A Book of Bread Winners

Upper Crusts: Fabulous Ways to Use Bread

By Sheilah Kaufman

Capital Books, 2007, 246 pages

About 150 recipes

To the author's credit, you'll find no postmodern defense of what Jonathan Swift called "the staff of life" -- just solutions for the whole-wheat heels and half-eaten boules that many of us end up with.

And it's nice to have the options in one place. Kaufman, a Jewish-cooking maven who lives in Potomac and has written 24 other cookbooks, covers a surprising amount of global cuisine in this slim paperback. While bread pudding and French toast recipes make up half its volume, they often come with pedigrees: a savory Butternut Squash and Lamb Bread Pudding from chef Todd Gray at Equinox (actually, from his mother); a custardy sweet one with Thai accents from Bangkok Joe's chef-owner, Aulie Bunyarataphan; and two takes on torrijas (Spanish-style French toast), from author Janet Mendel and from Taberna del Alabardero's executive chef, Santi Zabaleta.

Kaufman's own recipes and those of her fellow Les Dames d'Escoffier members fill out chapters inspired by bread both fresh and stale. There are even tips for making and storing bread crumbs, and historical tales of bread meals, such as the pieces soaked in wine that Joan of Arc would eat before she went into battle.

It took three years for Kaufman to assemble this collection, although she had many of the recipes in her files already. "I never throw anything out," she told us last week. That proclivity, plus the looming holiday of Passover, prompted the "Upper Crust" premise to use up what she had on hand. To clear her pantry of leavened products, she made puddings, soups, stratas and desserts. "And I froze them all -- after checking with the rabbi to make sure it was okay," she said.

When she researched and found no books devoted to the recycling of tired bread, she began seeking permission to use the recipes she'd acquired from well-known chefs.

A favorite of hers, as well as the story behind it, is the Inn at Little Washington's Custard Bread Pudding With Two Sauces. "I called Patrick [O'Connell, the chef-owner] to see whether I could include it," she said, "and I heard back that he said, 'I have no such recipe.' " Kaufman sent over her copy, and that jogged the chef's memory. "He said it was so good! He'd forgotten all about it."

-- Bonnie S. Benwick