In response to our last post on 18th Century No-Knead “French” Bread, a reader asked us to share some original recipes that included crust chips and raspings as an ingredient.
If the typical 18th century diet could be reduced down to its two most rudimentary components, those two things would be bread and ale. People depended on them for their very survival. Bread was consumed, not only by itself, but probably more so as an ingredient in other dishes. Chips, raspings, and the crumb (the white spongy inner portion of the loaf) were all used as thickening agents for soup, binders for forced meats (e.g., ground meats, sausages, and meatloafs), primary ingredients in many porridges, possets, and puddings, flour adjuncts for other types of breads, as well stuffings and coatings for fowl and various other meats.
At first glance, there seems to be more 18th century recipes that use bread as an ingredient than there are that don’t. Here is just a sampling:
One of the beauties of modern technology is that these period cookbooks (and many others) are available online in word-searchable form. The captions above are links to the online cookbooks.
For many many many many other period recipes that use bread as an ingredient, click on any of these links and do a word search for “bread,” “crust,” or “crumb.” Based on your level of interest, be prepared to suddenly lose an hour or more of your time!
Savoring the Past 
I really like your’ site and the many receipts. I can not seem to find “Pickled eggs”, have I missed it or has someone forgotten it? I’d love to see one.