Thyme Crust — Add Herby Crusts to Everything!

I’ve been hooked on crusts for a while now, and am on constant alert for new ones. My latest infatuation is with herb crusts, made simply by combining fresh herbs with small amounts of crusty bread, salt, and pepper. The crust above is just thyme leaves, pain au levain, and s&p.

What do you do with a crust? You sprinkle/pack them on to foods you want to become crunchy or crispy. The crunch of food is a severely underrated aspect of great food, I think. It lets you know that something very special is coming. It’s the first thing you taste, the first sound you hear, a precursor of good things to come. They are a crucial part of breakaway cooking.

So what gets a crust? Anything baked — a casserole, baked tofu, roasting vegetables — and anything fried — a burger, a steak, a fish fillet, a cake of tofu. The other night I had a small quantity of tofu, and a small quantity of ground beef. I mixed those two together, and stuffed a little bleu cheese and thyme leaves in the middle, and gave it the thyme crust. (The top patty is about to get flipped in the photo). An herby deeply browned and crispy crust was the result, with all kinds of floral notes and umami goodness from the blue cheese. On top went some carmelized onions, tomato chutney and a small swirl of dijon, sandwiched between slices of Acme herb slab. It was a fine, fine sandwich.