I’m supposed to bring a salad to a NYE thing tonight, and I realized that the only bread I have in the house is some cornbread. I could make croutons from it, and if it was just for me I know I’d enjoy the weirdness (I love my failed culinary experiments more than the successes) but I don’t know about my fellow partygoers. Have you tried this? Would you try it?
Seems to me that cornbread would be too crumbly for croutons, but I haven’t tried it.
Burnt batch #1.
Not too bad, but I have yet to eat something I’ve cooked and found it “bad.”
Well, that’s not quite true. If I throw it out before tasting, then I don’t consider that “eating.”
Will try batch #2.
I’d be concerned that the croutons were sweeter than what I’m looking for in a crouton. But i don’t know your cornbread recipe.
Maybe I have a less pronounced sense of taste than you, but I don’t know that I have any expectation of a crouton in the middle of a salad. I can’t imagine anyone eating something that even looked a little bit like a crouton and saying anything like “Wow, that crouton really blew my doors off.” It’s hard to imagine what I could add to a crouton --cayenne pepper? curry powder? sugar?–that would give someone pause. I’m thinking this might be an “Anything goes” situation here.
But just in case, I just baked a normal loaf of bread, just in case.
I do have a more pronounced sense of taste than most people. And i have a pretty strong idea of what i expect a crouton to taste like. Sometimes they are saltier than other times. Sometimes they are cheesy. Sometimes they have vinegar notes. Sometimes they just taste like toast. But i do expect a crunchy savory thing.
Has one ever blown my socks off? Probably not? They usually are a highlight of a salad for me, though, as I’m not usually a salad fan and do enjoy croutons.
Like @Chefguy , I wouldn’t expect cornbread croutons to work, but I’m curious to hear what becomes of your experiments.
And I have no expectation whatsoever that a salad must inherently include croutons. If it doesn’t work, just do without them, and nobody will even notice that anything’s missing.
On the other hand, cornmeal pancakes are fucking awesome!
Well, i totally agree with this. Most salads don’t include croutons, in my experience.
IMHO, I wouldn’t probably worry about the taste of cornbread croutons. Depending on the crouton and the salad, it would probably work WELL, such as in a southwest inspired salad, using cornbread with green chili added. What would worry me is texture - I would expect a cornbread crouton to be substantially more mealy, and more likely to crumble than crunch in the mouth, even if dried and panfried.
But again, I could absolutely see it work in various iterations, and would love to hear how the texture and flavor worked out without having to do it myself!
Cornbread salad exists. It’s good.
Maybe toss them in some garlic salt and dill before cooking them?
Don’t people just use corn tortilla strips for use as croutons? Or perhaps just throw some Fritos into the salad.
Worked out fine. No complaints, anyway. People ate it, and only one woman picked out something she found objectionable (bacon bits). Oddly enough, my hostess served a big cornbread with dinner, so I announced that there was also cornbread in the salad. I had leftover salad this morning for breakfast.