Bread Soup

Ingredients

• 450 g bread crusts
• 60 g butter
• 1000 ml common stock
• salt

Method

This is a bread thickener masquerading as a soup — the crust breaks down into the stock and emulsifies with the butter to create body and richness from what would otherwise be waste. Start by tearing the crusts into pieces roughly the size of walnuts; uneven sizes mean they'll hydrate at different rates, which actually helps here because the smaller fragments dissolve into a slurry whilst the larger ones maintain some structure.

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over a medium flame, then add the bread crusts. Stir constantly for two to three minutes — this initial dry cook toasts the bread slightly and lets the butter coat it evenly. The crust will smell biscuited and faintly caramelised. Pour in the cold stock all at once. The temperature drop is deliberate; it prevents the stock from boiling aggressively before the bread begins its breakdown. Bring the pot to a rolling boil over a medium-high heat.

Once boiling, the bread will begin to fragment almost immediately. Continue stirring every thirty seconds or so with a wooden spoon, pressing the larger pieces against the side of the pot. This isn't gentle — you want the crust to surrender its starches and gluten into the liquid, thickening it through disintegration rather than through a separate roux or beurre manié. The mixture will thicken noticeably within five to eight minutes as the bread releases its starch and the proteins denature, creating a pottage consistency. The surface should steam vigorously, and the bread pieces should have mostly dissolved into the broth, leaving only fine, suspended particles that catch the light.

When the mixture no longer shows visible bread chunks — a minute or two past the point where it starts to look uniform and creamy — reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Taste immediately and season with salt. A good bread soup should taste of the stock's foundation with a subtle toasted grain note; if the bread has come to dominate, your crusts were too fresh or your stock too weak. The soup thickens further as it cools. Serve hot, whilst it still steams, in wide bowls.