Food Waste - Bread

I really do not like wasting food.  I think it stems from the fact that during my childhood both my Nan and my mum never wasted anything and my Nan was expert at making something out of nothing in any event when it came to food.  Even the peelings were boiled up and put with the bran to make mash for the chicken's evening meal of a winter with fresh supplies of cabbage and other veggie stems stalks and leaves. There were sometimes some odd combinations but a meal was to be had and generally a good one. I think this stemmed from the war years when it was an offence to waste food and for which you could be prosecuted.  My Nan was one of the NAAFI Cooks at RAF Fiskerton and later a school cook at the village school.  Nan and Pop always grew their own veg and had the apples and fruit and the pigs and chickens and then the wild fruits from the hedgerow and I believe that this is where it has stemmed from for me i.e. good practices and husbandry being practiced within the family and me learning by example from the knee.  Something could always be done if you got your act together and dealt with it there and then.

I am lucky I have been well versed in practices that I possibly take for granted but which other people do not necessarily know about (I apologise for trying to teach you to suck eggs if you do).  

Take Bread for example.  Great store is made of the corn and grain harvests the grains are one of our staples and there is an optimum time for getting that grain in and hence time is of the essence. The grain is then milled and turned into flour, and then goes on to the bakers where the bread with either machinery or muscle power is turned into your daily loaf. Why then do we waste bread and not get the maximum we can out of it.  Apart from sandwiches and pack ups, toast etc. etc.  What do you do with that part of the loaf that is still good eating but probably not for what its original purpose was.  Is it disposed of into the black bin unnecessarily or do you turn it into something useful and get your monies worth out of it.

What can you do with that bit of bread that to all intents and purposes is not much cop.  Well you could turn it into breadcrumbs pop them into a freezer bag flat packing them and store them in the freezer.  You can pop the slices into a baking tin and pop on the floor of the oven and then when you have the cooker on the heat will turn it golden brown.  You can then whizz up in your food processor or blender to make fine crumbs do not process too finely.  You can now because they have been heated through store on the pantry shelf in jars and then you have some breadcrumbs for making your own stuffings which you can also make from the fresh crumbs as well. They will keep for about three months in this way sometimes longer but I like to keep things moving and we are fond of stuffings as a side and a  "stuffer" for a meal.  Stuffing shows a regular appearance at our table.  If you make your own stuffings and dry your own sage you have the basics for making your own stuffing for next to nothing rather than pay out for the proverbial packet of stuffing from the supermarket.  So ultimately you are going to save and become more frugal with what you do and do not buy.

From fresh you can turn them into bread sauce and freeze down.  You can make bread and butter pudding - not just plain you can add alcohol and other various flavours to a basic bread and butter pudding you can add tinned fruit like tinned mandarin oranges and a little Grand Marnier - you do not have to use dried fruit.  You could make a chocolate and pear version.  A lot of the time its about getting used to a basic recipe and then trying different combinations of flavours with that basic recipe.  You can make brown bread ice cream and a host of other puddings.  The bread and butter pudding can also be served in its original recipe but pop some stewed fruit/bottled fruit on the side such as plums or apple puree or slices.

This just not go for just your average loaf remains if there are croissants left over or other breads you can use these in similar ways. It always feels to me rather good that you can use something up like this and provide for your table something that you were not necessarily expecting to all intents and  purposes.

At the end of the day the only thing that should be disposed of is the wrapping  - and my Nan used to use that as well!

So what do you do to make sure you use your daily bread goes that little bit further.  Its one of those things I believe we should all do.

Pattypan

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