What can you cook with the breading mixture? How to replace breadcrumbs when frying and baking. Use of breading in cooking

Recently, due to a number of family circumstances, there has been very little time for cooking. And I want to eat delicious food!!! Thanks to this, I once again discovered such a simple way of preparing various dishes as breaded frying. Of course, eating fried food every day is not very healthy, but sometimes it saves you. At the same time, breaded dishes retain their juiciness and turn out very tasty.

Ingredients for breading:

breadcrumbs

Use of breading in cooking:

The essence of using breading is very simple. Any product can be taken: meat, poultry, fish. vegetables, seafood. Maintain at room temperature. And then they are fried in breading. I've been buying chilled food a lot lately. Of course, they are easy to prepare using this method.

Breading in semolina:

There are small children at home, so I always have semolina. It’s delicious to bread vegetables in semolina. To do this, just beat the egg. Dip vegetables in egg, roll in semolina and fry over medium heat in vegetable oil.

Breading in flour:

You can bread everything in flour. Plus, you can add cutlets to the listed products. The technology is just as simple. Dip the product in beaten egg, roll in flour and fry. In the case of flour, you can double bread it, it’s tastier. First, roll the desired dish in flour, then dip in the egg. And roll in flour again. Then move on to frying.

Alternatively, you can take not ordinary flour, but flour for making pancakes. This flour contains milk powder and egg powder. And from such a breading it turns out to be full-fledged.

Breadcrumb coating:

This is my favorite type of breading. Its only downside is that the crackers run out quickly, which is why I often use the methods listed above. In this case, take flour, egg and breadcrumbs. The product is first rolled in flour, then dipped in beaten egg, then rolled in. And onto the frying pan.

You can also use double breading in breadcrumbs. To do this, after rolling your dish in breadcrumbs for the first time, dip it in the egg again and roll it in breadcrumbs again.

And one more little secret that I’ve been using lately. After frying, I put my dish on a napkin so that it absorbs the remaining vegetable oil. This way, it turns out to maintain a crispy crust and reduce the amount of vegetable oil in the final product. Bon appetit!!!

This is nothing more than rye or white wheat bread, dried and ground into fine crumbs. They are used for various culinary purposes. Using them you can create a dense crispy crust on vegetables, cutlets, schnitzels and other products. The crust creates a pleasant taste, an appetizing golden color, helps maintain the shape of the fried product, and retains moisture inside it.

Thanks to breading, fried meat dishes turn out juicy on the inside. You can bread products with ordinary flour, but compared to breading with breadcrumbs, flour is not able to create such a piquant, crispy shell on the product.

The word “breading” translated from French means “sprinkling with bread crumbs.”

Sometimes, to prepare various pies and strudels, it is necessary to sprinkle the crust under the filling with breadcrumbs. Rusks absorb excess moisture from berries and fruits, and the filling will not leak out during baking.

The disadvantage of breading from breadcrumbs is that when frying it is prone to burning, and if the product has a smooth surface, it is unlikely that it will be possible to coat it properly and ensure a good seal. Therefore, you should use such breading only when it is stated in the recipe.

Recipe Information

Type of dish: flour products
Cooking method: in the oven
25 min

Making your own breadcrumbs at home is not at all difficult. This culinary additive belongs to budget recipes. You can use not only fresh pieces of bread, loaves or rolls, but also stale bakery products that were left uneaten after the feast.

Ingredients:

White bread.

Preparation

Cut the bread into small cubes along with the crust. Keep in mind that the taste of crackers directly depends on the type of bread. A richer crumb taste is obtained from rye crackers. Sometimes cooks mix dark and white bread for breading.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment. Place the sliced bread on a baking sheet in one layer. Preheat the oven to 190-200 degrees. Place the bread in the oven for 10-20 minutes until golden brown. Check periodically and stir so that the crackers brown evenly.

If you don’t have an oven, you can dry the crackers in the microwave. But keep in mind that you cannot keep pieces of bread in it for a long time, otherwise they will burn. Depending on the amount of product, drying in the microwave takes an average of 5-7 minutes. Every 2 minutes you need to pause, open the microwave and stir the bread cubes so that they dry evenly. Do not spread the bread pieces in a thick layer, and then they will dry well.

