the crust of the matter

  

Since the new toaster has become the focal point for all gossip and skiving related activites in Fruit Towers, many an interesting discussion has taken place in the face of it's chrome glare.

Is it acceptable to eat chocolate spread on toast before 9am? (Only on Fridays. Never in meetings).

What is the difference between wholemeal, brown and multigrain bread? (Pumpkin seeds. Mainly).

And just what do you call the first slice or end slice of a loaf of bread?

Purists (like Rachel) insist it is referred to as 'the crust'

John T does not mince his words and simply calls it ''the end'

 

Dave refers to it as 'the heel' (much to his wife's annoyance)

 

Han's mum calls it 'the endy bit'

 

Heel, hoof, end, crust.

Tell us what you call the thick-bit-of-bread-at-the-end-of-the-loaf and the best name will win a breadbin full of smoothies and some toast (lightly buttered).

Comments

[Peter]

Ah, I miss you guys. Nice to see so many happy faces. Rachel as ever ii. Peter

[joffonon]

It's the crust. Anything else is wrong. End of discussion. :-)

[Deafinitely Girly]

It's called the nobby – always has been, always will be

[celine]

Generally speaking, the last slice.

[sophie]

its the nubbin in our house

[LindaV]

Honestly people, it's called the 'Topper'.

[Richard Aston]

We have always called it the bread's zipper. Favourite slice in our house so when the crust was gone - the bread's zipper was undone or flying low.

[Kyleigh]

'Pippy Top Top' in our house!

[Caroline]

No, not the topper- it's called 'the mopper'! The extra thick slice on the end is perfect for mopping up sauce, eg from beans on toast. Much nicer than having your beans on an ordinary thin slice.

[Loopy]

Up in Glasgow we call this slice, The Outsider

[Sophie]

The bookends!

[Katie]

My housemate and I call it the chunky dunk! Much like 'the mopper' above, except we think it's the perfect slice for dipping in yummy soup in the winter and more recently have experimented dipping into innocent veg pots!!

[Caroline Kay]

If it's from a sliced loaf then it's the bird's bit, but if it's from an unsliced loaf then it's the heel (and it's usually a wedge shape in my house!)

[Anita]

I have always called it the Nobby. I have fond memories as a child of ten going to the local baker at seven in the morning to get a loaf of bread, ooooh di dthat bread smeel good, so good that by the time i'd got back home I'd eaten through the Nobby and into the bread, so I turned the loaf around in the bag so that it looked like a complete loaf. It worked to until mum cut down to the eaten part, but it was still worth it!!!!!

[Lorraine]

I've heard of people calling it the outsider but in our house its called the heel.

[Vic]

cob cob cob! its a Cumbrian thing...

[Franco]

An ex-flatmate went all Biblical and called them the Alpha and the Omega (as they were at both ends and were, he thought, the best bits of a loaf).
I personally call each one the Pig's Backside because they're the only slices that are good enough as the bottom of a bacon, sausage and egg sarnie. If you try resting that lot on a normal slice, there's going to be sauce, yolk and tears everywhere well before the end of breakfast time.

PS The bacon and sausage are grilled. I would grill the egg too if I could find a way to balance it on the rack.

[Hannah]

'The nobble' .... every time!

[robin atter]

its the wedgie

[QuiteKate]

We call it the Knob End. Also applies to the end of a garlic baguette.

[Amanda Booth]

Me and my boyf call them the "bread stoppers" as they never get eaten they just hold the bread slices in place and stop them falling out of the bag :)

[Graeme Bowen]

It's the knobby, my Dad calls it the knobby...are you calling my Dad a liar? Are you?!

[Nikky]

the bit at the end of your loaf is called the nobble....
for me it's always been a nobble.. thats just how it is :)

[Natty]

They are the endy bits for the duckies

[Matt Stephenson]

Jayne, who I went to University with calls it the Nobby, but she is from Norfolk and things ike this tend to be NFN (Normal for Norfolk)!

[Jo Bishop]

My husband insists on calling it the 'Knob End' - much to the kids' disgust but we always called it the 'Toaster' - cos it's fab toasted and slathered in golden syrup!

[Lucy]

It's called the bread end!

It's not a flashy title but tis correct.

[iDazz]

You're all wrong. It's called a 'Noggy'.

A 'Marmite Noggy' is the best! Oh yeah!

[sted]

It has been the noggy for us ever since I was little - nearly half a century now. No idea why - but it is always the best bit of a crusty, crunchy real loaf. Not so delicous froma sliced one though. :)

[Magda]

It's the doorstop silly!

