I've made breadcrumbs a handful of times in the past, but never on a regular basis. However, I've had many missed breadcrumb opportunities as I've thrown away more crusts of bread than I'd like to admit. In an attempt to stop tossing perfectly good food, I've been trying to reinvent ingredients and last night, I made meatballs as a way to avoid waste.
The meatballs became dinner because I had a pound of local, grass-fed ground beef in the freezer and a big hunk of two week old bread (really good bread from Philly's Metropolitan Bakery) that needed to be used up. I also managed to salvage some aging green onions and the last two inches of a log of goat cheese in the process.
I always forget how easy it is to make breadcrumbs and how homemade ones enhance any food you pair them with. They gave the meatballs an appealing lightness while also allowing the exteriors to get nicely crunchy, creating a fantastic textural pairing. They're also wonderfully simple to make. My instructions are after the jump and the step-by-step pictures are in the gallery below.
How to make breadcrumbs
1. Slice bread into chunks. If you're using presliced bread, skip to step #2.
2. Gently toast bread.
3. Allow bread to cool completely (this is important. Using still-warm bread with lead to clumpy breadcrumbs).
4. Process in batches in a food processor or blender
5. Use any way you'd like
6. Store leftovers in jar or ziptop bag. They'll keep for several days in the fridge or even longer in the freezer.
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