Anna Zakharova

Experienced housewives know that cutlets, fish and other products in breadcrumbs turn out very tasty. The golden crispy crust and juicy tender filling will not leave anyone indifferent. But sometimes you don’t have breadcrumbs on hand. Because of this, you should not cancel the preparation of delicious chicken or vegetables with a crust. Every housewife should know how to make breadcrumbs at home.

Bought crumbs will never compare to homemade crackers. Plus, you don't have to throw away stale bread. Making breadcrumbs doesn't require much effort and doesn't take much time.

Crackers from a loaf

From the French "breading" means "sprinkle with bread crumbs". You don’t have to buy breadcrumbs; you can make them at home if you have some leftover loaf. This is not only economical, but also useful - you will be confident in the quality of the product.

How can you make breadcrumbs from a loaf?

Dry it in the oven or microwave. Do not overcook, after 5-7 minutes you can take it out. You won't be able to grind a dry loaf by hand, so you'll need a blender. Then pour the crushed crackers obtained from the loaf into a container or a special box prepared in advance.

If you don't have a blender, use another method. Finely chop the loaf into a plate and dry in the microwave or oven for no more than 5 minutes. They need to be stirred every minute to prevent them from burning.

The pieces should not be too hard, because you will need to crumble them. If you know how to make breadcrumbs in the microwave, you will be able to please your family with delicious dishes with a crispy crust at any time.

Rye crumbs

Brown bread crumbs give cutlets and nuggets a piquant taste. They can be alternated with white ones to diversify the taste of dishes.

How to make breadcrumbs from bread?

It's not difficult at all:

• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees;
• Place bread slices on baking sheet in a single layer;
• Dry them for 10 minutes, and then turn them over to the other side and keep in the oven for another 10 minutes;
• Grind the bread in a blender and pour the crackers into a bowl.

If you have a food processor, it won't be difficult for you to figure out how to make breadcrumbs at home.

Place the pieces in a food processor and grind to desired consistency. To improve the taste, you can add a little olive oil, salt or garlic. Basil gives a special aroma. Fry over high heat for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.

The taste and aroma of crackers is greatly influenced by the type of bread. Rye crumbs have a richer taste. You can mix black and white bread.

For fish and meat, use a coarse grind, but for chicken fillet and vegetables, it is better to use fine crumbs. Breading is used for frying and requires quite a lot of oil. To make food healthier, after cooking, place the cutlets and nuggets on a paper napkin - it will absorb excess fat.

Dishes with a crispy crust are best eaten immediately. No matter how skillfully you cook, after a while it will stop crunching. If you don't have a blender or food processor, you can put the pieces of bread through a meat grinder. To create a very fine crumb, press the twisted bread through a strainer.

Sometimes housewives complain that crackers have a stale smell. You can avoid this problem if you cook the bread correctly. When you have already bought a new loaf, do not put the remaining bread in the bread bin and, especially, do not wrap it in a bag. It must be cut into pieces and placed on a baking sheet. Place it in a place where it will not disturb you: in the microwave, on the table, or put it in a cabinet. Cover with gauze - then dust will not settle. The pieces dry quickly, and after a few days there will be enough of them to make crackers.

Breadcrumbs are an important component when frying cutlets, cheese sticks, fish, chops and much more. But there are times when they are simply not at hand, and it is not possible to purchase them in a store. What to do in such cases? Today we will learn how to replace breadcrumbs when there are none.

Basic breading replacement products

Housewives most often use the following products as a substitute for breadcrumbs:

• flour of any kind (rye, wheat, corn, buckwheat);
• semolina;
• saltine cracker;
• cereal flakes, such as rolled oats;
• bread crumb.

To use saltine crackers or cereal flakes as a breading, you simply grind them in a blender. Also, if there is no flour, but you have buckwheat, you can dry the grains in a dry hot frying pan and then grind them in a coffee grinder. You will get buckwheat flour. For savory dishes, you should try crushed walnut kernels, or even better, almonds.

Bread crumb is another affordable option to replace bread crumbs. You just need to freeze it and then grate it. The result will be a worthy and no less tasty replacement.

Ordinary crushed crackers (we are talking about snacks) will also work, but such a breading will crumble faster, and you won’t be able to achieve the same crispy crust that happens with breaded ones.

