Application Guide

In cubes, chunks, or coarse crumbs, bread is the main ingredient for meat and
vegetable stuffings; for fruit stuffings, as in baked apples; or to bulk out and bind
ingredients, as in meat loaf, meatballs, and crab cakes.
Toasted fresh breadcrumbs make a great crunchy and attractive topping for
roasted vegetables, casseroles, or spreads, such as macaroni and cheese or deviled
crab. They are also used as a separate ingredient tossed with pasta, topping pizzas,
or in potato salad, offering a contrast in flavor and texture.
Fresh breadcrumbs are mixed with eggs to form a mixture like a savory breading
mixture, and cooked in broth to form a variety of old-fashioned dumplings.
Breadcrumbs are used as a thickening agent in sauces like the tomato sauce for
moussaka and for skordalia, the wonderful Greek sauce for fish and vegetables
made with garlic, nuts, bread, and olive oil.
Without bread there would be no fondue or Welsh rabbit, made simply of melted
cheeses with bread.
Crostini, or twice-baked breads, are the base for all sorts of warm and cold
canapés.
Crunchy toasts are floated in soups, such as French onion, pan cotto (stale bread
is added to this Tuscan broccoli and potato soup), gazpacho (bread, vinegar,
tomatoes, and garlic pureed together for a cold soup), panada (broth, vegetables,
and bread baked until the bread absorbs the broth, and eaten with a spoon), and
pistou (the French vegetable soup with a crouton coated with pesto on the bot-
tom).
Pita bread can be used for lining the cooking pot used to steam rice, the way it is
done in Middle Eastern kitchens.
Dry breadcrumbs are often used in place of flour to dust baking pans to keep
cakes and cheesecakes from sticking. They are important in separating layers of
strudel or filo dough, as in fruit strudels.
European and Jewish baking use dry breadcrumbs as a main ingredient in place of
flour for cakes and tortes. Breadcrumbs are often used in steamed puddings and in
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