The Danger from Bread Crumbs and Batter

So much of our food is covered in breadcrumbs or batter. The fish and chip industry relies on the latter but increasing take home to cook food from major supermarkets is chicken, risoles - both vegetable and meat, and of course fish fingers all of which rely on crumbs - bread or otherwise.

The problem is that they, like sugar, fat and salt are addictive. They, crisped up in hot oil, which they absorb in no uncertain fashion, offer a crunchy and caramelised coating that is so inviting and, for kids, almost ritualistic.

But one must be in no doubt that the crust is really bad for you. The oil it absorbs almost certainly damaged by the heat to get the crust, the crumbs browned by the heat to produce cancer causing acrylamides and the layers of unburned refined carbohydrate at the interface with the underlying meat or whatever, represent a formidable source of calories.

The worst thing about it is that this is precisely what is served, by the tons to kids, across the world as fish fingers and apart from the initial blast to their health, it locks into them a taste for this rubbish forever. In Britain 570 million are sold annually and most of these will be to kids.

All bad news.

A Few Words on the Crust of Bread, Pizza and Microwave Ovens.

   Having accepted that the crust on bread and pizza, if even browned by baking, let alone burnt or charred, is bad by way of having carcinogen (cancer producing) acrylamides, I think I should mention that using a domestic microwave oven might be an answer to this problem.
   I have not tried it with pizza as I have never tried to make pizza in the conventional sense but I have a good experience cooking my low gluten, high fibre bread in the microwave.
   The bread exposed at the top of the loaf develops a thin and tough skin, enjoyable by virtue of its texture and chewiness but in no way burned and indistinguishable in colour from the loaf as a whole.    This is due to the fact that the microwave doesn't have to cook from outside in, and cooks from the inside out. The loaf that is in the mold, has less of a skin and more of a smooth shiny surface which develops a very thin skin after removal from the mold. ( I use Pyrex and silicone rubber molds - I am sure that the former is very un-reactive with the bread mix and pretty sure the same applies to the silicone rubber).
   This means in my 1000 watt microwave oven I can cook an 800 gm loaf (1.76 pounds) in ten minutes. Allowing that in a conventional oven one would need at least half an hour and the time also to preheat that oven, it can be seen there are very considerable savings in energy - and a healthier loaf to boot!