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Bread Crusts Toasted for Soup
Toast bread crusts in front of a small fire, and on a wire toaster. When brown on both sides, cut the bread into very small dice before serving. Untoasted bread swells, and is likely to spoil the appearance of the soup. Crusts for toasted cheese are pulled, in rough pieces, from a fresh loaf, and then browned in the oven or in front of a fire.
This is a croûton in its plainest form — crusts dried hard before they meet the liquid. The whole point is in the second half of the entry: bread that has not been dried through will swell and turn the soup cloudy.
- Toast first, cut afterThe entry gives no reason, but browning the crust whole and dicing afterwards should give cleaner-edged cubes than dicing first.
- Instead of the open fireSpread the crusts on a baking sheet in a 350–375F oven for 10–15 minutes, turning once, until dry and pale brown all the way through. A broiler colours the surface but leaves the interior soft, which is exactly the failure the recipe warns against.
- "Brown on both sides" means dry, not just colouredBreak one open. If the centre is still bready it will absorb stock and swell. Properly dried crusts stay distinct in the bowl for several minutes.
- Bread to useA firm white loaf, a day or two old, cuts into neat dice; fresh soft sandwich bread compresses under the knife. The entry calls for crusts alone; if your loaf's crust is too thin to dice, cut from crust and crumb together.
- Quantity and servingNo yield is given, and the recipe says only that the dice are cut before serving. Roughly 1/4-inch dice suits the 'very small dice' called for; about a thick slice per person is a workable modern guess.
- Keeping themFully dried crusts keep a week in a tin. Any residual moisture will bring on mustiness, so cool them completely before covering.
- The toasted-cheese noteA second, separate instruction: crusts torn in rough pieces from a fresh loaf, then browned in the oven or before the fire. A moderate oven (around 375F) until browned will do.
Drying bread for soup is one of the oldest economies in the European kitchen — stale ends were never thrown away, turning up as sippets, croûtons, panada and thickening for sauces. The entry reflects a kitchen where the toasting was done at the open range on a wire toaster, which in some forms was a hinged frame held to the coals. The distinction it draws between cut dice for soup and pulled pieces for toasted cheese may be a practical one about surface — smooth faces resist liquid, torn ones grip melted fat — though the entry itself does not say so.