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:

As an ingredient

Breadcrumbs, fresh or dried
Breadcrumbs as coating or panade for Schnitzels, etc.
Breadcrumbs as a filler in Rissoles, Fish Cakes, Meat Balls, Meatloaf, etc.
Breadcrumbs as a thickener in soup, sauce or gravy
Croutons
Stuffing

Appetizers

Bruschetta
Panzanella salad (with tomatoes, olive oil, onions)

Soups

Breakfast

French toast aka Pain Perdu, Eggy Bread
Fried bread

Entrées

Bread galette (soften with eggs, cook into a sort of omelette)
Fondue
Toast, toasted sandwich

Dessert

Bread and butter pudding
Bread pudding
Bread Sauce
Brown Betty
Brown Bread Ice Cream
Summer Pudding
Christmas Pudding and others such as Figgy Duff made with dried fruit and breadcrumbs then steamed in a cloth.
Queen of Puddings and all the other similar ones made with bread crumbs, such as Manchester and Monmouth Pudding.
Sophie Grigson's Tunisian Orange Cake
Steamed Puddings such as Cabinet, Chancellor's, Chocolate, Marmalade, Raspberry, Syrup or Treacle Pudding

Miscellaneous

Due to lack of ideas in the past, I've learned to avoid letting my bread go stale by freezing it within a day of baking. — justkt, Aug 16 '10 at 16:47
I have added some items including Sophie Grigson's Tunisian Orange Cake, which is my favourite cake of all time. Made with breadcrumbs and almonds, it is also dairy-free. A most unusual cake, it is baked from cold. — , Nov 09 '14 at 01:24

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 13:59

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.

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 13:24

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Bread Pudding

answered Aug 16 '10 at 13:24

Nick

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score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 19:10

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.

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 04 '11 at 17:46

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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.

answered Jan 04 '11 at 17:46

thehiatus

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 07:27

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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.

answered Aug 16 '10 at 07:27

naugtur

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Sorry if my answer sounds a bit weird, but I've never written a recipe in english :P – naugtur Aug 16 '10 at 07:28
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I'm intrigued by the egg & herbs -- it sounds like a sort of savory french toast. Any recommendations on herbs, or could you tell us the name for it (in Polish is fine), so we can look up additional info on it? – Joe Aug 16 '10 at 14:04
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It's too common/simple to have a name. I call it bread dipped in eggs :P As for herbs I recommend those common for italian kitchen - basil and oregano. You can add grated cheese to the egg mixture if You have a good frying pan - it gets REALLY sticky. And You want the egg to stay on the toast, not the pan. – naugtur Aug 17 '10 at 08:45
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@Joe until I came to America, French Toast was always savory to me. I was startled and dismayed the first time I had 'French Toast' in the states and my friend poured maple syrup all over it as she served it. – Ritwik Bose Aug 17 '10 at 08:50

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 14:58

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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.

answered Aug 16 '10 at 14:58

Cascabel

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 25 '11 at 20:28

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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.

answered Jan 25 '11 at 20:28

Colin K

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wonder if a meatloaf variant would work as well? – zanlok Jan 25 '11 at 20:36

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 26 '11 at 15:00

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

answered Jan 26 '11 at 15:00

terry

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Good point -- cleaning; I'll put some through my spice grinder to help absorb the oils when I'm cleaning it. – Joe Jan 26 '11 at 18:13

score 2 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 16 '10 at 19:50

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

answered Aug 16 '10 at 19:50

Sobachatina

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score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 26 '11 at 00:23

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.

score 1 · Answer 11 · edited Aug 06 '22 at 15:41

I got 2 ideas that I found in Massimo Bottura's Masterclass course.

Pesto: he replaces the pine nuts with ground bread crumbs. (I also use rough size bread crumbs to add a little bit of texture to other pasta dish.)

Passatelli: pasta made with bread crumbs. His recipe:

2 and 1/4 pounds (1 kilogram) of bread crumbs
5 and 1/4 ounces (150 grams) of parmigiano reggiano
1 and 3/4 ounces (50 grams) of dried mushroom powder
Flaky sea salt
3 whole eggs

You mix everything (except the egg) together, then add the eggs and mix everything until the dough comes together, knead for 3 minutes, let it rests for 15 to 20 minutes covered, then use a potato ricer to make the pasta straight into the water/broth and it's done when it starts to float.

Hmm. I’d almost describe Passatelli as more of a dumpling than a pasta. (your description reminds me of spaetzle). You can also make a similar breadcrumb batter and fry them as a style of latke — Joe, Aug 04 '22 at 13:30

score 1 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 10 '14 at 01:45

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Stale flatbread can be fried (or baked with a drizzle of oil or even microwaved) until crispy and broken up into a fattoush salad.

answered Nov 10 '14 at 01:45

NRaf

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score 1 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 17 '10 at 17:21

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

answered Aug 17 '10 at 17:21

Tara Porrey

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