Fried Bread Crusts is a traditional British recipe, based on Charles Elmé Francatelli's recipe of 1861, for a classic accompaniment of fried, thinly-sliced pieces of stale bread cooked in butter. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Fried Bread Crusts.
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This is a classic recipe for a Victorian version of Fried Bread Crusts that's derived from the chef, Charles Elmé's 1861 volume, The Cook's Guide and Housekeeper's & Butler's Assistant. Below you will find both the recipe in its original form and a modern redaction.
Original Recipe
This recipe comes from a note to Francatelli's recipe 151 for green pea soup.
The fried crusts are prepared as follows: viz.,—take a piece of the crumb of a stale half-quartern loaf, say a fourth part, and cut this into slices less than a quarter of an inch thick, and again cut up these slices into very even small squares; these must be fried in a stewpan, with about an ounce of butter, over the fire—care being taken to toss them lightly and almost continuously while they are being fried; and when the assume a light golden-brown shade, drain off the butter, and place them upon clean paper to absorb the grease.
Modern Redaction
A half-quartern loaf is a 900g (2lb) loaf of bread.
Ingredients:
225g bread (a stale white loaf)
30g butter
Method:
Cut the crusts off the bread then slice the bread into slices about 6mm thick. Now cut these slices into small, even squares.
Melt the butter in a pan, and when foaming, add the bread pieces and fry, tossing carefully and continuously until evenly fried golden brown.
At this point drain off the excess butter, turn the fried bread onto kitchen paper to absorb the excess butter and serve as an accompaniment.
