Every household kept a jar in the kitchen into which any leftover bit of bread was put, down to the crumbs swept up off the tablecloth at the end of a meal. When you have to make every bit of your own bread with your own hands, pans and oven, you have a different feeling towards it than you do about a loaf for which you gave $.69 at the market! The breadcrumb jar was reached for any time some stale crumbs were needed for stuffing a turkey, making a coating for a fried food, or perhaps for thickening a sauce. And if it ever got too full, or if things got truly tight in the food department, why, with the addition of a few eggs, voila! A relatively quick and easy meal, either breakfast or dinner, could be produced.

Excerpt from: www.civilwarinteractive.com/RecipeBakedBreadOmelet.htm