Mr.Food - A Sticky Subject: Tips for Breading

A Sticky Subject: Tips for Breading

These handy breading tips will make you an expert in no time! Try them with some of our favorite crunchy breading alternatives for a quick way to coat your food; all the while adding extra taste and texture!

A Sticky Subject: Tips for Breading

Keep one hand dry and one hand wet! This sounds easy, but it does take a little practice. It goes like this: Let's say your recipe calls for dipping fish into flour then egg then seasoned bread crumbs.

First use your left hand to put the damp fish into the flour, without touching the flour.
Next use your right hand to gently pat the flour onto the fish. Next, with your right hand, put the fish into the eggs.
With your wet left hand, remove the fish to the bread crumbs, and bread the fish with your dry right hand.

That's it! No magic, no fancy utensils - just easy, neat breading every time. Here are a few more tips to make you a breading pro:

You can use egg mixed with milk instead of plain egg, or just milk alone. Milk doesn’t have as much "sticking power" as egg, but it works, and it's lower in fat.
Before placing food to be breaded in flour or other dry ingredients, use paper towels to remove most of the moisture.
Try placing bread crumbs (or whatever the final item in your breading process is) in a resealable plastic storage bag for shaking onto your foods.
Be sure to test the oil to see if it is ready for frying.

There are all sorts of flavorful ways to bread our food. Obviously, we can use any of our favorite off-the-shelf bread crumbs, either plain or loaded with Italian seasonings for extra zest. For a change of pace, we can use Japanese bread crumbs, known as Panko. They're a bit larger and lighter-textured, and what's great about them is that their neutral flavor matches so well with any of our favorite seasonings. Of course, we can always make fresh crumbs, if time permits. For a change of pace, how about crushing:

cornflakes
potato chips
pretzels (any size or shape)
your favorite nuts

You can even mix and match them; they all crunch up and brown well.

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