Surprisingly Practical Ways to Use up Old Bread
There鈥檚 a surprising amount of practical, household uses for old, stale bread! Here are a few of our favorites.
I鈥檝e baked my own whole-grain bread for more than 40 years (the kind food writers call 鈥渞ustic鈥). I don鈥檛 think I鈥檝e ever bought a loaf of bread
Yet store-bought white bread somehow occasionally puts in an appearance here, and I will say it serves a number of surprising household uses that don鈥檛 involve consuming it. Almost worth keeping a loaf on hand in the freezer.
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Household Uses for Stale Bread
Stale white bread works best, but feel free to experiment with other varieties.
Make a poultice. Soaking a piece of bread in hot milk is a renowned folk remedy for bringing an unripe boil or pimple to a head. Press the excess liquid from the bread, spread it over the affected area, and cover with a clean cloth. Remove when the bread poultice gets cold. Repeat as necessary.
Remove splinters and stings. Soak a piece of bread in cool milk, press out the milk, and apply the bread to the affected area, and bind it with a band-aid or a piece of duct tape for a few hours or overnight.
Prevent tears while cutting onions. Spear a piece of stale bread with your knife and slide it up to the end of the blade near the handle.The bread absorbs most of the 鈥渧apors.鈥
Collect slivers of broken glass. Reach for a chunk of soft bread after you鈥檝e swept and vacuumed the big shards of a broken glass, and use it to pat down the area to collect those tiny slivers that remain. Wear rubber gloves; dispose of the bread in the trash when you鈥檝e finished.
Clean a coffee grinder. Pinch off a three or four small pieces of stale bread, grind them up in your grinder, dump the crumbs, and wipe the inside of the grinder clean.
Clean oily fingerprints from photos. Ball up a slice of stale bread and swipe gently.
Smudges, crayon, or pencil marks from walls. In a pinch, a ball of stale bread can work. Rub gently鈥攐ne direction only.
Butter corn on the cob Spread butter on a slice of bread and rub or wrap it around the steaming hot cob. No mess, no wasted butter.
Soften brown sugar, cookies, and other baked goods. Just add a slice of bread to the sugar or baked goods and seal in a metal canister or ceramic jar.
Prevent strong cooking odors. Remove the smell (and most of the taste) from scorched food by adding a slice of bread to the pot and covering it for a few minutes. Likewise, adding a piece of bread on top of broccoli, cabbage, or other strong veggies as they steam will keep the odors from escaping into the kitchen air.
Remove grease. When cooking greasy foods, add a chunk or two of bread to the pan or boiler pan to absorb the grease.
Do you have any other uses that you鈥檇 like to share? Tell us in the comments below!
Margaret Boyles
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you forgot the #1 and best use
BREAD PUDDING
My go-to !!! Love bread pudding and only make it when I have stale bread! Always look forward to it as it's a not-to-often treat!
I read this article expecting bread putting to be the #1 use, as you suggested. I so looked forward to it when I was a child!
Please remember to feed the birds.
When I was growing up my mom and my grandma used to put the stale or not fresh bread in the bottom of the bowl of fried potatoes to soak up the grease.
I bury stale bread in my vegeatable garden, enriches the soil
Does this really enrich your soil? What kinds of bread do you use. What kind of soil do youo have. This is an amazing idea to me if it works. I live in New Mexico--have very poor, clay soil. I wonder if it would be good here.
Toast bread that does not have mold on it then turn it into bread crumbs. Another alternative is to lightly cover in seasoned melted butter, cut into cubes and toast for croutons.
The comments submitted by Sierra is what I always do with leftover bread plus throw to the burds
You can also use a slice of fresh bread in brown sugar to keep it moist. Also, if it has already hardened, it can soften it up again.
