Bread crumbs

Dry breadcrumbs are made from dry breads which have been baked or toasted to remove most remaining moisture, and may have a sandy or even powdery texture. Bread crumbs are most easily produced by pulverizing slices of bread in a food processor, using a steel blade to make coarse crumbs, or a grating blade to make fine crumbs. A grater or similar tool will also do.

The breads used to make soft or fresh bread crumbs are not quite as dry, so the crumbs are larger and produce a softer coating, crust, or stuffing. The crumb of bread crumb also refers to the texture of the soft, inner part of a bread loaf, as distinguished from the crust, or "skin".

Baked panko crusted pork with pineapple sauce over udon

Panko (パン粉) is a variety of flaky bread crumb used in Japanese cuisine as a crunchy coating for fried foods, such as tonkatsu. Panko is made from bread baked by electrical current, which yields a bread without a crust, and then grinding the bread to create fine slivers of crumb.[1] It has a crisper, airier texture than most types of breading found in Western cuisine and resists absorbing oil or grease when fried, resulting in a lighter coating. Outside Japan, its use is becoming more popular in both Asian and non-Asian dishes. It is often used on seafood and is often available in Asian markets, speciality stores, and, increasingly, in many large supermarkets.

Panko is produced worldwide, particularly in Asian countries, including Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, China, and Vietnam.

The Japanese first learned to make bread from Europeans. The word パン粉 (panko) is derived from pan, giving us the word for bread in Japanese (derived from the Portuguese word “pão” for bread), and -粉 (-ko), a Japanese Kanji indicating "flour", "coating", "crumb", or "powder" on occasion, when used as a suffix; (as in komeko, "rice powder", sobako, "buckwheat flour", and komugiko, "wheat flour").[2]