I never really thought much about bread crumbs. Great for breading meat or veggies and making foods crisp —but that’s about it. Until recently, when I read about bread making since the 1500s and realized there is a story behind bread crumbs.

As some of the first cookbooks were written in the 1500s, we find bread crumbs mentioned in all kinds of recipes. They were used to thicken stews, soups, and sauces, breading meat, used in bread and cake doughs and even pizza crust. 

At that time, cookbooks reflected the fine cooking for the rich, who were used to white bread. And white bread apparently wasn’t white enough when the crust got golden or brown. Part of baking bread at that time was to chip or rasp the crust off bread and rolls while they were still hot to ensure the outside was as white as the inside. Crust was considered hard to digest and chipping and rasping off the crust was therefore considered making bread “healthier.” 

As a result of all of this chipping and rasping, cooks had a lot of bread crumbs on their hands. Fortunately, they found creative and delicious ways to use them and we took it to the next level with dishes such as breaded chicken, casseroles, eggplant parmigiana, and all those breaded deep fried appetizers, such as zucchini, shrimp, and even cheese sticks.  

I wonder if today’s cutting off the crust from toasted sandwich bread has its origin in such an aristocratic past.