Press the cubes with your finger to check the quality of drying. Absolutely dry bread is hard, but the wet inside bends when pressed with a finger. Cool the finished dried bread.

Grind the bread cubes in a blender or food processor to the desired crumb size. You can grind it very finely or not very much. Professionals recommend using coarse grinding for meat and fish products, and fine crumbs for vegetables. The most optimal is considered to be grits with a diameter of approximately 1.5 mm. It has been noticed that larger crumbs do not hold their shape very well and spread throughout the pan, while too small crumbs strongly absorb the moisture of the product, making the dish dry.

If you don’t have kitchen appliances, it doesn’t matter; you can crumble the crackers using a rolling pin or a glass bottle. In this case, it will be more convenient to put the crackers in a linen bag, tie it, put it on a cutting board, and then press the bag with a rolling pin or bottle. You can also tap the bag with a mallet. Thanks to the bag, the crumbs will not fly away in different directions. As an option, you can pass the pieces of bread through a meat grinder with a fine mesh. The crumbs will be finer if you rub the crushed dry bread through an iron sieve.

That's all, the dry bread crumbs are ready. Use as intended.

Now cook by applying breading.

The breading should be stored in a cool, dry place, away from fresh bread, in an airtight plastic or glass container. If the packaging is “breathable”, the breading can absorb moisture and odors from the surrounding air.

Do not store homemade breadcrumbs for more than a month, otherwise they may acquire a stale taste and unappetizing smell.

If you purchased the breading in a store, pay attention to the expiration date indicated on the product packaging.

On a note

How can you replace breadcrumbs if they are not available, but you want a dish with a crispy crust? Coarse rye or corn flour, semolina, oatmeal or corn flakes crushed in a coffee grinder are perfect for this purpose. A great idea is to use crushed crackers or chips. They can be crushed in a mortar, or placed on a cutting board and rolled over them with a rolling pin. The breading of hard cheese, grated on a fine grater and mixed with your favorite spices, is very tasty.

Breadcrumbs have a higher calorie content than flour breading. Their energy value is close to 400 Kcal/100g. Keep this in mind if you need to strictly count the calories of the food you eat. In addition, when frying a product, bread crumbs absorb a lot of fat, the calorie content of which is also very high. Therefore, it is recommended to place fried foods on a paper napkin, which will absorb excess oil.

Industrial breadcrumbs must be manufactured in accordance with GOST, taking into account established technology and sanitary standards. For the production of breading, bread (bakery products) of 1st or 2nd grade, without signs of mold or potato disease, can be used. The grains should have a light golden or light brown color, be uniform in size, and without any foreign smell or taste. Ensure the integrity of the packaging. It must indicate the expiration date of the product, which is usually 1 month. To avoid troubles, it is better to purchase the product from a trusted manufacturer.

The longer you store breaded cutlets, fish or vegetables, the less crunchy the crust will be on the surface of the product.

Useful video

If you have a couple of minutes to spare, you can watch this story. Here we also talk about preparing the breading.

If you find an error, please highlight a piece of text and click Ctrl+Enter.

Breadcrumbs are used to give cutlets, fish and other dishes an appetizing crust. It makes them more tasty and attractive in appearance. It seems that without breading, dishes will not be the same. However, it is not uncommon for breadcrumbs to disappear not only from the kitchen cupboard, but also from all nearby stores. So what should I do? You just need to find a suitable replacement for them.

First you need to understand what breadcrumbs are. In its simplest form, it is wheat bread. Only it is pre-dried to the state of a cracker, and then crushed into crumbs.

That's all! Often, to make life easier for the housewife, manufacturers add various seasonings, salt and seeds to the breading mixture. Usually the packaging contains information about the composition and what is recommended to be breaded in it.

Thus, it is obvious that with a little effort you can prepare such a mixture yourself. And if you don’t have time for this, you can, after reflection, find a suitable replacement for it. But first things first.

