Just Make One Giant Crouton
I don’t know who invented croutons, but they made them. Putting a bunch of bread on top of a bunch of raw vegetables not only makes that bunch of plant material tastier and more interesting in terms of texture, it also cuts down on bread waste, since the best croutons are made with stale bread.
Some people cut their bread to make croutons, and some people tear it up (to increase the amount of texture variation). And then there’s the method favored by cookbook author Ali Slagle , which makes one large toast and breaks it into bite-sized pieces (for even more variety in texture). From Food52 :
Eli cooks croutons in a pan with large slices of fried toast , then cuts them into pieces. This frees us from the inevitable smaller crumbs that will smolder before the rest, and gives us a new paradigm for toast: crispy edges, yes, but also warm, fluffy centers.
Realizing this wisdom, I decided to bake my own large crouton using a three-cheese semolina loaf that caught my eye at the grocery store. Ali fries his bread in olive oil, which is never a bad idea, but I decided to use bacon grease because it tastes good and spreads like a dream right out of the fridge.
I cut off a loaf of bread one inch thick and brushed each side, edge to edge, with plenty of fat, then toasted it in a cast iron skillet for a couple of minutes on each side until it was dark. golden brown with a few charred spots. I removed it from the pan, let it cool for a minute, and then tore the toasted bread into rough pieces.
The croutons were very tasty, as were most dishes fried in bacon fat. I think they would be right at home on a cobb salad. They were really crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside as promised; using stale would give them a bit more chewiness.
You can make a giant toast out of any bread you like, though I recommend choosing something with a fluffy or chewy inside rather than bread with brownie insides. The choice of deep-frying fat is also up to you, but it’s hard to go wrong with bacon fat.