffins, doing just as you and your mom do! Thanks for all your ideas.
Hi Jocelyn,
Mom didn’t make bread pudding, but I always loved it and would make it as dessert. The restaurant I worked at for 14 years made their bread pudding with stale rolls and raisins. A lighter pudding with lots of delicate custard between the roll pieces. For me it was the ultimate bread pudding.
When we moved to New Haven, we no longer had the reliable electric oven and have had gas ovens ever since. Cake baking has been a hit a miss operation ever since. Too many fallen cakes…..
So I started making baked Fallen Cake Bread Pudding. Chocolate cake pieces and a coffee flavored custard was a favorite combination. It was almost worth having the cake fall in order to make this pudding.
I found the recipe for Mom’s Stratta! I forgot she put ham in it.
Elizabeth’s Stratta
2 cups chopped celery, boiled with some salt in the water. (I sauteed mine)
8 slices firm, stale bread
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
2 cups diced ham
4 eggs beaten slightly
2 cups milk. (I used 3 to 4 cups as I like more custard. I probably added an extra egg or two.)
2 tablespoons minced onion (I used much more and sauteed it with the celery)
1/2 teaspoon season salt or salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Cook celery in small amount of salted water. Drain. Break bread into chunks and put 1/2 of them in shallow 1 &1/2 quart baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese. Cover with celery, then ham and then the rest of the bread chunks. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over everything. Cover and refrigerate. Let sit an hour, or overnight. Bake 350 degrees for on hour until firm and lightly browned. 4 to 6 servings.
I would sometimes decrease the celery and use spinach or broccoli.
2 tablespoons minced onion (I used more)
Sounds like an interesting and healthier alternative to bread! And it has a great Spanish flair. Have a happy turkey day this year, Katie!
Thanks for this recipe, Mike. Interesting that your mother used a lot of celery, which isn’t usually featured in our current cuisine. Sounds European. My Swiss mother-in-law used celery a lot, so I learned early that it gives another dimension to a dish’s infrastructure. Boiling it is cool: if you simmered the onions with it you could have a great stock to make sauces with. Can’t wait to try it, and I’ll make it nice and custardy, the way you recommend!
Mike,
Your Mom’s recipe for Stratta takes me back 35 years to my college days. It was the only time I ever had cheese stratta — and I loved it. So “thanks for the memories” as they say — and the recipe which I look forward to making soon. Sounds like a great alternative to macaroni and cheese and something that could really be “jazzed” up with a blend of fancy cheeses. (Prediction: with tough economic times, will cheese stratta make a comeback?)
P.S. I really like your friend’s garlic soup with the stale bread. Makes me think that the bread that tops French onion soup was likely stale, too. Oh those French! How creative!
Jocelyn,
I love the crouton stuffing recipe, especially with the idea to stuff a chicken. Stuffing withe chestnuts and sausage makes my top 5 favorite holiday dishes. When I lived in Argentina, my study abroad group and I didn’t want to miss out on Thanksgiving so we planned our own dinner for about 35 people. I was in charge of the stuffing and mashed potatoes. My friend and I saved bags of stale bread the week before and instead of stuffing the turkey (we gave long task to the men in our group) we made stuffing with spinach, celery, carrots, chicken stock, chorizo and seasonings. It came out great! That’s just an alternative to those who don’t want to stuff The Bird.
If there was one thing my mother ever taught me about saving food, it was about saving bread. She has instilled these bread reviving skills into my head for all eternity, and for that I am thankful. Above all, the biggest rule is that bread in the freezer is bread that can be saved…… forever! (In mom’s mind.) I know very well that freezer burn is a killer of old bread, but I digress….
Putting bread in the freezer after a few days is a great way to exponentially grow the lifespan of your bread, and a quick mircowaving or toasting will make it ready to eat in no time.
For the bread that does get freezer burn or goes bad before you get a chance to put it in the freezer, there is another alternative to just composting it. For the Jewish population in the months leading up to Yom Kippur, where we repent for our sins over the past year, my family and families I know will save up the bread that has outlived its useful life. We then go down to the waterfront and throw the bread piece by piece into the water, which symbolizes casting away our sins for the new year, and also gives the ducks full stomachs for the day. It is just a nice way to use something you would have thrown away to help another living species on our planet.
Another very simple thing to make with stale bread – especially stale baguette – is crostini (basically fancy crackers). They can be made either in the oven or in a skillet. I find that the easiest way is the oven.
