17 replies to this topic

[Abi]

One of the things that surprised me when I first got here was how people reacted when I tried to throw out stale, old -- even moldy-- bread. My friend Fırat gravely let me know, “That’s a sin, you know.”

Really? It wasn’t on any list that I’d ever seen before, but OK. Note to self: Throwing away stale bread is now a sin. Unfortunately, that particular rule made no sense to me. Here was a part of a loaf of bread that was clearly extremely stale (just moments away from growing mold), nobody was going to eat it, and yet I wasn’t allowed to throw it out. As with any custom in which I see no point, I semi-ignored it. That is, I used to wrap up the rock-hard old bread pieces in a plastic bag when nobody was looking and stuff it into the middle of the trashcan.

I see old bread everywhere here -- mounds of it litter the street, presumably set out for the stray cats and birds. Over the years, I have learned to embrace stale bread as a useful staple in my Turkish kitchen. Through much experimentation, I have found an almost limitless number of uses for stale bread. I’m including some of my favorite recipes for you to enjoy....
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[swabs]

Yep i know that one!!! Haluk almost had a heart attack when i first done it, he said that he and his family had never ever thrown out stale bread and we must not do it, it should be given to the birds or animals to eat!

My response to this was....'Thats fine, whenever we have stale bread then you can take it out to the animals if you so wish' On a few occasions he wouldnt do it for a while to where i had to remind him that it will go in the bin if it is not taken out.

I would have happily done it myself by breaking it up into peices and throwing it over the balcony but aparently it needs to be carefully placed somewhere for them.

Its one of those things i find strange just the same as washing up liquid bubbles not allowed to be left on plates, they must all be rinsed through otherwise aparently we will get ill!! lol xx

[Cukurbagli]

Oh dear, it looks as though I'm going straight to Hell then, well I was kind of expecting that anyway

[MutluKadin]

I'm afraid I am from the same camp. Maybe it's my frugal Austrian upbringing, but I never throw out stale bread, either. I will make French toast, croutons or grind them up for breadcrumbs to use for eggplant or whatnot.

I've always rinsed off my plates, too. I can't imagine pulling them out of soapy water and letting them dry. Wouldn't your food taste like soap?

[Aston]

I have my grannies recipe for bread pudding if any body wants it (very different to bread and butter pudding) It works really well with Turkish bread Don't forget you can always feed the ducks with stale bread

[swabs]

Oooo yes ok please send me the recipe Aston, i will give it a go and see how it turns out xx

[Aston]

I have sent you the recipe Swabs , the bread pudding should look something like this when its cooked

This is comfort food, big time

[swabs]

Oooo ill look forward to making it, but seeing as its comfort food i shant do it until after my wedding in July as struggle as it is lol!! Ill take a photo and upload it when i do xx

[Abi]

As you are not suppose to put even old bread on the ground my landlady has cut a large side ways section out of an old 9lt water bottle and fixed it to a tree. The birds are then feed by perching on the edges she cut out of the bottle..

Aston feel free to post your recipe,. I'm sure a lot of people would be interested.

[Aston]

Ok Abi here is the recipe :-

Bread Pudding

Here we go ( I have converted the amounts from pounds and ounces to grams )

Take about one pound /500grams of any stale bread
8 ounces/225g of dried fruit sultanas, raisins, currants either or a combination of all 3 - what you like really
4 ounces /125g butter/margarine - melted
4 ounces/125g demerara or brown sugar (you can use white sugar if you cannot get brown and put a bit more sugar if you have a very sweet tooth)
3 eggs or 2 big ones
Milk to mix
2 level tablespoons mixed spice
1 teaspoon nutmeg powder
Tear the bread into pieces and put in a big bowl
Pour over cold water to saturate the bread – anything between 1 and 2 pints depending on the staleness of your bread. Leave to soak for at least an hour.

When bread is totally soggy
Heat oven to Gas Mark 3 or 160 or 325
Grease a baking tin of about 9×13 inches a pyrex pie dish or a small roasting tin will do.