[jennie]

we call it the peko

[Natalie]

I like to call it the Dupka (loosly translated from Polish meaning Butt)

[Sara]

I had no idea it had so many different names! I just call it the crust or end bit.

[Robyn]

The Fat End. Which I thought was an Inverness thing but from recent conversations with friends it is just our family.

Heel seems to be popular in Ireland.

[Steve Strong]

Quite clearly it's the Joey. No idea what the rest of you are talking about :)

[Angie]

It's the crust and eating them makes your hair go curly. I know 'cos my Dad told me!

[emma]

My Dad whos from Lancashire always called it the 'hub' (he was a scientist) My brothers and I were convinced he was rather too influenced by the space race. It was the 70's after all!

[Pinckle]

They are 'enders', surely everyone knows that ;)
Pinckle xxx

[Jules]

its the wedge or the end wedge or any other variations of wedge!

[Huw]

our hamster uses it for a bed so its either hammy bed or the elbow pads to protect the poor loaf as it's dropped and battered in the shop

[Ann]

In my house its known as the 40 to 1 shot, the big outsider as in horse racing terms. My dad has always called it that so thats what its called.

[Vae]

If it's the beginning of the loaf, the crust. If it's the end, it's the heel.

[Catherine Jones]

It's the bread-bum!

[Kat Bickmore]

It's the 'Dog's Bit' coz I never eat it because it's too thick and i eat too fast :) so I feed it my dogs? Therefore, it's called the 'Dog's bit'...Yaya!

[Almu]

"The bread butt"!

Or "El culillo" ("the little butt"), in Spanish...
:-)

[Laura]

The "heel"!

[ambs]

it's "the wibbly bit", always has been and always will be. Because it makes you go wibbly with happiness or revulsion, apparently. The wibbly bit is like Marmite for our family.

[weemoosie]

it's the heel of course but when my son was very little he would get a bit muddled and call it the shoe! As a result we now always refer to it as the shoe! Yummy, eh?!

[Mark Johnson]

The Twitterer

Because its usually put out for the birds, and they tweet a lot; bearing in mind we're fans of Twitter :)

[Carly]

Percy and Prunella.

'nuff said.

[Rena]

It is simply the end piece of a loaf.
It is definitely NOT a crust since no english bread has a crust.
You all don't know what a crust is... crunchy... yummy... tasty... and most certain nothing you can squeeze like foam.

[Sam]

the part that goes in the bin

[Georgina Lovely]

I always call it the "Donkey End" - and I have absolutley no idea why. Now my husband calls it that too. If anyone can explain this that'd be one less niggle in my brain!

[Dolidh]

Up here in Scotland, we call it the ender. It's even thicker in plain bread... amazing stuff that can't normally fit in the toaster.

[claire wilcock]

Haven't heard of half of these!

The heel or the step (bit like doorstop above I guess)

[Sarah-Jayne Windridge-France]

It's the hair-curling wedgie-bum in our house - the finest wedge from the bum of the toast that makes ya hair curl .... and we always fight for it! ;]

[amberjee]

here, it is "duck bread". for taking to the park and feeding to the ducks.

[Caroline]

I've always called it the Brutt (the bread butt). Agree with many other posts that it is one of the bestest bits for dipping and mopping up tasty sauces, soups and stews.

[Katy]

It's the bumper! Always has been, always will be in my family.

[eva]

In Austria, it's called "scherz" or "scherzl", which by the way also means joke - but I think that's just one word with two totally unrelated meanings...a homonym, as my linguistics professor would call it

[Sarah]

We have always called it the Doorstop!!! And it does work.

[Cayt]

I call it the crust, but my great aunt and my grandfather call it the heel.

[Jessica W-E]

My gran has always referred to it as the nubbin...
leading my mum to forcing me to eat my nubbins to get curly hair or is that curly nails.... hmmm thats a thinker

[Illy]

Its the "Bum Bit" in our house, fond childhood memories of fighting over the first and last chunk of freshly baked bread, then liberally slathering in butter and homemade Jam!!!

[Michael O'Neill]

it's definitely the heel. The crust is the part around the other slices of bread.

[Adam Forrester]

The little loaf. Because both ends are always left in the bag making a smaller two sliced loaf!

You HAVE to toast it for hygene reasons because everyone handles the top piece to get to the "normal" slices below!!!

[Siv]

Skårpæ!

