I Buy Fancy Bread Just to Let It Grow Stale. Heres Why.

[elleng]

'There’s a certain kind of dark-crusted sourdough bread I’m incapable of resisting. A sixth sense alerts me anytime I veer within a three-block radius of a bakery offering tangy country loaves with mahogany crusts. Without fail, I’ll make my way inside and buy one, even if there’s already half a loaf growing stale on my countertop.

Hello, my name is Samin, and I’m an artisanal-bread hoarder. The only way I can justify the addiction is to challenge myself to use up every bit. I’ve made endless variations of crumbs, croutons, pudding and panzanella. But the most satisfying (and efficient) use I’ve found for the glut of stale bread at my disposal is panade. If you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone. Richard Olney, the 20th-century food writer who championed French country cooking, lamented the dish’s disappearance from cookbooks when he sang the praises of panade in The Times in 1974.

Like Olney, I believe that “the ultimate panade is the onion panade, the ancestor — and still the best — of onion soups.” We each begin by browning onions to a rich caramel color. Then we slather them over slices of dry country bread and sprinkle with generous amounts of Gruyère and Parmesan. Here, our recipes diverge: Olney carefully adds salted water, while I prefer to douse the whole thing with an absurd amount of chicken stock. Each of our versions is cooked slowly, then topped with more cheese and gratinéed. The result is sweet and savory, rich and comforting.

A triumph of upcycling, this panade is basically French onion soup without the soup — just bite after bite of cheesy, onion-and-stock-soaked bread. It’s so good I’d argue it’s worth it to buy a loaf of fancy bread right now just to let it grow stale. Then you can try the recipe. It’s also worth trying because it’s an easy way to learn a fundamental cooking lesson: Water carves a unique path — sometimes visible, sometimes not — through every recipe, whether it’s listed as an ingredient or not. Learn to identify these paths, to anticipate their twists and turns, and you’ll be better equipped to cook any ingredient, using any cooking method, with or without a recipe.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/magazine/fancy-bread-stale-panade-onions.html?

French Onion Panade

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019167-french-onion-panade

[asiliveandbreathe]

1. I love onion soup..not one to make it..but I will now...

Thanks for tip...and recipes....

[elleng]

2. You're welcome.

I like sourdough too, but haven't used as stated in the article!

[thbobby]

3. Stale bread is also better for French Toast

I make a kuchen bread and let it get slightly stale for French Toast.

[elleng]

4. True, but I rarely wait!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Oh, my. That seems wonderful.

In my recent foray into feeding the homeless, there is a lovely excess of bread at the shelter. So much so that I have been throwing out stale bread. But I keep on thinking that if only there were those who made serious amounts of bread pudding, we could make enough bread pudding to feed the entire city.

[procon]

6. Well, I never had a name for that dish because I never thought to cook it as a

separate recipe. I make up my own mixture of stale bread, caramelized onions, and usually add sausage, ham, or whatever leftover meat I have on hand, and then throw in some chard, spinach or kale, but then I stuff the whole thing into a big squash. Very filling meal.

There's lots of squash varieties to choose from here in So Cal, and I'll pick a Kabocha, they come in many colors. The Calabaza, a big Acorn squash or a Pumpkin are good choices, but don't use the sweeter Pie Pumpkins. The Hubbard, Turban squash, and the Red Kuri Squash are very nice too, although they are harder to find in my area.

Now I'm thinking I'll have to try making a panade sans the squash.