French toast
|
|
French toast is popular as a breakfast main course in North America. It is also popular in China.
French toast is made with bread (generally pre-sliced) and eggs; some also prefer to add milk, water or orange juice and spices such as allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Vanilla may also be added to the egg mixture. In restaurants (at least in the United States), the bread is usually thick bread made especially for use in French toast; when made at home, regular sliced bread is often used. Many people prefer to use breads that contain dried fruit as the bread base for French toast.
Preparation
The eggs are scrambled (and mixed with other liquids, as described above) and poured into a wide, shallow bowl. Individual slices of bread are then dipped into the egg mixture and flipped, so both sides are evenly coated. If desired, the bread may be left to soak briefly to absorb more of the mixture; however, too much soaking will make the bread fall apart. In either case, the slices of egg-coated bread are then placed on a frying pan or griddle previously coated with butter, and cooked until both sides are browned and the egg has cooked through.
The cooked slices are usually served with butter and maple syrup, though it can also be served with fruit syrup, whipped cream, chocolate, powdered sugar, or nuts such as pecans.
When two slices of French toast are used to make a ham and cheese sandwich, this is known as Croque Monsieur; if served with a fried egg, Croque Madame. A sandwich made with ham, swiss cheese and turkey is called a Monte Cristo sandwich.
The precise origins of the recipe are unknown, but similar dishes have existed in many countries and under many names:
- More recently:
In China it is usually served with honey. In Hong Kong-style western restaurants (cha chaan tengs) and Hong Kong or Taiwanese dessert cafés, it may be served with butter and without a sweetening ingredient, and made be made out of a jam sandwich. French toast is usually served with the bread's crust, but it may be served without. It is called 西多士 (Cantonese IPA: ; Jyutping: sai1 do1 si2; Mandarin Pinyin: xīduōshì; literally "western toast") in Hong Kong, and 吐司 (Pinyin: Tùshī) in Taiwan.
Some people claim that this dish was called "German toast" before World War I and was changed to "French toast" in the US because of anti-German sentiment. A popular cookbook from 1918 does refer to it by that name. However, the term "French toast" can be found in print in the US as early as 1871. The Oxford English Dictionary cites usages of "French toast" in English as early as 1660 (toasted bread with wine, orange juice, and sugar), and cites an egg-based recipe of the same name from 1882. It has also been called "American toast" in the US, where there is a story that it was invented in 1724 by a man named Joseph French in a roadside tavern near Albany, New York.
In early 2003, the name of French toast was changed again to "freedom toast" in the White House, the US Congress, and in a few US restaurants, this time due to anti-French sentiment stemming from France's refusal to support a war in Iraq. (A similar renaming occurred with french fries, which were called freedom fries in those places. In reaction, the French embassy merely commented that french fries are, in fact, from Belgium.)
References
- Odilie Redon et al., The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1998).
- John F. Mariani, The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink (Lebhar-Friedman, New York, 1999).
- Craig Claiborne, Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia (Times Books, New York, 1985).
- Fanny Farmer, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1918)
External links
- Pain Perdue (French Toast) recipe at RealCajunRecipes.com (http://www.realcajunrecipes.com/recipes/312.rcr)de:Armer Ritter