Breading the cutlets

How to replace breadcrumbs for making cutlets? The best option in the case of cutlets is semolina. It is also good for breading meatballs. However, given the color of the cereal, the end result will be an unappetizing color of the cutlets - white. The way out of this situation is to add a small amount of turmeric. It will give the crust of meat products a golden color, moreover, with this seasoning the dish will taste more pleasant.

But semolina for cutlets instead of breadcrumbs is not the only good substitute. Saltine crackers or chips that need to be crushed into powder will do. Depending on the food flavoring used in the manufacture of these products, cutlets and meatballs will also acquire an interesting taste.

Do you have hard cheese at home, such as Parmesan? This can be considered great luck! Unless, of course, this product is on your list of favorites. The cheese needs to be grated, mixed with finely chopped herbs, then you need to roll the prepared cutlets or meatballs in the resulting mixture and fry on both sides.

For chops, you can also use all of the above products as a breading. But bran goes best with it - many housewives recommend just such a replacement, since in the end the meat turns out much tastier.

Chops can also be cooked in batter, which requires eggs and flour. It will be very unusual if you use sesame seeds instead of breadcrumbs. With it the dish will be incredibly tasty. If all these products are also not on hand, all that remains is to grate the pre-frozen bread crumb.

Alternative breading for cooking fish

How to replace breadcrumbs when cooking fish if you don’t have time to go to the store again? You can use eggs and flour for batter, as in the case of meat. Fish sticks in cheese batter are very tasty. In addition, housewives advise using various cereals, in particular corn and semolina. Shredded rolled oats are perfect for those who are watching their figure.

Good breading for cheese sticks instead of breadcrumbs

For cheese sticks, the best option would be frozen bread crumb, grated. The result is a delicious and original appetizer for the main courses. Crushed crackers and chips go well with cheese, as well as flour and cereal flakes.

To summarize, the best substitute for breadcrumbs is frozen bread crumbs, grated. Also, many housewives note an unusual taste when using semolina and bran. If you wish, you can make your own breadcrumbs. It's very easy to make them. But, as was written above, crushed store-bought crackers stick a little worse and do not hold the crust well, so it is better to make homemade ones. And now we will learn how to make breadcrumbs at home - it might come in handy.

So, you need to take bread (can be stale), cut it into pieces and place it on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and place the product in it to dry. At this temperature you will need to wait no more than 15-20 minutes. When the slices become dry, take them out and let them cool.

If you don't have an oven, you can use a microwave oven. It will be a little more difficult to prepare crackers in it, since there is a possibility of the bread burning. It will take about 7 minutes in total, but every couple of minutes you need to turn off the microwave and stir the crackers. This is important for even drying.

Ready-made crackers can be ground using a blender or coffee grinder. It's better to make small pieces (small cubes) initially to avoid putting too much strain on the blender, which could cause the device to break. A coffee grinder will cope with this task with a bang. It is necessary to obtain grains with a diameter of about 1.5 mm. In this case, you won’t need to wonder what to use instead of breadcrumbs, because you will get a worthy replacement for the store-bought option. It is believed that smaller grains take up a lot of moisture from the product, while larger grains do not hold their shape well and spread throughout the pan.

If there are no such electrical devices in the house, you can grate the crackers or put them in a bag, then roll them with a rolling pin until fine crumbs are obtained.

It is important to ensure optimal storage conditions for prepared breadcrumbs. It is advisable to pour the product into a glass or plastic container that closes tightly. Store in a dark, dry place away from fresh bread for no more than a month.

For a real housewife, the lack of store-bought breadcrumbs will not be a big problem. Although it is an essential kitchen staple and is often needed in cooking, there are plenty of other options for replacing breadcrumbs. And now we know about all of them!

Every person who knows how to cook knows what breadcrumbs are and where they are used. Thanks to breadcrumbs, dishes fried in them retain their juice, and, consequently, the aroma and taste of the main product. In addition, a cutlet, fish or chop, rolled in breadcrumbs before frying, is covered with a golden, crispy and very appetizing crust. Therefore, breadcrumbs are not just a ground piece, they are a full-fledged culinary product, the quality of which determines the taste of dishes prepared with it.

