It's like a law of nature: when we need panko, it's nowhere to be found in our kitchen's cupboards. So here's a life hack used by the Japanese to quickly make some panko from regular white bread.

Panko (パン粉)

Panko is a Japanese word meaning "bread powder" if you translate it literally. It's essentially a type of breadcrumb often found in Japanese cuisine that is made from white bread. The crust is generally removed to get uniform white flakes. Most notably, it's used as a coating when tempura ingredients are deep fried.

These are some of the beautiful creations you can make from panko in traditional Japanese cuisine. Nowadays, people all over the work use it to give an extra crispy texture to all kinds of dishes that are fried.



Panko can be purchased for cheap at supermarkets in many parts of the world, but it seems like we always run out of it when we most need it. So here's the life hack Japanese people use when they run out of panko.

Essential Panko Life Hack

Nearly every household has this kitchen tool used to do grate daikon. This is called a daikon oroshi. You must see where I'm getting.

But how do you grate bread? Well, it just has to be frozen and you'll be able to grate whatever amount of panko you need in no time. Hope you keep an extra loaf of white bread in your freezer! If you're a purist, you can cut off the crust before grating with any kind of grating tool you have at hand.



If the panko becomes mushy, simply heat it up in the microwave for a few seconds to remove some of the water content.

You can now proceed with making some killer tonkatsu or whatever you were planning to make with your panko. Just be aware that if your bread has a relatively high sugar content, the coating might burn fairly quickly. The ideal bread is one with just the basic ingredients of wheat, salt, yeast, and water.