Shailoh of the Week by Rabbi Zvi Nussbaum
Rabbinic Coordinator, Kosher Hotline Administrator for the Orthodox Union
As previously established, bread that is cut into small pieces or even milled into bread crumbs remains Hamotzi. For this reason, the bracha (blessing) on salad croutons, which are small cubed pieces of bread, is Hamotzi. Even though croutons are drizzled with oil and spices and baked again to give it a crunch, the bracha remains Hamotzi. However, had the croutons been made by deep-frying them in oil, then the bracha would change to Mezonot.
What level or methods of cooking are required to remap bread from Hamotzi to Mezonot? If the bread is boiled in water or fried in oil in a kli rishon (a pot that was heated directly by the fire), then the resulting would change into Mezonot. What about cooking in a kli sheini (a bowl that was poured into from a kli rishon)? The Mishna Berura maintains that the bread would still be Hamotzi, unless the bread sits in the hot water long enough that it clouds and whitens the water. In a case where one fills the cavity of a Turkey with a bread stuffing batter and bakes it that way, this would also suffice to change the bracha to Mezonot.