Basically, most housewives buy breadcrumbs in stores, but often manufacturers of this product use bad bread for breadcrumbs. In order to hide the obscene quality, all kinds of spices are added to them, which clog the smell of the main product. Also, purchased crackers may turn out to be raw. Therefore, the best solution is to do it yourself. After all, you probably have pieces of bread left in the house that no one will eat anymore, but you don’t dare throw it away. These are the ones that can be perfectly used as future breadcrumbs. You can choose the recipe for crackers yourself from what is offered here.

Here's the simplest recipe: take the leftover bread, cut it into small pieces and put it in the oven to dry out a little. After the crackers have cooled, grind them with a blender. If you don’t have a blender, you can grate them, grind them in a meat grinder, or put them in a plastic bag and roll them out well with a rolling pin. You can also add lightly roasted walnuts to the breadcrumbs: for half a kilogram of dried white bread, take 100 grams of nuts and grind them all together. How to make breadcrumbs another way? You can also freeze the crumb of white bread, and then, again, grate it.

But it is not only used for breading; therefore, if there are pieces of rye leftover, they are also suitable for making breadcrumbs. The recipe is this: remove the crust, cut the crumb into small cubes and put in the oven until completely dry (or wait a week or two until it dries but does not become moldy). Before grinding dried bread, add some peeled raw pumpkin seeds to it (for 1 kg of already stale bread - 150 g of seeds). Grind the bread and add two tablespoons of ground dried garlic and one tablespoon of poppy seeds to the mixture. Mix everything together and your breading mixture is ready. This breading is perfect for fairly fatty meats and poultry (duck, goose, etc.).

Oatmeal breadcrumbs are ideal for oily fish. The recipe for these crackers does not require bread. You will need 1 kilogram of ground pre-dried in the oven, 2 tablespoons of turmeric (preferably Indian) and 100 grams of sesame seeds. Mix all these components, and you can fry the fattiest fish.

Now you know how to make breadcrumbs, you will no longer need to buy God knows what from the store. After all, you can grind them yourself for future use, and if you keep them in a tightly closed jar and not a bag, the crackers will retain their properties for a very long time and will always be at hand.

If you still don’t have crackers and don’t have time to go to the store, here are some tips on what you can use to replace them. The most common "substitute" for breadcrumbs is flour. But it is best if the flour is of almost the lowest grade and fairly coarsely ground. The second replacement after flour is semolina. And after semolina comes corn flour or corn grits and even (unsweetened, of course). But you must admit, it’s still much tastier with breadcrumbs, so the easiest way is to buy a loaf of bread or loaf specifically to make breadcrumbs from it. I think you’ve already chosen the recipe for yourself, so whether it’s rye bread or wheat is up to you to decide, and adding spices to the crackers or not is a matter of taste.

Many housewives use breadcrumbs almost every day when preparing various dishes. For example, when cooking or even simple. Breading is used for frying meat and fish dishes, and is also used in the preparation of some confectionery products. Breadcrumbs provide the shape of finished dishes, such as cutlets. In addition, products fried in breading look much more attractive in appearance - they acquire an appetizing golden brown crust.

Of course, you can buy ready-made breadcrumbs at any grocery store, but in order to use a truly fresh product when cooking, we’ll learn how to make delicious breadcrumbs at home.

Ingredients:

• rye or white bread, preferably one or two days old.

You can use additional ingredients (to your taste):

• dried garlic;
• food poppy;
• chopped nuts (eg walnuts).

Preparation

Cut the bread into narrow slices, trim off all the crusts and place the resulting pieces of bread on a dry baking sheet. Place a baking sheet with sliced ​​bread in the oven. The oven temperature should be medium. The bread is kept in the cupboard until the slices are thoroughly dried and have a slightly golden color.

How to make delicious crackers?

After the bread has cooled, add the desired ingredients (nuts, poppy seeds or dried garlic) if desired.

You can grind the crackers in a blender or pass through a meat grinder, or crush them in a mortar and pestle. Perhaps, placing the dried slices in a linen bag, mash them using a rolling pin or a culinary hammer.

It is better to store the resulting breadcrumbs in a glass jar in a dry place. We recommend not to cook breadcrumbs for a long time, since during long-term storage this product loses its pleasant bready taste and aroma.

Now you know how to make breadcrumbs yourself.

Breadcrumbs– dry bread crumbs made by grinding pre-dried white or black bread (see photo). The ingredients of this product are usually flour (wheat or rye), salt, yeast (dry or pressed) and water.

