Panko Are Superior Crumbs
Japanese breadcrumbs are pretty fascinating to me. I first encountered them in the home cuisine cooked for me by my host mother. I fell in love with her tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets). She still makes them for me whenever I visit. (Sweet!) Anyway, when I returned to the U.S. to finish up my degree, I tried to recreate her wonderful dish. When I tried it with traditional bread crumbs, it failed spectacularly. It was heavy and greasy. Then I hit the Japanese grocery store about 45 minutes away and picked up some Japanese breadcrumbs. (This was before they were widely available at places like Whole Foods in my area.) They made the biggest difference. I pledged then and there to never again fry anything using traditional breadcrumbs. I would reserve them for stuffings, where they belong.
近年、北米では日本のパン粉が料理番組などで「panko」として紹介され、グルメ食材として普及しつつある。北米の「breadcrumb」は日本のパン粉よりも固くて細かく、中には味がついているものもある。
“In recent years, Japanese breadcrumbs have been introduced to North America via food TV programming as panko, the diffusion of which has continued as a gourmet foodstuff. North American breadcrumb(s) are harder and more fine than their Japanese counterparts, and some are even flavored.”
- Wikipedia Japan, my rough translation
Interestingly enough, after I did my little experiment, I found that Alton Brown, long documented Food TV hero of mine, was in love with panko breadcrumbs. When I saw the clip that I provided above, oddly from an episode called Bean Stalker (Episode 10 of Season 11), it made me curious. What IS the difference between Japanese breadcrumbs and the kind I’d always used? I found this small hint on the English version of Wikipedia.
Panko is made from bread without crusts, thus it has a crisper, airier texture than most types of breading found in Western cuisine.
- Wikipedia
Not very satisfactory, is it? What do you reckon is the processing difference that makes panko so superior?