Am I allowed Norwegian words?
Norwegian AND in south-eastern dialect? Can you not read the letters, you say? Skorpa! That better? :)

[Stuart Marshall]

I've always known it as the door-stopper

[Paul]

mmm the end of the loaf slice that is thicker was always referred to as the 'nobby' in our house, and as far as I could gather in most of my peers family homes too, pretty useless for 'sarneys' but great for making toast with

[Clare Ruffing]

We call it double bubble - the end slice is thicker, therefore you get twice as much. Or if you are on a budget, you can cut it in half and get two slices for the price of one!

[June]

We call it an "Outsider" in area of Ayrshire for obvious reasons.

[vicki]

I call it the nobby. I love that a slice of bread can create such pleaseure and fond memories!

[ami]

i call them the toast-busters!
mm-mmm.

[Cathy]

Its "the heel" in Northern Ireland, and you dare not call it anything else!

In fact, my friend refuses to let her husband shave his beard because otherwise he looks just like the end of a loaf....charming :) x

[Radish]

It's the topper. Obviously. Not that it's on the top but that doesn't matter.

[jo]

it is indeed 'the crust'. however, there is crust around every slice of bread. in your bog standard loaf of bread (sliced or entire) this stands.

get your bread from the traditional village baker - we're talking round and rustic styles, not a hovis tin shape - and you get 'cob ends'. never a crust. not sure what you'd get with bread made in flower pots.

hop over the channel to france (or go to saino's) and you end up with 'nobbly bits' at each end of la baguette. if you've not eaten them before getting home...

[ellie c]

it is most definitely the 'best bit' of any loaf

[Alice Paling]

It's called the 'nobby' of course!

[Hannah Connon]

In our house it has no name as such...just a reaction 'the disappointed face maker'

[Lucy Hunter]

Duck-end.

[Lise-Ann Brennan]

The 'Souper' duper's as in super for soup! but they also lend themsleves well to mopping all sorts of loviness from runny eggs to baked bean sauce!
They also work well for a nice chip buttie, ice cold butter and piping hot chips between to Souper D's heaven!!!

[Jay F]

We've always called them the 'Bees and Dees' (Bs & Ds) as they are literally the ends of the Bread!

[rs]

Its the heelend in scotland

[Xander]

I was always led to believe that the end bit is known as a "Norbert". At least, that's what my father has always called it.

I was pleased to learn from my Italian girlfriend that mopping up the juice from your plate after a meal is referred to in her part of the globe as

"fare l'escarpette"
or
"making little shoes"

It's a fantastic expression.

[Kate]

The end-y bits of course!

[Daisy]

The end of the loaf?

I've always known it as the scrag-end :-)

[Lisa]

in austria it's either called 'oad' which is dialect for 'end'
or 'scherzl' which dict.leo.org translates as 'heel' but actually is affiliated with the italien word 'scorza' which means 'bark'

but that won't help you, will it?

[Lynne Cowley]

It's called the "nobby" and it's best served with the "whacker" that's the bit of crispy bacon with the fat and the rind on. Take it from one who knows!

[Matthew Hogg]

I call it the buppy, as that's what my nan used to call it, i've no idea why, but i just like the sound of it!

[JulianP]

I can only say that you are all (or at least mostly) very silly, or just wrong. The border of a slice is the crust. The slices at each end with crust covering the whole of one side are “bread-ends”. Stop arguing and send me the free stuff!

[Kay Armiger]

It's always been the Nubbin or Nub for short.
My sister always said she liked the Top nub but not the bottom nub, i never understood why cos they are exactly the same.

[Kirstine]

I've always called it the "outsider", however my Inverness born boyfriend calls it the heel. They are defo the best bits toasted!

[zahra]

the end

[nicky thomas-davies]

non of our lot eat it so its called rubbish!

[Lynne]

in my house its called 'mine'
cos I'm always the one that gets to eat it ~ my kids don't like the end bits or crusts....
so it's always MINE MINE MINE

nom nom nom

[Katy]

COB

- Close.Of.Bread.

[Katy]

(Because Close of Business is crumby and often means staying late at work!!)

[Katy]

Could also be the 'footer'.

Then the top would be the 'breader' :)

[Reuben Horsley]

Ww call it the butt... crazy times

[Nousj]

In Dutch it's called a 'kapje' which literally means 'little hood' or 'hat', i.e. the top (whichever way you hold it). I suppose that makes sense as it 'tops' it all off!
By the way I can't believe all those people out there who throw away their "kapjes" or give it to the birds/dog whatever. They're the best bits! Lightly toasted then spread chunky peanut butter on them, yummmmm! (keep a glass of milk handy to lubricate things...)