Method one - cook it yourself

To prepare, you need to take wheat bread or a loaf. It's best if it's from yesterday. Cut into small cubes. Sprinkle with vegetable oil on all sides. You can pre-mix it with chopped garlic, salt and dried herbs to taste. Fry in the oven at +180°C until crispy.

Then cool and grind, turning through a meat grinder. You can also grate it or grind it with a blender using the butterfly attachment in the “pulse” mode.

It is important to make crumbs from the crackers, and not turn them into a homogeneous mass. This is, of course, the most “correct” replacement option. But it takes time. By the way, you can make breadcrumbs this way for future use.

Method two - bread, flour and semolina

If you’re pressed for time or it’s not possible to run to the store to buy everything you need, you can simply choose an option from those available in the kitchen:

Of course, any stale bread will do. You just need to grind it to the desired state.
You can chop it into small crumbs with a knife, grate it or use a blender. These breadcrumbs are suitable for both frying and baking.
No bread? No problem. Can be replaced with flour. Moreover, it is desirable that it be coarsely ground. This breading is suitable for fish or cutlets. It is recommended to dip them in an egg first. You can use absolutely any flour: wheat, corn, chickpeas, oatmeal, etc.
For a thicker crust, it is recommended to use semolina. It is suitable for almost any dish that requires frying. At the same time, the taste is more delicate than with breadcrumbs. Many housewives prefer semolina to breadcrumbs. The same can be said about corn grits, which is great for breading fish and meat dishes.

Method three - original

Dishes breaded in flakes are no less tasty. They can be pre-chopped, although this is not necessary. Any ones found in the kitchen cabinet will do. They will give the dish not only a special taste, but also an aroma. In addition, they can replace breadcrumbs in baking (for example, when preparing strudel filling).

At worst, you can use crushed nuts. They are suitable for breading fish, meat and poultry. Of course, they can be added to baked goods (however, you should not add walnuts to the dough, as they contain a lot of oil). The result will be a very original and flavorful crust.

Those who are not afraid of experiments can use chips, corn sticks, saltine crackers and even dry cookies instead of crackers. They just need to be crushed first, and the original breading is ready. You can even make a batter from eggs, grated cheese and herbs. True, the latter option is more suitable for breading vegetables.

Obviously, the housewife can always find something to replace breadcrumbs from existing kitchen products.

Therefore, there is no need to worry that they may end at the most inopportune moment. You can always come up with an alternative to store-bought crackers, and no less tasty.

The golden brown crust on a flavorful cutlet or juicy chop appears as a result of the skillful actions of the cook. Breading of products before frying plays the role of a protective “blanket”, preserving all the best qualities of the semi-finished product. You can bread not only meat or fish: vegetables, cheese and pieces of fruit, rolled in breadcrumbs or flour, present the world with a new dish with an unexpected flavor range.

What types of breadings are there?

Breading is the culinary processing of meat, fish, and vegetable pieces before frying, rolling them in flour or breadcrumbs or other bulk products. The word "breading" is of French origin, from "paner", literally translated - to sprinkle with bread crumbs. Breading is needed in order to preserve the juiciness of the main product, to give it a new look, aroma, and taste.

Most often, breadcrumbs are used for this type of processing, which are used not only for frying cutlets and other products, but also for some confectionery products, for example, strudel. Breadcrumbs are made from dry white bread, crushed to fine crumbs.

The second most common breading is wheat, buckwheat, millet, corn, rice flour and mixtures thereof. Dishes in such a flour “coat” turn out to be more tender, do not have a hard outer crust, the flour does not interrupt the main taste of the product, it only complements it correctly.

There is a whole range of original breadings that radically change the taste and appearance of familiar dishes. For example, any nuts crushed in a coffee grinder will not only add a new flavor, but also add calories and nutrition to the dish. Carrot, potato or zucchini shavings will also serve as an external decoration for cutlets or boiled cauliflower. To do this, grate the vegetables on a coarse grater and lightly dry them in the oven. This breading will stick well if the cutlets are first dipped in egg wash.

Sesame breading gives oriental charm and unique aroma to pieces of fruit (bananas, apples, pears), meat and fish. Buckwheat, rice, and oatmeal flakes carefully wrap the food in a beautiful lace veil. To do this, you need to roll pieces of meat or fish, cutlets or chicken in flour, dip into the egg and only then into the cereal.

