Fried Croutons of Bread

Ingredients

• a small deep stewpan filled with lard or dripping
• stale pieces of bread

Method

1. 1

   Fill a small deep stewpan with lard or dripping and heat until smoking hot.

2. 2

   Add pieces of stale bread and fry until golden-brown.

3. 3

   Serve as a garnish.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c (1880), page 104. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

stale pieces of bread are wasted in households, though some- times where economy is considered they are reserved for making bread-pudding. But one very useful form indeed in which they can be turned to account is that of making fried crofttons, to be ; served with other dishes, such as hashed meats. The cook should exercise her ingenuity in cutting the stale bread into some fanciful shapes, such as hearts, stars, etc. The odd pieces of bread can be cut up and used for making bread- crumbs, or can be put by for bread- puddings. Take a small deep stewpan — the smaller the better — and fill it to within an inch of the top with lard or dripping, and see that this is really smoking hot. Then throw in the pieces of bread, which in a minute or even less will turn a beautiful bright golden- brown colour. These are far superior to that miserable garnish known to English cooks by the name of “ toasted sippets.” The same fat can be used for the purpose over and over again. It only requires to be occasionally clarified, which is done by mixing it with some boiling water, when all the impurities will sink to the bottom of the pan, and when the fat is cold it can be taken off, and the bottom scraped. The fat is now as good as ever, and will keep good for months. Fried crofttons of bread should always be placed round any kind of vegetable when it is served by itself. HARICOT VERT. — French beans are an exceedingly popular vegetable, but when fresh they are apt to be very expensive. Indeed in many of the London restaurants a shilling is charged for a portion of French beans, as many know to their cost who are fond of haunch of venison, and are too good judges of good living to have veni- son without that necessary accompani- ment, French beans. French beans are now preserved in tins. The beans can be warmed in the tins by simply im- mersing the tin in boiling water for about twenty minutes. Then open the tin and turn out the contents, serving at once, or the tin can be opened as it is and the contents turned into a saucepan and wanned up. The nicest way, how- ever, of serving French beans un- doubtedly is to serve them as a course 69 HOUSEKEEPER'S GUIDE. by themselves. This is an almost in- variable proceeding abroad, and the custom might be copied in England with considerable advantage. The great fault to my mind in the English style of living is the great mixture of various kinds of meat and vegetables on the plate at once. For instance, it is a very common thing to see a person with a plate before him containing hot roast sirloin of beef, Yorkshire pudding, horseradish, mealy potatoes, and French beans. I do not deny that this is an excellent dinner, but for my own part I would much prefer to have the French beans served up on a dish to be eaten by themselves. Their flavour is deli- cate and delicious, and to mix them with hot gravy, horseradish, Yorkshire pud- ding, etc., is simply to spoil them. French beans when served by them- selves require moistening with some kind of sauce. One of the best sauces to serve with French beans is a good bechamel, but sauce supreme is better. I have described under the heading of financiere ragout the difference between bechamel sauce and sauce supreme, and I have also given receipts for making both ; when, however, these sauces can- not be obtained the French beans should be placed in a small stewpan with about half an ounce or an ounce of butter. They should be tossed lightly and wanned up for some ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. A little chopped parsley should now be added to them, and a email pinch of powdered sugar, a little pepper and salt, and a small quan- tity of lemon juice. The French beans can now be served in a vegetable dish surrounded by small fried croutons of bread

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.