We were watching Molto Mario the other day and he was adamant about breadcrumbs. He said to never use the blue can crumbs and you should always make your own.
Hmm, is Michael Chirarello the spokesperson for the blue breadcrumb company? Found that comment to be interesting, although that show was probably recorded long before Michael's deal.
I must admit fresh are better. The recipe I used last week, for the parmesan pork cutlets, called for homemade breadcrumbs made out of French bread. They were amazingly good and I don't think I will go back to the canned either.
Although, I also like to use Panko, which makes a nice, crispy coating as well.
I'd say for purist cooks like Mario, he'd probably rather take a bullet than use 'store-bought breadcrumbs' but I notice some of the other chefs use them on occasion.
I use both. I buy a lot of Italian bread, buns and rolls and, if I don't use them all, I tear them into pieces, throw them onto a cookie sheet and stick it in my oven. The heat from the pilot light (yes, I have a reeeeally old stove) dries the bread out. I either put the pieces in a ziplog bag and bang away at it with a rolling pin or put it in my mini food processor to make finer crumbs. I love using homemade coarse crumbs mixed with melted butter to top my homemade mac and cheese.
There's no question that canned breadcrumbs are fine in recipes but if you go through the trouble to make fresh bread crumbs, they are a whole new ingredient and very delicious.
I make a whole loaf at a time, bag and freeze them.
Every once in a while, I run out and have to resort to the canned stuff.
Everyone can tell the difference.
There's no question that canned breadcrumbs are fine in recipes but if you go through the trouble to make fresh bread crumbs, they are a whole new ingredient and very delicious.
I make a whole loaf at a time, bag and freeze them.
Every once in a while, I run out and have to resort to the canned stuff.
Everyone can tell the difference.
I agree, Clove. You can definitely tell the difference. I'm hooked on the fresh! Even made them for meatballs the other night and what a difference. The meatballs were light and very tasty.
So dumb question......do you make fresh bread and use what goes stale? Any seasonings or just process the dried bread?
I normally buy fresh Italian or French bread. That goes stale so quickly that it's what I usually use to make mine but any bread is okay. I'm not fond of the 'marshmallow loaf' (i.e. stuff like Wonder bread) but it's okay if that's all you have. I buy fresh rye bread occasionally and that also makes good homemade crumbs but I'm careful to label it as such because they can't be used for everything. I don't add any seasonings to mine until I actually use them.
So as not to confuse you, there are two types of crumbs; fresh and dried. For fresh, just take your fresh bread and either use the large holes on a box grater or whirl it in your food processor to make coarse crumbs. For the dry, just dry your bread out first and proceed to crumb them either way.
We have a few day-old bakeries in the area and you can get good bread and rolls for a song. You can buy a whole truckload of it for just a few dollars so it's a lot cheaper than buying the stuff in the cans.
I used fresh French bread for the cutlet recipe and they were fabulous. I don't necessarily think you have to use day old bread. Maybe it depends on what you are making and the recipe.
of it for just a few dollars so it's a lot cheaper than buying the stuff in the cans. 
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