I call it the best piece of the loaf. I try to grab it right away.
It was the “heel” when I was a tot, but my wife’s family (mostly of German extraction) called it the “zipfel”.
[QUOTE=chrisk]
Does that mean that the loaf has a butt at both ends?
[/QUOTE]
Why not? Many people seem to. 
We always called it the “heel” when I was growing up. But recently, for an unknown reason, I noticed I was calling it the crust. My son calls it the crust.
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
I call it the best piece of the loaf. I try to grab it right away.
[/QUOTE]
I’m a butt man myself – boy that’ll be taken out of context won’t it. But back to the point, you’ve got to leave the butt/heel/putka in place it has a job! You Eat that sucker first or throw it away and the loaf starts drying out - not good.
-rainy
Crust. I’d never heard it called anything else 'till I saw it called the heel on this board.
[QUOTE=Gfactor]
I didn’t get her to pronounce it. I only sent her an email (we are on different floors). There’s actually a special character from what I’ve been able to discern online: PIĘTKA .
[/QUOTE]
That would be pronounced approximately as “PYENT-ka.” (The “e” is a nasal vowel, like the “e” in “eng”.)
Polish on both sides. Never heard my Polish-born folks refer to the heel as either putka or pietka. If I remember, I’ll ask them.
[QUOTE=rainy]
you’ve got to leave the butt/heel/putka in place it has a job!
-rainy
[/QUOTE]
Bonus: If you’re Mom or Dad you don’t mind eating the heel. One more sammich for me !
[QUOTE=jabiru]
Crust. I’d never heard it called anything else 'till I saw it called the heel on this board.
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I agree. It’s always been crust among my family. I’ve never heard any of these other alternatives (“heel”; “butt”).
Crust in the UK. Heel in the US.
I still call it the crust which generally results in strange looks from the wife and sproglets.
[QUOTE=gonzomax]
I call it the best piece of the loaf. I try to grab it right away.
[/QUOTE]
There is an ordinance in this office that the heel is saved for ME!!!
My wife calls it the “kiss.” Why, I have no idea.
Heel.
[QUOTE=Alessan]
My wife calls it the “kiss.” Why, I have no idea.
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That’s the *only *name I’ve ever heard for it in Hebrew – I think it’s semi-official…
I, too, have no idea why it’s called the “kiss” – My best guess is it’s because that’s where the top and bottom crust “kiss” each other – but I think it’s a lovely name and we should start a movement to get the English-speaking world to adopt the term
Only ever heard it referred to as a crust in the UK.
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan]
Only ever heard it referred to as a crust in the UK.
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In American English, the crust is the entire outside of the bread. So that thicker, dark part running around the entire edge of a single slice is what we call the crust.
We call it the cronka ; I believe that it’s Slovak in derivation.
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
In American English, the crust is the entire outside of the bread. So that thicker, dark part running around the entire edge of a single slice is what we call the crust.
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It’s the same in Britain.
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan]
It’s the same in Britain.
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I thought the one poster said just the heel was called the crust in Britain.
Yes. We call the two things the same. Each slice of bread has a crust (unless you buy that crustless stuff) and each loaf has two crusts on the ends.