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Bread Croutons for Entremets
Cut some slices of bread half an inch thick, removing all curst, and cut the crumb into inch and a half triangular pieces, trim off the angles and fry to a golden color in butter.
A garnish component rather than a dish in itself: fried bread shapes used to border or support an entremets. The instructions are terse, and the two things that decide success are the bread and the heat of the butter.
- "Entremets"In Oscar's era the entremets was the course between the roast and the dessert, covering both vegetable dishes and sweet ones. Croutons like these were set around the edge of the platter or used as a base under creamed vegetables, eggs or sweetbreads.
- "Curst" is a typo for crustRemove all crust, then cut the crumb. The recipe does not say what kind of loaf; a firm, close-crumbed white bread will hold its shape in the pan, where an airy modern sandwich loaf tends to collapse.
- Stale bread fries betterThe recipe does not specify, but day-old bread is the usual choice: it holds its shape, where very fresh bread tends to soak up fat and go greasy rather than crisp.
- Trimming the anglesThe recipe does not say why the corners are trimmed. Blunted tips give a neater, more even edge, and thin points colour faster than the flat faces.
- Butter will brown before the bread doesWhole butter's milk solids begin to brown and burn at around 300-350F, close to or below frying temperature. Use clarified butter, or half butter and half a neutral oil, and keep the pan at a steady medium heat so the crumb colors through in a minute or two per side.
- Work in batchesCrowding the pan drops the temperature and the bread absorbs fat instead of crisping. Fry in a single uncrowded layer and drain briefly on paper.
- Yield and timingYield depends entirely on the size of the loaf, which the recipe does not give; count on several triangles per slice and figure two or three per serving as a garnish. Fry them shortly before serving, as they soften as they sit.
Fried bread garnishes are one of the oldest habits in French professional cooking, and the classical repertoire distinguished dozens of shapes: croûtes in rounds, hearts, triangles and dice, used variously with eggs, sauced meats, vegetable entremets and soups. By the time Oscar Tschirky was maître d'hôtel at the Waldorf in the 1890s and 1900s the crouton was chiefly decorative, a way of framing a soft dish so it held its place on a platter carried through a long service. That this appears as its own entry, rather than folded into the dishes that use it, reflects how the book was built: as a working reference for a brigade, where a garnish written once could be cross-referenced from a hundred recipes.