Semolina - tender breading. Chicken meat, seafood, boiled white or cauliflower leaves, breaded with semolina, acquire a unique taste. First, pieces of food are rolled in flour, then in egg or vegetable oil, semolina is sprinkled on top in a very thin stream so that an even coating is formed on the surface of the semi-finished product, without mounds or compactions. After frying, you will get a light crispy crust.

Crackers or chips, crushed into crumbs, can radically change the taste of banal cutlets or meatballs. Cheese breading will add piquancy to the dish: grate the cheese on a fine or coarse grater and roll the food in these shavings. Finely chopped greens can be a spring outfit for pieces of meat, fish or chicken. If you add your favorite spices or oriental seasonings to any of the listed breadings, the dish will sparkle with new facets of taste. There is always a place for experimentation in the kitchen, and a variety of breadings can help with this.

How to bread food correctly

In order for the breading to lie evenly, carefully enveloping the pieces, you need to know a few culinary secrets. Most often, the dish is breaded using egg scramble, the so-called lezon, a mixture of milk and eggs. Sometimes only eggs are used for lezon, without milk, cream or kefir. This is only suitable for those products that have high surface humidity and excess liquid will make it difficult to form a golden brown crust during frying.

Liezon is needed to bind the breading to the main product and promote its good adhesion. The best ratio of eggs and milk is this: for two eggs - fifty milliliters of milk. You can beat only the yolks alone, the dish will turn a sunny color, or only the whites - meat, fish or cutlets will become tender, and aristocracy will appear.

First, the prepared pieces of fish, meat, chicken, and vegetables must be blotted with a napkin; if the product is too wet, add salt and pepper, and leave for a while to soak in the spices. Then roll in flour, shaking off excess, dip in egg lezone, transfer to a container with breading. After all the preliminary preparations, place the breaded pieces in a hot frying pan with vegetable oil and quickly fry on both sides over high heat.

To get a thicker crust, use double or even triple breading. After the product has gone through the usual breading procedure, it is again dipped into the egg wash and again rolled in breadcrumbs, flour or other types of toppings. This is how, for example, chicken Kiev is prepared.

The final appearance and taste of the prepared dish depends on what breading the cook chooses. It’s enough to experiment with a variety of breadings to get a new unexpected effect from your usual dishes every time.

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I think I mentioned before that Food Lab by Kenji Lopez-Alta is one of my favorite cookbooks of recent times. It’s thick—I’ve been reading it for years now, and I’ll probably finish it by the time Kenji releases his second book—and very informative: it’s not a collection of recipes, but a manual written in simple and understandable language for those who have already mastered the basics of cooking and wants to understand it at the advanced user level. The other day Kenji posted an excerpt from the book in his column on the Serious Eats website, and I decided to translate it for you.

Why do you need batter?

Have you ever deep-fried skinless, unbreaded chicken breasts? I strongly recommend not to do this. The moment the chicken enters a container of oil heated to 200 degrees, two things begin to happen. First, the water contained in the meat quickly turns into steam, escaping like a geyser, and the outer tissues of the chicken become dry.

At the same time, the soft network of interconnected proteins in its muscle tissue denatures and hardens, making the meat tough and squeezing out the juices. Take it out a minute or two later and you'll find it has become tough, with a layer of dried out meat half a centimeter deep. At this point, you will quite rightly say: “Yes, I would rather use batter.”

How to prepare batter or breading

The batter is made by combining flour—usually wheat, although cornstarch and rice flour are also used—with a liquid and optional ingredients to thicken or hold the dough better, such as eggs or baking powder. The batter envelops the food in a thick, viscous layer. Breading consists of many layers. Typically, products are first rolled in flour to make their surface dry and uneven, and then the second layer - the liquid binder - will stick as it should. This layer usually consists of beaten eggs or some kind of dairy product. The final layer gives the food texture. It may consist of ground grains (flour or corn grits, which is commonly used to bread chicken), ground nuts, or a mixture of toasted and ground bread and similar products such as crackers, crackers, or breakfast cereals.

