Small cubes of toasted or fried bread that are crispy and often used as a topping on salads or soups.
From French 'croûton,' derived from 'croûte' meaning 'crust' (from Latin 'crusta'). The word originally meant the end piece of a loaf but came to mean the small cubes we know today.
Croutons were originally a way to use up stale bread—resourceful cooks in 18th-century France discovered that stale bread, when cubed and toasted, became delicious and added perfect crunch to salads!
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