Uses for stale bread?

Question

Community wiki question. I'd like to compile an index of uses for stale bread. Here's a couple off the top of my head. Feel free to just go ahead and edit this list:

• Panzanella salad (with tomatoes, olive oil, onions)
• Thicken soup
• Bread galette (soften with eggs, cook into a sort of omelette)
• Croutons
• Bread crumbs
• French onion soup
• Gazpacho
• French toast
• Bread pudding
• Summer Pudding
• Bread and butter pudding
• Bruschetta
• Fondue
• Stuffing

Answer 1

• Bread Pudding

Answer 2

Feeding the birds :-)

Answer 3

Stuffing. Pretty much any stale bread product can be made into stuffing: I once made an old batch of cinnamon rolls into stuffing for pork chops. I made enough chops for 2 days of leftovers, and my guests wolfed the entire batch in one meal. No leftovers for me, AND I get asked about it to this very day.

Answer 4

• French Toast is called Pain Perdu in French, which means reclaimed bread.
• Crushing old bread is the best way to make breadcrumbs for stuffing, batter, whatever.
• In my Navy days, we used to use old bread to soak up some of the oil from deep-fried food. Put a layer of old slices on the bottom of a dish and then drop the aubergines, schnitzels or whatever it was into the dish and let the bread suck all the excess oil out of it.

Answer 5

Mix a raw egg with some herbs, salt & pepper. Dip Your old bread in it for a few seconds and drop on a frying pan. Popular use of not-so-fresh bread in Poland. But don't use too old ones.

For really old bread (the one that can already make knock-knock jokes): Put it in the freezer in the morning and come back in the evening or on the following day (or any time up to 3 months later :D). Take it out and put some cheese on it. Put in an oven till they defrost and then get crunchy and all :) DON'T use microwave. It sucx.

Answer 6

I'm guessing most people these days use fresh toasted bread for it, but bruschetta is a centuries-old way of using bread that's going stale.

Answer 7

Historically it was also used for fondue. I usually use mine for breadcrumbs and french toast already mentioned.

Answer 8

My mom used to make strata with stale bread. It's basically a savory bread pudding. I'm sure it's terrible for you since it's mostly bread, eggs, milk and cheese, but it sure is tasty.

Answer 9

We use stale bread at school to wipe the last of the residue off the flat top grill when cleaning it.

Answer 10

Scalloped tomatoes - a great way to use up tomatoes and old bread!

Answer 11

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned meatballs!

Unfortunately I can't provide a recipe, but I know that my mother and grandmother both use stale Italian bread in their meatballs. The bread is soaked in water, and ends up mixed into the meat. It's not the primary component, of course; the result is certainly not balls of bread with meat in them! but I assume the bread has some impact on the texture of the meatballs.

Answer 12

I often keep some stale bread around for meatloaf or meatballs. You'll want to soak the bread before you add it, I generally use milk. Fill a bowl with milk and put the bread in there for a while, the more stale the bread the longer it will need to soak. Once the bread has gotten quite soft you can drain it (squeeze it a little to get rid of some moisture) and add it to the rest of your meatball/loaf ingredients.