Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Story of French Toast

By Matt Howard


French Toast has been a favourite breakfast meal in the U.S.A and abroad for years. There's a surprisingly huge variety of approaches to prepare this scrumptious morning meal. However many people haven't ever considered how this particular breakfast meal got into existence. In order to truly enjoy this delightful meal, we have to delve into the storied history of French toast.

French toast is recognized by a number of titles such as eggy bread, Poor Knights, American toast, Spanish toast and Easter toast. In Cajun circles, French toast is referred to as pain perdu or ameritte. In England it's called Poor Knights. This is because, since only the wealthy were offered dessert, the lower class knights will eat their Poor Knights bread, what's a lot like the present day French toast, together with jam. In China, it's called by 2 titles; Western toast or French toast, and it is deep-fried and offered with syrup and butter.

French toast tasty recipes were found in cook books dating back to the Middle Ages, making a few speculate that this meal had been invented at some point before that. Cookbooks were kept by the rich only and also the poor were unlikely to have discovered from them. Rather, the working class would pass over the recipe form one generation to another, which makes it difficult to pinpoint the exact time of origin.

White bread, which the very first French toast recipes called for, was the best bread sold at the period. In Roman days, French toast had been known as la Romaine, or Roman bread, and was served along with honey. It probably earned the name "French toast" from the French pain perdu, which loosely means stale or lost bread. A few believe French toast is the precursor to bread pudding.

Although the specific origins of it are uncertain, some believe it came into being during medieval times once chefs will be compelled to utilize each and every ingredient available since they were very poor to throw anything out. For that reason, stale bread will be moistened, very likely with milk or eggs, and then deep-fried to be able to be made palatable.

The initial reference to French toast in the U.S.A is during 1871. Legend has it that it was at times referred to as German toast prior to world war 2, however the title had been altered due to anti-German sentiment. One more well-known story is the fact that it acquired its title in 1742 from Joseph French, an Albany, NY restauranteur who called his type of the recipe right after himself.

A thing is certain, today French toast is a well known American breakfast custom. It is served sliced in sticks in fastfood eating places, in huge thick fluffy portions in diners, and in the homes of many Americans. Many households have at least one member who boasts the name of "greatest French toast maker" with tasty recipes and secret ingredients that they hold dear. Nonetheless you cut it, French toast is here to stay.




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