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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Green Living / Thrifty Tips for Using Bread Crusts

Thrifty Tips for Using Bread Crusts

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • How Much are You Wasting Tossing The Crusts?
  • 7 Ways to Use Up Bread Crusts

Delicious, frugal tips for using up bread crusts that save money in the food budget with nothing going to waste.

healthy bread crusts stacked on a white plate

Do you find yourself wasting bread crusts time and again? While this might have been an affordable (albeit wasteful) practice in years past, food inflation is causing many people to rethink the practice.

Certainly, tossing unused crusts is not a very frugal strategy considering the high price of a quality loaf of bread these days. 

A quality loaf of real sourdough bread (this is the brand I buy) or sprouted bread without added gluten or soy is going to set you back somewhere between 6-10 US$ in my area of the country.

Why don’t I make my own bread? No doubt, this is certainly the thriftiest way to go!

I used to make bread for my family for many years when there weren’t any quality traditional brands on the market. This is the no-knead sourdough recipe I used.

I even made my own sourdough starter!

These days, I allow myself the luxury of having it baked fresh and delivered to my house instead.

We don’t eat a lot of bread, so this works for the food budget. It also helps me with managing stress, as I spend SO MUCH time in the kitchen making things from scratch.

I focus my time in the kitchen making quality foods that cannot be purchased like bone broth, liver pate, homemade soups, fermented vegetables, fruits, and drinks, and healthy snacks.

How Much are You Wasting Tossing The Crusts?

There are 14 slices of sourdough bread in each loaf I buy including the crusts. This breaks down to 43 cents each.

There are typically 2-3 bread crusts per loaf.

This translates to about $1.20 for each loaf that goes unused!

We average about 1-2 loaves per week for our family. This breaks down to just over a slice per day per person. We don’t eat a ton of bread generally speaking. My husband doesn’t eat any bread.

This means that roughly $2 per week gets wasted. That’s over $100 per year.

This amount of money is not going to make too much of a difference to anyone’s bank account. However, it’s nothing to sneeze at either.

When my daughter was younger, she liked to feed the crusts to the ducks behind our house.

However, I tried to also make a practice of teaching them how to waste nothing (including the crusts which they didn’t prefer) and still come up with excellent tasting dishes to boot.

7 Ways to Use Up Bread Crusts

Here are a few ideas for using bread crusts in the kitchen. Some of these are recipes from my Grandmother who raised a family during the Great Depression.

  • French Toast Casserole – This dish is super yummy and your kids will have no idea they are eating bread crusts.
  • Bread and Butter Pudding –  This is a Depression Generation type of dish. It tastes so great that you really should be making it even if your budget can handle more expensive treats!
  • Homemade Sourdough Breadcrumbs – I hope you are not buying commercial breadcrumbs from the store! It is an easy task to learn how to make breadcrumbs at home. Just dry the crusts out on the counter or in a dehydrator, tear them into pieces and pulse a few times in the food processor.  There you have it – quality breadcrumbs at a fraction of the cost with no sugar or additives! I like to use breadcrumbs or rice in my meatloaf dish, one of our family’s favorite dinners.
  • Panata (Bread Soup) – This frugal Italian dish is made by warming the previously prepared bone broth of choice on the stove (not to a boil). Then, add breadcrumbs or small pieces of bread crusts whisked together with 1-3 eggs, a handful or two of grated cheese, and a pinch of nutmeg. Warm and stir gently on the stove and add leftover vegetables if desired.  Salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.
  • Croutons – chop the crusts into small squares. Brown them in butter or ghee for a few minutes in a saucepan on medium heat. Cool and then store in a sealed container in the refrigerator. Toss a few on your salads for a healthy crunch.
  • Homemade Garlic Bread – Even though my family doesn’t care for sandwiches or toast made with crusts, they didn’t mind if I sliced the crusts diagonally and made garlic bread with them for dinner. Perhaps your crew won’t mind either!
  • Backyard Chickens – If I run out of scratch feed temporarily between monthly Azure Standard deliveries, I pulse crusts in the food processor and feed the chunky crumbs to the chickens. They love it!

How do you use bread crusts in your home? Share your tips with all of us!

unused sourdough bread crust on wooden background
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Category: Green Living, Healthy Living
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (29)

  1. Ivy Clinger via Facebook

    Sep 3, 2012 at 11:17 am

    I was going to say, “or just eat them…”

    Reply
  2. Sharon Mitas Abler via Facebook

    Sep 3, 2012 at 11:15 am

    We eat ours too

    Reply
  3. Blanche Natashka via Facebook

    Sep 3, 2012 at 11:08 am

    No leftover crusts here :0)

    Reply
  4. Kate Tietje via Facebook

    Sep 3, 2012 at 11:01 am

    We love the crusts!

    Reply
  5. Kati Stiles Carter via Facebook

    Sep 3, 2012 at 10:58 am

    My kids fight over who gets the heel, but we eat homemade.

    Reply
  6. Megan @ Purple Dancing Dahlias

    Sep 2, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    Really? 🙂 The crust is the most fought after piece in this house. Lightly toasted with lots of butter and a smear of raw honey, sprinkled with cinnamon…now I am making myself hungry, lol.

    Reply
    • Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist

      Sep 2, 2012 at 8:23 pm

      Yup. I can relate to that one. I always loved the crusts growing up and my Grandma told me that it would give me curly hair. Sure enough, my hair went curly in 4th or 5th grade for some bizarre reason. My other 6 siblings don’t have curly hair so maybe it really was the crusts!!! LOL

  7. Mrs. Mac

    Sep 2, 2012 at 5:19 pm

    My favorite is to make croutons to toss in a salad. We are short on supply of good quality bread from the bakery/market. I have been sprouting organic grains .. and dehydrating/grinding into flour for 80% of our flour needs. The other ‘white’ flour I use is turned into sourdough starter to add to our bread. I kills me to buy bread on occasion at the market.

    Reply
  8. Randall

    Sep 2, 2012 at 4:55 pm

    Croutons: coat with melted butter, garlic powder, dash of salt and herbs of your choice. Bake in a slow to medium oven until browned and crunchy. I’ve never tried adding grated parmesan cheese, but might someday.

    Reply
  9. Belinda

    Sep 2, 2012 at 4:13 pm

    Here are a few ideas for bread ends or crusty pieces of bread that I found:
    *turn them to the inside and make grilled cheese sandwiches or any thick filling that can hide the crustiness
    *put two bread ends in a blender or food processor and blend. Add some parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, perhaps a little garlic, and top a healthy casserole with the mixture (they exist right?)
    *pulse it very fine and use as a thickener in soups (kind of already mentioned)
    *make small pizza crusts topped with pesto, mozzarella, tomatoes, etc.
    *top of french onion soup
    *make stuffing
    *bruschetta
    *panzanella (bread salad)
    *keep in cookie jar to keep cookies soft
    Although I know you don’t make bread anymore I recently read your post (wished I found it 2 years ago when written) about a new way of soaking with whey, vinegar or lemon juice vs. kefier, yogurt, or buttermilk. Up until now I’ve been doing 3 cups buttermilk, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup butter, and 10 cups whole wheat for the soak. You suggested a ratio of 1 cup water + 1 TBSP whey/lemon juice to 1 cup wheat for pancakes but wondering what substitution you’d do for bread making since that seems like way too much liquid. Have NO idea how to convert my bread recipe so I’d LOVE and appreciate any thoughts. Thank you for your amazing blog! I’ve had so many questions answered and have referred so many friends as well!
    Belinda

    Reply
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