Then drain the water out of the bread using your hands and a sieve get as much water out as you can. ( I love the feel of the mushy bread) Mix the bread with a wooden spoon and then add enough milk to the bread to get a soft dropping consistency, but don’t let it get too wet. It only needs about 2 tbsps. Beat in the eggs and mix in the butter, sugar, spices and dried fruit. Keep back some sugar to sprinkle on the top
Pour into the greased tin and scatter with sugar
Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until firm and pulling away from the side of the tin, stick a skewer or something pointy in the middle and if it comes out clean its done. Eat it hot or cut into slabs and eat cold.

[Quinn]

In the last year, I've been lucky enough to make friends with a group of Turkish women. Being friends with them raised another food-wastage issue.

My mother taught me to never "clean my plate" when I was a guest in someone's home, because it would look like I was starving or imply that what I was served was not enough. So I tend to leave a sizeable bit on the plate. This always got a puzzled, "you aren't hungry?" Finally I told them what I wrote above, and explained that I didn't want to be rude. They seemed very surprised that eating all the food would be considered rude (and I actually see their point!) And so now I happily eat without regard to the "leave something" rule. Back visiting my family (they live over 1,000 miles away and I only see them once or twice a year), I noticed that everyone left something on their plate and my sister looked at me quizzically when I "cleaned" mine. I wonder if anyone else here was taught the same thing? Many people on the board are British and my mom was half English. Her cooking was learned from her mom and was very English fare, and it was English nursery songs she sung to us that none of my friends' moms knew (Four-and-twenty blackbirds . . . ) Even though she was raised in the States, she couldn't bring herself to say "glass" the American way, lol. So I'm wondering if this was a English-ism about plate cleaning. Or maybe it was just her own strange thing.

[sunny]

I was always taught to clear my plate. The trouble with that here is that if you do you get offered/given, more and more food!
I don't think it's a big issue though as I've seen Turkish people leave food on their plate without anyone commenting or strange looks. I rarely eat sweet stuff as I don't like it so I only eat a small amount and leave the rest.
I think it will depend on where you live and the people you visit. The ones around here are all middle class professional people.

[Abi]

I can only say what happened within my family. I was never allowed to leave the table until everything had been eaten.

[Quinn]

Okay, thanks for the reality check!

[Cukurbagli]

In the years during the second world war and for fifteen years afterwards food in UK was not as abundant as it is now. Food rationing was in force in UK until 1954 and there were campaigns to minimise waste so parents made their expenditure on food as effective as they could. We were all encouraged to eat everything on our plates and told to think about the poor starving children in China (or some other part of the world). By contrast the U.S. was seen as the land of plenty after the depressive years of the thirties.

[Abi]

and told to think about the poor starving children in China (or some other part of the world).

Gosh that phrase brought back many memories Cukur,

[Vic801]

Gosh that phrase brought back many memories Cukur,

The nuns used to tell us to think of the little black babies in Africa!

At home my parents were the same as yours, Sunny, you didn't get down from the table until your plate was finished. No pudding until your main plate was clean. My parents were from working class families and had lived through the war and there was no wastage of food in our family. The only thing was when we went out to eat and it used to be the norm for a sandwich in a cafe always to be served with some watercress scattered round the plate or some carrot shavings and we were told that it was decoration and that eating that did look as if you were starving, so we were told to leave it.

I do agree that it is a class thing in Turkey. In the village people would force food on us in a way that was almost unconforfable, in the town people offer food and you can taste and say thank you and leave what you can't eat (or don't like).

The bread thing didn't faze me out because it is the same, if not worse, in France. Bread is sacred (with all the Christian links to breaking bread), it is never put in the bin. You make "pain perdu" by dipping old bread into egg and milk and frying it, if it is really old stale bread you keep it to give to your neighbour who has ducks or hens. Never put a baguette the wrong way up on the table, it means you earn your money lying on your back and I have known even hardened Communists make the sign of the cross with the pocket knife on a loaf before cutting it! You never pay for bread in a restaurant and can ask for your bread basket to be refilled as often as you are hungry. I always make breadcrumbs out of any end of loaf that we have and they keep for ages.

[sunny]

Ah, so the French have a version of what we called 'eggy bread'.

We never waste bread, especially now as the latest dog that we have adopted doesn't like pasta with his chicken and will only eat it with bread to soak up the juice.