Topinka is a very easy-to-make Czech snack pan-fried best in an iron skillet, ready in a few minutes. If you want to retrieve your stale bread, this recipe is for you!
Czech Topinka
When I was growing up in Socialist Czechoslovakia at the beginning of the eighties, stores were closed at weekends. We did the main shopping on Fridays, and we finished the rest of the food supplies on Sundays.
We usually ate topinky on Sunday, to reuse the stale wheat-rye bread we still had.
My mom also fried sausage with some bell peppers and tomatoes, added eggs, and you had a great topinka topping!
What Is Topinka Pan-Fried Bread?
Topinka is a slice of stale bread fried on both sides in a hot pan with a generous amount of oil. Fried topinka bread is then rubbed with a peeled clove of garlic and sprinkled with salt to taste.
Eat topinka bread alone, as a side dish, or as a beer appetizer in Czech pubs and bars.
Pronunciation
I recorded a short audio clip on how to pronounce the Czech word "topinka" (fried bread).
Ingredients
You don’t need any special ingredients to make topinka, only the stale bread, quality oil, and fresh garlic.
- Sliced bread; about ½ inch thick. Take care to cut the bread flat; otherwise, it doesn’t fry equally. In Czech, we usually use dense wheat-rye bread, yeasted or made from sourdough.
- Garlic; you will need fresh garlic, peeled cloves.
- Lard for frying; if you don’t have any pork lard, use any oil suitable for frying.
- Salt; a traditional topinka is salted after frying.
TIP: You can make topinka healthier if you remove excess fat after frying with paper towels.
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
Instructions
Get all necessary ingredients ready and let's go to the kitchen for some frying!
- Heat the lard/oil in a pan to medium temperature.
- Put bread slices into the oil and fry them until their lower side turns golden brown.
- Flip the bread and fry the other side.
- Take the finished topinka out of the oil, rub with a clove of garlic and salt.
Don’t wait for anything and serve immediately!
Cook’s Tips
- There should be enough oil to submerge half of the topinka fully. If you have each slice about ½ inch thick, the oil layer should have about ¼ inch in height.
- The oil used to fry the bread must be hot. Otherwise, the topinky soak up the oil and become too greasy.
- A well-fried topinka must be crispy and golden brown.
- In my opinion, the best pan for frying topinka bread is an iron skillet. The cast iron heats up evenly and fries the bread just right.
Serving
Topinka is eaten fresh right after you take it out of the oil. Eat it alone, rubbed with garlic on both sides. It’s most common to eat it this way.
You can also use some good toppings, like “Ďábelská směs” popular in the Czech Republic, a mixture of minced meat roasted with tomatoes and chili peppers.
Topinka bread is also a popular side for steak tartar.
Frying Pan
The frying pan’s bottom must be flat, in order for the topinky to fry regularly on their surface. For frying, I use my favorite iron cast skillet from Lodge almost exclusively. Recommended!
FAQs
The best option is pork lard. If you don’t have it, you can use vegetable oil or any suitable shortening, no problem.
First, heat the oil to medium-high, only then place the bread. After 2 minutes, pick the bread up carefully with a fork and check if it’s gold on the entire surface; if yes, flip the topinka and fry the other side.
Use stale any kind of dense bread (not white bread), about 2-4 days old, to prepare topinky. Fresh bread is wasted on the topinky, and they wouldn’t be as crispy.
More Czech appetizers to discover:
- Obložené chlebíčky – fancy open faced sandwiches
- Jednohubky – popular finger food
- Pochoutkový salát – an excellent deli mayo salad
Recipe card
Topinka – Czech Fried Garlic Bread
Ingredients
- 4-8 slices of dense bread (for example wheat rye bread)
- pork lard
- 6 cloves of garlic (peeled)
- salt
Instructions
- Heat up the lard / oil in a pan to medium temperature.
- Put bread slices into the oil and fry them until their lower side turns golden brown.
- Flip the bread and fry the other side.
- Take the finished topinka out of the oil, rub with a clove of garlic and salt.
Notes
DISCLAIMER: Because I come from Central Europe, my recipes are based on metric units such as grams or milliliters. Check out how I convert metric units to the U.S. system:
Conversion chart
Angie
Thank you for sharing, this is a perfect idea how to re-use stale bread!