Do you eat the "ends" of a loaf of bread? Just a fun one...

[ABC123]

Nope, that's what kids are for.  My 2 year old doesn't know the difference.  Even my 8 year old doesn't care.  The 10 year old is just starting to have opinions about that sort of thing.  Hey, I buy the bread, the least they can do is eat the less premium parts, right?

[acepedro45]

An old friend once described her dad as "the kind of guy who'd eat the ends of the bread so no one else would have to...but then would get mad that no one appreciated his sacrifice."

In her house, this breakfast was jokingly known as "Martyr's Toast."

[MissNancyPryor]

We would always call them the knerscht, pronounced ka-nersht.  Very German.  I don't see any reference to that anywhere else on the inter webs though.  I eat them. 

I do know I would never eat anything called 'tamponade' though.  urp. 

[Gail2000]

Perfect for grilled cheese or tomato sandwich, otherwise I make them into breadcrumbs. For the store bought breads...there is something about them. It needs a celebrity endorser or something to make it trendy. Lobster used to be a poor man’s food why not bread ends.

[Imma]

We would always call them the knerscht, pronounced ka-nersht.  Very German.  I don't see any reference to that anywhere else on the inter webs though.  I eat them. 

I do know I would never eat anything called 'tamponade' though.  urp.

I haven't heard that one before! Could be related to the verb knirschen (to crunch) ?

[MissNancyPryor]

That makes perfect sense, I bet so.  In my mind it shall now always be that!  Thank you!

[E16sean]

The best part of the loaf. Toasted with crunchy peanut butter. When I was a kid we used to fight over the crust.

[Christof]

We would always call them the knerscht, pronounced ka-nersht.  Very German.  I don't see any reference to that anywhere else on the inter webs though.  I eat them.

I haven't heard that one before! Could be related to the verb knirschen (to crunch) ?

Or an older form of kniest, used in the norther part of German, or knerzla, which middle to south western Germany. Knerscht ist how you would pronounce knirscht in the southwest of Germany which had lots of emigrants to the US a 150 years or more ago.

[MissNancyPryor]

That has to be it, my spelling is off.  How fun to know the origins now!

[Warlord1986]

I do. I'm not rich enough to throw away good food.

[nick663]

Nope.  We have a suet style bird feeder and I put the heels of the loaf in there for them.

[Dicey]

I used to save them in the freezer and use them for bread pudding. Yummy. Since FIRE, I have switched to Dave's Killer Bread for my husband's work lunches. After trying seemingly all of their varieties, I only buy the green or the yellow bag flavors (21 Seed and ???). I buy them at Costco for $4/loaf or occasionally at Grocery Outlet for $3/loaf. It is the best bread and I love, love, love the heels. They are thick cut and make great toast. So delicious. It's the only bread I ever remember looking forward to finishing so I could eat the crusts.

[norajean]

i thought we were all supposed to be on low carb diets these days.

[cloudsail]

Carrot top pesto is really delicious. I buy carrots from Whole Foods specifically so that they'd come with the tops.

[lutorm]

I don't buy sliced bread, but the ends on baguettes are the most delicious -- the more crust the better.

Btw, in Swedish they are referred to as the "kant" (literally "edge"). It's pronounced like you're insulting someone in English. ;-)

[Raeon]

An old friend once described her dad as "the kind of guy who'd eat the ends of the bread so no one else would have to...but then would get mad that no one appreciated his sacrifice."

In her house, this breakfast was jokingly known as "Martyr's Toast."

Haha, Martyr's Toast, that's great. 

I'm a bit of a snob after having all the access to free bread I could want for over a decade (ex- bread delivery man). I not only won't eat the heel, but I will avoid the first slice in from the heels until I have no other choice. Even that first slice after the heel is a little tougher than the middle. 
One alternative use I haven't seen mentioned here yet is throwing a couple little pieces off the heel into a bag/jar of brown sugar.  The little bit of moisture left in that dry heel keeps your brown sugar soft for months!

[TartanTallulah]

Nope, that's what kids are for.  My 2 year old doesn't know the difference.  Even my 8 year old doesn't care.  The 10 year old is just starting to have opinions about that sort of thing.  Hey, I buy the bread, the least they can do is eat the less premium parts, right?

