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posted by Peter at 2:22 PM
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Thursday, August 26, 2004
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Check out my main site: Movienite.French Toast History
Via Strat's Place:First made at a roadside tavern not far from the city of Albany in 1724, there are few dishes more truly American than the breakfast favorite known as "French toast". So American is the dish that very few can understand why it is not called "American toast", "Albany Toast" or even "New York State toast".
The confusion comes about because the owner of the tavern at which the dish was invented had a very poor knowledge of grammar. When Joseph French decided to name the dish after himself he should have written his invention as "French's toast" (that is to say, the toast of French). Because he did not know how to use the possessive apostrophe, however, the dish appeared on his menu simply as "French toast". In short, the dish has nothing whatever to do with French culinary history but in the two hundred and seventy years that have intervened, no one has taken the time to correct the grammatical error.
Alternative history, via The Food Timeline:
The popular history behind French toast (aka German toast, American toast, Spanish toast, Nun's toast, Cream toast, Amarilla, Poor Knights of Windsor) is that it was created by medieval European cooks who needed to use every bit of food they could find to feed their families. They knew old, stale bread (French term "pain perdu" literally means lost bread) could be revived when moistened with milk and enriched with eggs. The traditional method of cookery was on a hot griddle prepped with a little fat (butter, oil). Quite like today.
Actually, recipes for "French toast" can be traced Ancient Roman times. Apicius simply calls it "Another sweet dish." Linguistic evidence confirms the connection, as one of the original French names for this dish is "Pain a la Romaine," or Roman bread. Culinary evidence confirms "French toast" was not just a food of the poor. Recipes printed in ancient and medieval texts employed white bread (the very finest, most expensive bread available at the time) with the crusts cut off. In many cases, expensive spices and almond milk were listed as ingredients. This is not something a poor, hungry person would have eaten. It is also important to note that until very recently, cook books were not written for the the "average" person. Only the noble, wealthy, and religious leaders were taught to read. The recipes contained in them reflect the meals of the upper classes.
"French toast" recipes exist in many countries and cuisines.The beauty of this simple dish is that it can be as basic or fancy as the cook pleases. "French toast" is most often eaten for breakfast, although some variations are enjoyed for dessert. It has also been incorporated into popular other dishes, such as the Monte Cristo sandwich. Did you know if you go to France it is unlikely you will find "French toast" on the menu? That's because in France the dish is called "pain perdu!"
"...what amounts to French toast seems to have been popular throughout [medieval] Europe. But everyone seems to have has his own name for the dish: Maestro Martino and some English authors called it "suppe dorate" and "soupys yn dorye" respectively, while French writers favored "tostees dorees," reserving the word "soupe" for slices of bread soaked in the potage (which gives rise to the expression "trempe comme une soupe," the French equivalent of "soaked to the skin").
Eventually, as we know, the world "soup" would come to mean the actual liquid in which these soupes were soaked. Other English sources surprisingly call this dish "payn purdeu," clearly the same as today's French name, "pain perdu." And of course the modern English term is "French toast": what goes around comes around. In England and in Italy, these golden brown bread slices were served with game meats and with peacocks and other grand birds. We do not know exactly how they were used in France even though there are several otherwise undefined menu references to venaison aux soupes, "game meat with sippets." In any event, we have once again thrown in our lot with Maestro Martino, because his recipe is the most polished of them all, using rose water where no one else thought to do so.
Still, some of the English recipe are not without delicacy, specifying that the butter for frying the toast should be clarified (gently boiled to separate out its impurities, which prevents burning) and that the bread would be soaked not in whole eggs but in beaten egg yolks that have been put through a sieve to make them perfectly smooth and creamy."
---The Medieval Kitchen, Recipes from France and Italy, Odilie Redon et al, [University of Chicago Press:Chicago] 1998 (p.207) Maestro Martino's recipe. "This dish does have its origins in France, where it is known as "ameritte" or "pain perdu" ("lost bread"), a term that has persisted, in Creole and Cajun cookery; in Spain it is called "torriga" and in England "Poor Knights of Windsor," which is the same name for the dish in Denmark, "arme riddere," and Germany, "arme ritter." At one time or another in America it has been referred to as "Spanish," "German," or "nun's toast," and its first appearance in print as "French Toast" was in 1871. " ---The Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 134)
"French toast is a dish we have borrowed from the French, who call it "pain perdu", or lost bread...It is known in England as the poor knights of Windsor, which is the same phrase used in many countries: "fattiga riddare" in Sweden; "arme ridder" in Danish; and "armer ritter" in German. One theory about how the latter name came about goes as follows: In olden times, one of the symbols of distinction between the gentry and the common herd was that the former were expected to serve dessert at dinner. Knights, of course, were gentry. But not all of them were rich. Those who were not, in order to maintain their status, made do with "armer ritter'," often served with jam." ---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia [Times Books:New York] 1985 , Craig Claiborne (p. 178)
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