Breadcrumbs come in three types: medium, fine and coarse. However, in cooking, the first option is most often used. This product is used for breading foods during frying. This allows you to maintain the juiciness of the dish, as well as provide it with a crispy golden crust.

In addition to the classic breading mixture, there are colored crackers. They usually contain natural food colors, thanks to which today you can find on sale not only the familiar pale yellow crumbs, but also bright orange, lemon, emerald and dark pink.

Japanese panko breadcrumbs are highly prized in the culinary world. This mixture has a richer and airier texture. Otogi, a Korean bread bread, is also popular. For its preparation, the highest grade of wheat flour is used.

How to select and store?

It is recommended to take the choice of high-quality breadcrumbs very seriously, since some manufacturers make them from moldy bread and various preservatives, which increase the shelf life of the product. First of all, buy breading exclusively from trusted manufacturers. Also, to choose good crackers, inspect them externally. The mixture should be homogeneous, equal in size, without unnecessary impurities.

In the table below we describe in detail the technical requirements that, according to the current GOST, breadcrumbs must meet.

Natural bread coatings typically have a shelf life of thirty days if stored in a dark, cool place.

It is better to use a tightly closed glass jar or plastic container as a container for storing the breading mixture. Keep in mind that this product will quickly deteriorate in unsealed containers. It absorbs moisture and also loses its aroma due to foreign odors.

How to do it at home?

Despite the fact that special grinding equipment is used to produce ground crackers, this bread mixture can also be made at home using a regular blender. There are many ways to prepare this product with your own hands. It can be cooked in the microwave, slow cooker, in a regular frying pan and in the oven. We suggest using the last option and making breading using an oven.

First of all, take the required amount of bread. In this case, you can even take a loaf. Cut it into small slices, place on a dry baking sheet and place in an oven preheated to one hundred and eighty degrees. Dry the bread until it is completely dry and crispy. This usually takes no more than ten minutes. After this, place the dry bread slices into a blender bowl and grind until smooth crumbs are obtained. You can also grind the bread manually using a regular rolling pin, but in this case it is better to first place the dried product in a fabric bag. This way the crumbs will not scatter all over the kitchen, but will gather in one common pile. It is recommended to immediately place homemade fried crackers in an airtight container and put them in a convenient place for further storage.

Note! The breadcrumb mixture should never be frozen. Otherwise, it will become limp and unusable.

Use in cooking

In cooking, ground bread mixture is usually used for breading vegetable, fish and meat ingredients. With its help, it is easy to give the desired shape to the product, as well as maintain its juiciness. When fried, dishes sprinkled with breadcrumbs are covered with a crispy crust of an appetizing golden color. Thanks to this shell, the food does not burn and easily comes off the pan.

Most often, the following dishes are breaded in such breadcrumbs:

• cutlets;
• liver;
• fish;
• fresh caviar;
• baking and much more.

Some cooks add bread breading directly to minced cutlets instead of soaked bread.

There are recipes in which the breading mixture is used as a topping for the filling, for example, when making charlotte or apple strudel. This product can also be found in some curd desserts.

Despite the versatility of ground crackers, they are absolutely incompatible with some foods, for example, cauliflower and dishes such as rump steak.

What can you replace breadcrumbs with?

Surely most housewives wondered what ingredient could adequately replace delicious breadcrumbs, because there are times when this product is not at home, and there is nowhere to buy it. There is more than one alternative to ground breadcrumbs.

• First of all, the ideal replacement for such breading is stale bread. All that needs to be done with it before use is to dry it well and grind it to the desired state. The resulting product is excellent for frying and baking.
• If you don’t have bread, we recommend using wholemeal flour. As a breading, it is well suited for cutlets and fish. In this case, you can use both wheat flour and rye, oat or corn flour.
• To get a more elastic crust, it is better to use semolina. Using it you can prepare all dishes that require frying.

You can also bread the culinary product in any flakes, and it is not necessary to grind them before use. This original breading gives dishes an unusual taste and aroma. In addition, the flakes go perfectly with baked goods, which means that you can even make the filling for apple strudel with them.

As an experiment, instead of breading, you can use crushed nuts, chips, dry cookies, as well as crackers and corn sticks.

Obviously, an experienced cook will always find a worthy alternative to ground breadcrumbs, so don’t worry if you run out of them during the cooking process.

Breadcrumbs are a very popular product in cooking, even though they have a fairly high calorie content!