Home › Soups Without Stock › Pulled Bread
Pulled Bread
Remove crusts from a long loaf of freshly baked water bread. Pull the bread apart until the pieces are the desired size and length, which is best accomplished by using two three-tined forks. Cook in a slow oven until delicately browned and thoroughly dried. A baker's French loaf may be used for pulled bread if home-made is not at hand. Egg Balls I Yolks 2" hard-boiled" eggs Few grains cayenne 1/8 teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon melted butter Rub yolks through sieve, add seasonings, and moisten with raw egg yolk to make of consistency to handle. Shape in small balls, roll in flour, and sauté in butter. Serve in Brown Soup Stock, Consommé, or Mock Turtle Soup.
Pulled bread is an accompaniment rather than a dish: torn shards of crumb dried in a cool oven until they are crisp all the way through. The whole thing turns on the oven being slow enough to dry rather than toast.
- Slow ovenRead this as roughly 300F, or lower if your oven runs hot. The aim is to drive out moisture slowly; anything brisker colors the outside while the center stays soft and the pieces go leathery as they cool.
- Water breadA lean white loaf made with water rather than milk, with little fat or sugar. A plain baguette or Italian loaf is the closest supermarket equivalent; the recipe itself allows a baker's French loaf if home-made is not at hand.
- Freshly baked mattersDay-old bread tears into crumbs instead of ragged strips. The loaf should be cool enough to handle but still soft inside.
- Two forksThe recipe specifies three-tined forks, but any two forks work; the point is to pull the crumb apart along its grain so each piece keeps a rough, open surface rather than being cut smooth.
- SizeAim for pieces roughly finger-length and a finger thick. Much smaller and they dry to hard splinters; much larger and the interior will not dry through at a low temperature.
- Yield and keepingOne long loaf gives several servings alongside soup. Once completely cold it will keep for some days in an airtight tin, and can be refreshed in a low oven if it softens.
- Egg ballsThe second recipe here calls for the sieved yolks of two hard-boiled eggs with salt, cayenne and melted butter, bound with a raw yolk, shaped small, floured and fried in butter, then served in brown soup stock, consomme, or mock turtle soup.
Pulled bread belongs to the nineteenth-century soup course, where a dry, crisp accompaniment was preferred to buttered bread because it would not cloud a clear consomme or soften into the bowl. It sits here among the garnishes and adjuncts of the soup chapter, in company with the egg balls that follow it, intended to give a thin soup some texture without competing with it. The technique depends on a particular kind of loaf: a lean, water-based white bread with a crumb that tears into shards. The recipe allows a baker's French loaf instead if home-made is not at hand.