Old Fashion French Toast {Simple French Toast Recipe} (2024)

FAQs

What is the original French toast? ›

According to a collection of recipes from the early 5th century AD, the dish we now know as French toast existed as early as the age of the Roman Empire. In their style of French toast, called Pan Dulcis, Romans would soak bread in a milk and egg mixture, then fry it in oil or butter.

Quite simply, Texas French toast is exactly what it sounds like, French toast that has been made using the extra thick slices endemic to Texas toast. Since the cut of bread is so thick, it allows for greater absorption of the egg and cream mixture and longer frying times.

As a general rule, you want one egg for every one to two slices of bread, and a generous splash of milk (about ¼ cup) per egg. You can use any kind of milk (skim, whole milk, etc.

A key component in a French toast recipe is the custard, which is made of eggs and milk. Restaurants will likely use whole-fat milk in this custard, which gives the French toast a rich consistency. A restaurant may even opt to add a small amount of cream to the custard, but this can oversaturate fresh bread.

Butter gives French toast a deep richness and comforting quality, which are what we crave on mornings we sizzle this breakfast staple. To prevent burning or smoking, use a combination of butter and oil in the pan to cook the toast.

While the Romans may get credit for creating French toast, other cultures developed their own versions of the dish, complete with original names. In Germany, people in the fourteenth century made arme ritter (German for “poor knights”) by soaking sliced bread in milk and eggs and frying it in butter.

You can also mix a bit of the flavored sugar into the raw eggs & milk before dipping bread. Fruit: Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, strawberries. Butter-ish: Apple butter, Nutella, almond butter, creamy peanut butter, all the butter! Nuts: walnuts, pecans.

À ta santé / À votre santé (To your health)

À votre santé (“to your health,” plural/formal) is used commonly as a generic toast. If you're only drinking with one other person and it's someone you know well, you'd probably use the singular informal version, À ta santé.

This dish occurs in various forms and under different names in many places but we will call it "French toast" here for convenience. The usual French name is pain perdu (French: [pɛ̃ pɛʁdy] 'lost bread', reflecting its use of stale or otherwise "lost" bread. It may also be called pain doré 'golden bread' in Canada.

Why is it called pain perdu? ›

To this day in France, they call it “pain perdu” which means “lost bread.” This was because people originally made French toast from stale bread as a final use before throwing it away. This was especially true throughout Europe in the Middle Ages so that peasants could avoid the inconceivable act of wasting food.

What is the difference between torrijas and French toast? Torrijas are similar to French toast, but boozier, with sherry in the soaking milk. Unlike the process for making French toast, for torrijas, the bread is soaked in milk and eggs separately before it is fried.