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Monday, February 27, 2012

The History of French Toast

By Matt Howard

French Toast has been a favourite morning meal in the U.S.A and abroad for decades. There's a surprisingly big selection of approaches to prepare this tasty breakfast meal. However many individuals have not thought about how this breakfast treat got into existence. In order to truly appreciate this delicious food, we should look into the storied history of French toast.

French toast is recognized by numerous titles such as Poor Knights, American toast, Spanish toast, Easter toast and eggy bread. Throughout Cajun circles, French toast is referred to as pain perdu or ameritte. In England it's known as Poor Knights. It is because, since only the wealthy were served dessert, the lesser group knights would feed on their Poor Knights bread, what's similar to today's French toast, together with jam. In China, it is named by two titles; French toast or Western toast, plus it's deep-fried and served along with syrup and butter. 

French toast recipes were located in cook books way back to the Middle Ages, creating several speculate that the meal had been created sometime before that. Cookbooks were held by the wealthy only and the poor were not likely to have discovered from them. On the other hand, the working group would pass down the recipe form one generation to another, which makes it tough to pinpoint the exact period of origin.

White bread, in which the first French toast tasty recipes called for, was the best bread on offer at the period. In Roman times, French toast was called la Romaine, or Roman bread, and was offered with honey. It possibly gained the title "French toast" from the French pain perdu, which loosely translates to stale or lost bread. Several believe French toast is the forerunners to bread pudding.

Although the specific origins of it are uncertain, some think it came to exist in medieval times once chefs would be forced to utilize each and every ingredient at their disposal since they were too poor to throw anything away. As a result, stale bread would be moistened, very likely with eggs or milk, and then deep-fried to be able to be made palatable.

The first reference to French toast in the United States is during 1871. Story possesses it that this was often known as German toast prior to world war two, but the title had been altered due to anti-German emotion. One more well-liked story is the fact that it acquired its name in 1742 from Joseph French, an Albany, NY restauranteur who named his version of the recipe after himself.

One thing is for sure, nowadays French toast is a well known American morning meal tradition. It's offered sliced up in sticks at fast food restaurants, in large thick fluffy portions in diners, and in the houses of many Americans. Numerous families have no less than one member that boasts the name of "best French toast maker" along with recipes and secret ingredients that they keep dear. Even so you slice it, French toast is here to stay.

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