The Great Panko Debate

I have a few friends (and a couple of daughters) who think that it's not the "real" thing unless you pay a lot of money for it.  That may hold true for designer handbags, but as far as things like breadcrumbs, well, breadcrumbs are just that...crumbs of bread.

Apparently there is a big debate about the increasingly popular Panko, or Japanese breadcrumbs.  And by the way, Panko ( パン粉 ) in Japanese means breadcrumbs, so to say "Panko Breadcrumbs" is like saying "Breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs".

Many people say that there is a special process of zapping each crumb with electrodes to give it the flaky consistency.  I am going to go out on a limb here and say that I don't think that Japanese women had these devices in their kitchens back in the day.  I will admit, there may be a particular type of bread they use, but for the most part, it seems to me that the coarse consistency and the fact that the crust is not used are the main differences between these, and traditional breadcrumbs.

After trying a dish prepared with Panko, I decided there must be a way to make it at home.  A few weeks ago, I tried my hand at bread-making.  It was a total flop.  It turns out I used the wrong type of flour.  Anyway, last week I tried again and it turned out beautifully!  The only problem was, I didn't have a big pot of homemade chicken noodle soup to go with it :(  Now I have this big loaf of beautiful crusty bread that nobody wants to eat...so today, I am making my Panko.

First, I cut the crust off.

Then I tried one of the methods I read about, which was grating it.  There was too much moisture still in the bread, so I cut it in cubes and went the food-processor route.

I only have a small one that I use to make, well breadcrumbs!  It worked perfectly!  Many methods I read about said to make sure you pulse it, but it was way too coarse.  Just experiment with whatever bread you decide to use.

I spread the breadcrumbs out on a cookie sheet, and they are drying in my oven right now.  I set the oven to "Warm" which is probably about 150 degrees.

I will let the crusts dry out and process them into traditional breadcrumbs.  Total spent - $1.00

Check back and I will post up whatever dish I decide to make with the Panko.  You can always subscribe or follow me!