When I was a child my parents trained me to believe that I preferred the ends of the (cheap shop-bought) bread to the proper slices in the middle. And that the hard crusts from the ends of each slice of Scottish "plain" loaves were my favourite part. "Crusts make your hair curly," they said, to their very straight-haired child in an era when curls were fashionable. It's stayed with me for life; the "endy-bits" of the loaf are always left for me and I still choose bread that can't be eaten without a good set of working teeth.

I also eat apple cores and haven't had cyanide poisoning or a tree growing out of my ears yet. Not carrot tops, though. And I'm now pleased that my hair stayed straight despite all those crusts.

[mspym]

I like the heels, toasted. Their rigidity copes better with holding eggs and other toppings. The boys hate them except when I turn all the saved up ends into croutons, at which point they will eat their own body weight in the things.

[zolotiyeruki]

I eat the heels because I don't mind them. If make a sandwich with the crust part of the heel turned inside, my kids usually won't even notice.

Hey, I do this too! It looks and tastes the same, honest!

[cloudsail]

Carrot top pesto on the heel of a home made loaf. Soooo good. No expensive pine nuts involved!

[Christof]

I add chopped carrot tops to tomato sauce for pasta with a bit of garlic and an onion. Without meat that is an really inexpensive meal around here, even when everything is organic.

[Clever Name]

If it's bread from an actual bakery I do, because the crust on that kind of bread is usually delicious. If it's one of those loaves you find on the shelf of Walmart in plastic wrap then I don't, because the crust on that bread is gross.

[Dicey]

If it's bread from an actual bakery I do, because the crust on that kind of bread is usually delicious. If it's one of those loaves you find on the shelf of Walmart in plastic wrap then I don't, because the crust on that bread is gross.

What are these loaves you speak of, and where is this W place?

[Rubyvroom]

I don't eat the butts. I make my husband eat the butts. Every once and a while at the end of a loaf, when I need to open a new bag of bread, he gets a sandwich made with two butts and rolls his eyes at me. He doesn't complain too much, because I made him a sandwich :D

[Imma]

That has to be it, my spelling is off.  How fun to know the origins now!

This is what I love about this place, that people know so much about all kinds of random things! From a topic about eating bread I've now learned something about historic German. And how wonderful is it that this tiny random bit of German heritage has survived until today!

[GreenToTheCore]

Carrot top pesto on the heel of a home made loaf. Soooo good. No expensive pine nuts involved!

Looks great @cloudsail! Mind sharing the recipe?

[cloudsail]

Carrot top pesto on the heel of a home made loaf. Soooo good. No expensive pine nuts involved!

Looks great @cloudsail! Mind sharing the recipe?

https://www.forkintheroad.co/carrot-top-pesto/

I started with something similar to this recipe, but omitted the pine nuts and added a vinaigrette. I've also seen recipes that use lemon juice and that sounds good too.

[Lmoot]

Only bread I typically eat are baguettes. I will usually eat the ends with butter, dipped in coffee, to soften, or buttered and toasted with a bit of parsley garlic salt with a side salad (I just pretend they are crunchy breadsticks).

[felixbf]

Asking because in our household, I am the only one who will eat the loaf ends of store-bought bread loaves. SO won't and neither will the 3 kids...it's my superpower I guess

To me, they eat just like any other piece of bread. What am I missing? They are still good for sandwiches, with peanut butter, etc.

Also, surprisingly, there is a Hot Debate about what people around the world call the loaf ends...some of my favorites: doorstep(?!), bumper, healie, bum.

Pro trick.
Toast the two bread ends.
Add jam or peanut butter
yum yum
Bread ends make the best toast.

[Arbitrage]

Yes.  DW used to open up a new loaf of bread and immediately toss the heels right in the trash.  She and the kids won't eat them, but I will.  I typically will toast them and eat with peanut butter. 

[Lmoot]

Yes.  DW used to open up a new loaf of bread and immediately toss the heels right in the trash.  She and the kids won't eat them, but I will.  I typically will toast them and eat with peanut butter.

Even if you don't like to eat them, they shouldn't be tossed out because they help keep the bread from going stale.

[talltexan]

Asking because in our household, I am the only one who will eat the loaf ends of store-bought bread loaves. SO won't and neither will the 3 kids...it's my superpower I guess

To me, they eat just like any other piece of bread. What am I missing? They are still good for sandwiches, with peanut butter, etc.

Also, surprisingly, there is a Hot Debate about what people around the world call the loaf ends...some of my favorites: doorstep(?!), bumper, healie, bum.

This is basically my position in our household. Everyone else thinks I'm a freak, but they're not complaining about not having to deal with the end of the loaf.