No matter what your breading or batter is made of, they still serve the same function: to add a “protective layer” to the product that the oil will not easily penetrate during frying, so it will take most of the heat. All the thermal energy that is transferred to the food must pass through a thick coating riddled with microscopic air bubbles. Just as a layer of air in the walls of your home mitigates the effects of cold air outside, batters and breadings help the food hidden underneath them cook more delicately and evenly, without burning or drying out under the influence of hot oil.

What does batter do during frying?

Of course, while foods are cooked slowly and delicately, the exact opposite happens with batters or breadings: they dry out and become harder. Frying is essentially a drying process. The batter is designed to dry in a particularly pleasant way. Instead of burning or turning to rubber, it turns into a crispy, dense foam filled with lots of air bubbles that provides both flavor and texture.

Breading works in a similar way, but unlike foamy batter, it has a brittle, crunchy texture. The dimples and bumps of a good breadcrumb increase the surface area of the product, giving us more crunch in every bite. In an ideal world, the batter or breading becomes perfectly crispy while the food underneath, be it onion rings or a piece of fish, is cooked to perfection. Achieving this balance is the mark of a good cook.

5 types of batter and breading: pros and cons

Flour breading

How to make breading from flour: Pieces of food soaked in brine or marinade (whey is often used for this) are rolled in flour with spices and fried.
Behind: Properly prepared, the flour coating turns into a very crispy, dark brown crust.
Against: It gets dirty (by the end of frying, your fingers will be breaded too). Oil spoils very quickly.
Classic recipes: Southern Fried Chicken, Breaded Schnitzel
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Breaded breadcrumbs

How to make breadcrumbs: The products are rolled in flour, dipped in beaten egg, and then rolled in breadcrumbs.
Behind: Very easy to prepare, although you will need a few vessels. The result is a very crispy, firm, dense crust that goes well with sauces.
Against: Breadcrumbs sometimes taste too strong, which overpowers the flavor of the food itself. Regular crackers soften quite quickly. Oil spoils relatively quickly.
Classic recipes: Parmesan-breaded chicken, breaded schnitzel.
Crispness level (from 1 to 10): 5

Panko breadcrumb coating

How to make panko breadcrumbs: As with regular breadcrumbs, the food is dredged in flour, then beaten egg, then panko breadcrumbs.
Behind: Panko bread crumbs have a very large surface area, which creates an incredibly crispy crust.
Against: Sometimes panko breadcrumbs can be hard to find. A thick crust means the food underneath must have a strong flavor.
Classic recipes: Tonkatsu are Japanese pork or chicken chops.
Crispness level (from 1 to 10): 9

Beer batter

How to make beer batter: Flour and spices (and sometimes baking powder) are mixed with beer (and sometimes eggs) to create a thick batter similar to pancake batter. Beer helps achieve a golden color, and its bubbles make the batter lighter. Beer-battered foods can be additionally dredged in flour for extra crunch.
Behind: Great taste. Beer batter is thick and therefore protects delicate foods such as fish well. Easy to prepare, does not separate after mixing. Without additional breading in flour it spoils very slowly.
Against: Doesn't give the same crunch as other batters. You need quite a lot of ingredients. Once you prepare the batter, you need to use it quickly. Without additional breading in flour, the crust will quickly soften. If you bread it in flour, the butter will spoil quickly.
Classic recipes:, onion rings.
Crispness level (from 1 to 10): 5

Thin tempura batter

How to make tempura batter: A high-starch, low-protein flour (such as a mixture of wheat flour and cornstarch) is combined with ice water (sometimes soda water) or an egg and stirred quickly, leaving lumps in the batter. Immediately after this, the products are dipped in batter and immediately fried.
Behind: Very crispy batter, large surface area contributes to the formation of crispy pieces. Due to the low protein content, the batter does not fry as much and does not hide the taste of more delicate foods, such as shrimp or vegetables. Oil deteriorates relatively slowly.
Against: It is difficult to prepare the batter correctly (it is easy to over- or under-beat). Prepared tempura batter should be used immediately.
Classic recipes:, Korean fried chicken.