The Heels of Bread (the food, not the musical group)

[chas]

The heals are thrown into the freezer for short term storage until I make bread pudding or bread crumbs with them.

In full disclosure, 1950s mom often saved the butts and then made bread pudding. One of my favorite desserts then and now. Yummy

My mother also used them for either bread crumbs or pudding. I'd still use them for crumbs, except I can't leave any kind of bread product out in the air to dry out. Our junior cat has a thing for bread, as we found out when we were out for a few hours and came home to a half-dozen chewed up bagels. It's not like he was just playing with them, either, as one was at least half gone and a couple more a quarter gone. It's not just regular bread, either, we forgot and left some zucchini bread out, and he tore into that, too.

[megapop]

Out of interest, there seems to be another trans-Atlantic terminological issue at work here. We call the outside bits "crusts".

As do we - or rather, we drop the S. It's just "crust".

I always thought that "crusts" (plural), or "crusties", were something like this...



Not to be confused with "Krusty", of course...

[mutepointe]

Funny Story:

In my neighborhood where I grew up there was a dairy farm that also sold bread and sweats. We would ride our bikes to get the milk and hang the jugs from the handlebars. In those days, the jug was glass. We rarely bought bread there but one day, I was sent on a mission to get a loaf of bread. They had sandwich bread which is a slightly longer loaf of bread. When I turned the corner on my bike, the loaf of bread got caught in the spokes of the front wheel and shot out like a deck of cards. I did that twice that day and didn't have any money left over to buy a third loaf, so we did without. The visual was awesome.

[Peter Duggan]

Out of interest, there seems to be another trans-Atlantic terminological issue at work here. We call the outside bits "crusts".

Yep, and the crusts (especially the ends) of proper bread are the best bits. Most pre-packaged, pre-sliced, blotting paper/pseudo-bread doesn't have proper crusts, but not eating the whole thing still sounds as daft as leaving your baked potato skins or pie edges!

I'd never come across the term "heels" for them before.

Me neither!

[Caroluna]

6. They are a present for the dog or birds.

There is an alchemical process whereby one combines bread heels, apple cores, carrot peels, worms, bugs and dirt, then allows them to simmer inside of a hen for 24 hrs. The result is an egg.

Fowl magic indeed!

[I.D.10-t]

Frankly some people don't even know what fresh bread is or even want it.

I remember working at a sandwich shop, we just were hit by a surge of customers and for the next few hours were trying to catch up the amount of bread they had depleted. It got to the point that the bread was still warm and one could see very small wisps of steam from the bread as it was cut. As the knife cut through the crust of one loaf a customer asked if we had any fresh loaves as these too were crusty and they wanted a nice soft fresh loaf.

Many people want the day-old, soft pure white highly processed bread and some of the best breads I have eaten has been rejected because of the texture and taste were not up to the wonder bread standard. ....and if you try to make grilled cheese with it, it had better have Velveeta and not that funny cheddar or swiss stuff.

This trend seems to be changing in my area at least and even the sandwich bread comes in more options than white and wheat. Wheat surpasses white in sliced bread sales

[mutepointe]

I have 2 Panera Bread that I pass frequently enough to have good bread most of the time. Not this week though. We will be having hot dogs for lunch.

The news about wheat bread was disturbing.

[Nanohedron]

Yep, and the crusts (especially the ends) of proper bread are the best bits. Most pre-packaged, pre-sliced, blotting paper/pseudo-bread doesn't have proper crusts, but not eating the whole thing still sounds as daft as leaving your baked potato skins or pie edges!

Sometimes we save the best for last. And sometimes we (I) play with our (my) food before we (I) eat it.



That's not me (us), BTW; just a serving suggestion.

[Innocent Bystander]

In Ireland the terminology was as Nano says. The crust is the hard(-er) bit on the outside of the loaf, and the heel is the first and last slice cut, which is mostly crust. Why are you chaps so proud of having lost a useful word? Shame on yez! Nothing worse than wilful ignorance!

My partner alleges that she will make bread pudding from the heels, and consequently we have a reservoir of old heels in the freezer. This is getting embarrassing, so the more recent heels I take with me when I walk the dog, and feed the birds. Or sometimes the dog, if he's quick enough. BTW the weather here in Oldham, Lancashire, is much like Nano's picture of Minnesota. Yesterday we went down (lower altitude) to Manchester and there was not a whisper of snow. Still extremely chilly, though. Up in Strinesdale there were four-foot high drifts. Wind-chill factor is -7 degrees, according to the measurements, but it feels like more.