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Bread Croutons for Soups
Cut four slices of bread into exceedingly small dice-shaped pieces. Thoroughly heat in a small frying pan one tablespoon clarified butter, drop in the bread and gently fry until of a nice golden colour. Remove; drain well, and use as required for soups, etc.
A one-pan garnish that depends almost entirely on the state of the bread and the steadiness of the heat.
- Clarified butterThe clarification is the point: whole butter's milk solids scorch long before the dice are golden. Melt butter gently, skim the foam and pour off the clear fat, leaving the milky residue behind, or use ghee.
- Which breadA close-crumbed white loaf a day or two old cuts into clean cubes; fresh bread tears and soaks up fat. Trim the crusts if you want them uniform.
- Size"Exceedingly small dice" is not defined in the recipe; something around 1/4 inch is a reasonable reading, small enough to sit on a spoon with the soup. Cut them all the same size or the small ones burn while the large ones stay pale.
- Heat and fatOne tablespoon is a thin film, so the pan must be moderate and the croutons kept moving almost constantly. They will usually colour in a few minutes, and can go from golden to burnt very quickly after that, so watch them.
- DrainingTurn them straight onto paper or a rack in a single layer. Piled in a bowl they steam themselves soft.
- Yield and keepingFour slices give a couple of cups or so, depending on the loaf -- enough to garnish several bowls. Cooled completely, they will keep for a few days in a tin, and can be crisped again in a 350F oven for a few minutes.
- Oven methodFor larger quantities, toss the dice with melted clarified butter and bake at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice. The colour is more even than in a skillet, though slightly less rich.
Croutons belong to the long European habit of putting bread into soup rather than beside it, older by centuries than the crisp little cubes we now recognise: sops, panades and bread-thickened potages all preceded them, and the French crouton is simply a diminutive of croûte, crust. By the time this book was compiled, the fried dice had become a fixed part of professional garnishing, the standard accompaniment to purée soups and consommés, where the bread's job is to give a smooth soup something to bite.