The crusts and heels are the interesting parts of the bread - the other stuff is just fluffy and meh. That’s why I prefer rolls - when baked right, it’s like eating one huge heel. Nom nom nom. (and that really sounded wrong, didn’t it)
Crust, sure. Heels, no. Pre-sliced sandwich bread’s pretty much uniform but I always want the crispy edges of french bread, cornbread, and other such breads.
For those who bake bread – boiling some water and putting it in a pan at the bottom of the hot oven will help to create a thicker, chewier crust, and brushing the loaf with egg white will help make a hard and crunchy crust. Of course, if you really love crusts, make rolls instead.
This is exactly my view, as well.
ETA: If you follow The King of Soup’s advice, make sure you take the bowl out of the oven after you’re done cooking your bread. Or bad things can happen.
My husband knows to give me the heels. I like bread that bites back.
For French bread and the like, the heel and crusts are the best part. (But I’m a nice guy and let my wife have the heels.) For more fluffy bread, crusts are great, but the heel, which is a bit smaller, is not good for making sandwiches. They’re great for osopping up gravy, and also for sopping up gooey egg yolks when I make sunnyside up eggs.
Another heel/crust lover. Growing up with that “white wonder bread” type crap that’s as soft and bland as snow and turns to dough in your mouth is the reason. A crispy, chewy, baguette is REAL bread…and of course whole grain breads are great too (better with a crisp crust too,though). But they still sell that soft, white bunny/wonder crap with the texture of warm pudding. I guess its called “wonder” because it makes me “wonder” who likes that shit.
Crusts and heels are, as Martha Stewart says, A Good Thing. When I was a kid we used to get fresh baked rye bread from the neighborhood Jewish bakery and my mom would immediately take the heel and eat it right out the bag–unless I could make her feel guilty enough by making a sad face, then she’d give it to me. (Note, taking advantage of Jewish mom guilt is not very nice, although it is sometimes tasty.) Pizza crust is also great. I can’t stand it when my kids eat the pizza all the way to the bottom crust and then just discard the poor little things. So, they often make their way to my plate, where I dispose of them properly.
I love crusts and heels too. I have the remains of a loaf of organic wheat bread sitting in my refrigerator right now waiting for me to get around to making croutons of it. The recipe I have for croutons says to cut the crust off the bread before coating them with garlic-infused olive oil and browning them in the oven. I’m wondering how necessary that is. If I really need to cut off the rusts, I guess I know what I’ll be snacking on while the croutons are browning.
If I’m the first person to get at the loaf of bread I’ll eat the heal. Not because I particularly like it but because I’m a cheap bastard.
OTOH, if the loaf is halfway gone and the heal is still there than I pass it up because I know my kids have probably had their grubby little hands all over it several times since.