[ecchastang]

All this talk of bread loaf ends is making me crave toast with strawberry preserves.....On the ends, of course!

[PoutineLover]

Luckily my partner loves the crust so he will eat them if I don't want them. If I end up eating them, I'll just make a sandwich and turn them inside out so it looks like a regular piece of bread, somehow it tastes better that way. But I hardly ever buy loaves of bread anyway, so it's rarely an issue. If it's a baguette, I don't mind the ends at all.

[talltexan]

Turning the ends inside out on a sandwich? Genius!

[Jeblers]

The dollar or two "fresh made" bread at the grocery store will rarely have the ends of the loaf eaten in our house. The thick cut Sourdough at the local bakery will always have the ends eaten.

There are times in my life where fresh, homemade bread toasted with butter is my favorite snack in the world.

[GuitarStv]

Fresh bread, I usually cut the ends off and eat them with butter while the bread is cooling.  I find store bought artificial loaf bread ends to be pretty foul . . . but eat them because they're there.

[teen persuasion]

DH knows to leave the heels for me - I prefer the ends of homemade bread, or banana bread.  Standard sandwich bread heels are great for toast, but not so much for sandwiches (because they are usually too thin and smaller to boot).  If we were having hot dogs, and were short a hot dog bun, I'll happily roll a heel around a hot dog instead.

I've seen recommendations to use a round cookie cutter to cut circles out of two heels to make a kiddie size "hamburger bun" for little ones who'd never finish a big bun.

I also like using sandwich bread heels for French toast - they aren't as spongy as the rest of the sandwich bread, so they don't soak up the egg mix too fast and get too soggy.

[Morning Glory]

Growing up we are the heel whenever it came up, so the first and last sandwich would have one heel and one not-heel. DH grew up saving the heel to last, so the last sandwich would have 2 heels. We have gotten into fights over this. Now I make most of our bread anyway so we just cut off what we are going to use.

[MatthewK]

Asking because in our household, I am the only one who will eat the loaf ends of store-bought bread loaves. SO won't and neither will the 3 kids...it's my superpower I guess

To me, they eat just like any other piece of bread. What am I missing? They are still good for sandwiches, with peanut butter, etc.

Also, surprisingly, there is a Hot Debate about what people around the world call the loaf ends...some of my favorites: doorstep(?!), bumper, healie, bum.

Haha, that's exactly how it is in our house. DW won't and either will our 3 kids...I don't mind them and I hate to waste sooooo

[Monerexia]

They're usually together when I finish a loaf of bread so meh guess that's what's next.

[AnnaGrowsAMustache]

OP, tally it up for us - percentage of end-eaters vs non-enders?

[talltexan]

The only proper Mustachian position--making use of resources that others dismiss for dumb reasons--is to eat loaf-ends. Cure yourselves of tiny details exaggeration syndrome and join me, turning them inside-out if you must!

[cloudsail]

I made croutons yesterday from leftover bread and it was AWESOME! Super quick and easy too. I now want to save all our bread ends to made them.

[FI45RE]

OP, tally it up for us - percentage of end-eaters vs non-enders?

I tried after I saw your comment, but turns out it's pretty nuanced. Not many people said plainly "Yes" or "No," it was more of a "my kids won't, but I do" or "I won't, but my SO does." type thing. Not sure how to quantify some of the answers. Seems like, generally, there were more "Yes" answers, though, if I'm ball-parking it.

[Just Joe]

My daughter likes the heels of the bread, and I don't mind if one half of my sandwich is the heel.

My son eats whole apples, core and all. It's a little disconcerting.

I heard of a kid that liked to eat onions like that. The whole darn thing...

[onehair]

I eat them..bread is bread to me especially for toast.

[Clever Name]

The only proper Mustachian position--making use of resources that others dismiss for dumb reasons--is to eat loaf-ends. Cure yourselves of tiny details exaggeration syndrome and join me, turning them inside-out if you must!

How do you turn a slice of bread inside-out?

[FI45RE]

The only proper Mustachian position--making use of resources that others dismiss for dumb reasons--is to eat loaf-ends. Cure yourselves of tiny details exaggeration syndrome and join me, turning them inside-out if you must!

How do you turn a slice of bread inside-out?

Flip it over?

[BussoV6]

If the bread is half-decent, put some basil pesto on it, some thinly-sliced mozarella cheese and some black olives. Place under a grill until cheese is bubbly. Yum.