A pantry shelf of jars, tins and bottles — bread

In the pantry · 95 uses

bread

Structure, thickener, and the reason a lot of these dishes stretch. Stale bread is not a lesser bread — it is the correct bread for anything fried, soaked, or crumbed.

dishes and drinks that need it

more where it is worth adding

86%

of those are under 30 min

The technique underneath this

Bread doughDeveloping gluten and letting fermentation do the flavor, which is mostly a matter of time rather than effort.dense · flat · gummy inside · tore during shaping · over-proofed

Handling bread

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Reviewed video for the prep and the technique this one turns up in.

What it is usually standing next to

Nothing dominates: the most common companion, eggs, appears in only 23% of them, so this is an ingredient that gets around.

Counted off required ingredients across the whole library. A companion listed here is one these dishes are built from, not one we are recommending.

If you have twenty minutes

Quickest dish · 5 min

Tahini honey toast

Butter first, then tahini, then honey in a ribbon. The butter stops the tahini soaking straight into the bread, and the salt at the end is the point.

Built on it · 83

Take it out and the dish is something else. Fastest first.

Worth adding · 12

These work without it. They work better with it.

Out of bread?Rank this against my whole shelf Open bread in the Flavor Lab Back to the pantry

Three moves. Then cook.

Start with the meal, not the database.