Cut the baguette into 1/4 inch slices and place on a cookie sheet. Brush olive oil on both sides of each piece of bread and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until golden. You can always spice them up with a little sea salt or rosemary. Once made, crostinis are delicious served with cheese, soup, bruschetta, or lox. The crostinis will last for about 1-2 weeks at room temperature.
I love these ideas for ways to use stale bread rather than have it go to waste. I have to admit, I am often hesitant to buy bread in the first place for fear that I won’t use it up in time before it goes stale. I lived in London for the past 2 years, and also was in Ireland for a semester in college, and I loved that you can buy half loaves of bread there – much easier to use up in a household of 2 people. I don’t know why I never thought to make breadcrumbs from it before, but I will definitely do that from now on! No more need to buy breadcrumbs from the store which is definitely a money-saver. Stuffing is also one of my favorite foods, so I will have to try making it from sautéed croutons as you suggested. I’m sure I’ll have some stale bread hanging around for Thanksgiving next week so perhaps that will be the perfect opportunity to try it! The key for me will be to catch the bread before it starts growing any mold…
Alison–
If you are already planning that you won’t finish a loaf, simply put half of it in the freezer to begin with. When you’re down to maybe four slices, let it thaw. I’m sure you’ll still have plenty of unplanned stale bread for bread crumbs, etc.
I have this little block of stale bread sitting on my counter – a bit too small for me to do much with. Yes it could have gone to the compost bin. However with a handy cheese grater it has become some nice morsels to feed to the happy little birds that visit my balcony. Nothing like sharing the love 🙂
Let’s not forget the crumbs at the bottom of the dry cereal bag. Once there are no ‘flakes’ left, the crumbs make a great casserole topping or can be part of a bread crumb mixture (for those cereals that aren’t too sweet… sweet ones can be used for a dessert such as fried ice cream, for ex: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/fried-ice-cream-recipe/index.html).
Lots of great ideas for stale bread already given in the postings. Here are a few more takes on the subject: http://wakeup-world.com/2012/07/06/11-uses-for-stale-bread/.
Or maybe people are looking or new ways to keep bread fresh: How to keep different types of bread fresh: http://bread.com/content/keeping-bread-fresh .
Fun facts I discovered about bread: Historically, many cultures invented recipes specifically to use stale bread (French, Greek, German, and others). These dishes became delicacies in the culture of origin and often became popular worldwide. They include bread pudding, bread sauce, soups (garbure, wodzionka, gazpacho), a sauce/dip/spread called skordalia, fondue, croutons, meatloaf, french toast, dumplings, and flummadiddle (main course pudding). I’d love to learn more about these various bread-derived foods. If anyone reading this knows more, please respond.
Yum! But I’m cheap and use fewer ingredients to make one of my favorite dishes – bread sauce. Anthony Bourdain eats it when No Reservations visits Marco White in the U.K. Basically, you just boil
-butter
-milk
-bread crumbs
-(baby) onions
-salt to taste
in a double-boiler for as many hours as you can stand to wait. It’s a true British peasant dish; clearly the landowners were losing.
Cheap, easy, and so so good.
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Lots of tasty recipes listed here… I’ve also read that stale water cracker biscuits can be given a new lease on life by either, 1) crushing them up and freezing them to be used as breadcrumbs, OR 2) if you’re not quite ready to crush them up, spread them out on a baking tray and sprinkle a bit of water over them, before putting them in the oven for a few minutes.
Great ideas! And great recipes in the comments. I loved the part about reusing stale potato chips because that had simply never occurred to me before, yet I’m always frustrated when chips go stale or when I end up with so many potato crumbs at the bottom of the bag. This made me think of a recipe that would go perfectly with stale chips!
My Aunt introduced me to this recipe and it is a cheesy potato dish – almost like a casserole – that is usually topped with a crunchy layer of corn flakes. It is absolutely to die for if you love potatoes like I do.
Mary Kay’s Potatoes
8 light skinned potatoes
cook in water al dente
cool in tupperware in the fridge
peel & grate in cuisinart/food processor
Large pan
saute 3/4 cup butter, 1 can cream of mushroom, 2 cups sour cream
Add 2 cups cheddar grated in cuisinart
Once cheese is melted fold in potatoes
Add 4 greens onions chopped
Add salt and pepper, not too much salt
9×13 pan
sandwich bag of corn flakes (or stale potato chips!) crush lightly with melted butter
pour over the top of the potatoes
Bake 350 until it bubbles