Savory French Toast

When we think of "French toast," our minds shift to images of golden fried slices of egg and milk soaked bread topped with butter and likely maple syrup, some fresh fruit or perhaps our favorite jam, and maybe even some whipped cream. Well ... forget about that! This is about savory French toast. Food historians have traced the general dish back to the Roman Empire in the 400s A.D. The general idea of soaking bread in milk and egg is known by various names, with "French toast" being the term used in the U.S., seemingly, however, that term was brought to the American colonies by settlers from England in the 1600s, while in France it is known more as "pain perdu," which means "lost bread." The idea with the French term was that this was a way to use up stale bread, rather than wasting it ("losing it"). In England and Britain, in general, the term "French toast" is common, but some also call it "eggy bread" or the more interesting term "Poor Knights of Windsor," named after (in more modern times) retired knights who live at Windsor Castle, and who perform ceremonial duties, although the original term seems to have just been "Poor Knights," which is the same term used for the dish in German speaking areas; that is, as "Arme Ritter." The German term also dates back hundreds of years and it seems too much of a coincidence that the English and German terms developed independently of one another, but which had the original is unknown to me. In England, the "of Windsor" addition to the term came from a group of impoverished knights who were given living quarters at Windsor Castle for their service to the Crown, and who staunchly supported the king or queen, including in their prayers. Eggs, milk and stale bread were cheap and were readily available to provide a filling meal for these men. Why the dish is known as "French toast," is seemingly unknown with any certainty, but one explanation by some is that it was named for a man in England with the family name "French," who served it a lot at his inn a few hundred years ago. Others have speculated that the reputation that had developed for French cooking brought someone in England to dub it "French toast" to make it sound classy.  

 

There are various recipes for savory French toast, but this is my own version and it uses one of my favorite things ... KETCHUP, which is used for some French toast recipes in England and Britain, and I'm calling this an "English recipe." It's best if you use bread that is a couple of days old, but if all you have is fresh bread (especially spongy fresh sandwich type bread), give it a little time in the toaster to firm it up a bit.  

 

Ingredients:

 

4 slices of white bread (preferably a couple of days old, or lightly toasted to firm it up)

3 eggs 

1/4 cup milk

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

oil for frying (I use olive oil or sunflower oil)

ketchup for serving 

 

In a cup or small bowl, add the garlic powder, onion powder, ground black pepper and seasoned salt; mix together well, set it aside. Use a shallow dish to add the eggs and milk, and beat until well mixed, but you don't really want this to be frothy. Add 1 or 2 slices of bread (whatever you can fit into the dish you use) and let the bread soak for about 30 seconds, then flip it over to let the other side soak in the egg/milk mixture (if the bread is particularly dry, you might want to give it a little more time in the liquid). Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sprinkle a little of the dry seasoning mix onto the soaked bread slices. Add a slice or two of the soaked bread to the skillet, seasoned side down, then sprinkle some of the seasoning mix on what is now the top of the bread slices in the skillet. Let the bread fry to set the bottom of the bread (in the meantime, start soaking another slice or two of bread in the egg/milk). When the egg is set on the bottom, turn the bread over and fry the other side. You can always fry the bread longer on one side or the other, if it is not brown enough. Repeat for the remaining bread slices. Serve with some ketchup squirted over the top of each piece of savory French toast, which is a REAL FAVORITE of mine.  

 

WORD HISTORY:

Stout-This word, primarily used as an adjective, but also used as a noun, is related to "stall," the noun forms meaning "place for animals or small business outlet or kiosk," and "avoidance for taking some action," and to the verb form "to lose power, or to come to a stop," to "stalk," the noun for "plant stem," but NOT to the verb form meaning "to follow someone in a stealthy way," to "stilt," and to the main part of "install," with all of these words coming from Germanic, but with "stall," with the meaning "avoidance of taking action," being borrowed from French, which had it from Germanic Frankish, and "install" being a word borrowed by English from French, which had it from Latin, which had it from Germanic. "Stout" goes back to Indo European "stel," which had the notion, "to stand something in place, to put or place." This gave West Germanic "stult" (from one of the Old Germanic forms that likely produced one or more of the related words above, but which is uncertain), meaning "upright, rigid, firm," and thus figurative meanings, "proud, strutting, bold." There are forms in the continental West Germanic languages from long ago, but no Old English form is known, "perhaps" because this form developed after the Anglo-Saxons had gone to Britain? (Of course too, it could have been little used and, thus, unrecorded, and then died out?) Frankish, one of the continental West Germanic languages, had "stolt," and Old French absorbed the form as "estolt," meaning "courageous, bold," but seemingly also at times "foolhardy" (bold to the point of foolishness), and this then became "estout," meaning "courageous, bold, fierce, temperamental." English borrowed the word in the early 1300s as "stout" meaning "bold, courageous, valiant, steadfast, vigorous, strong." Within a few decades, the word had also developed the meaning "powerfully built," but by circa 1800, this had gone to "heavy set, fat, bulky" and has been used as a softened term for "fat in build." The noun use of "stout" for "strong ale" is from the 1670s.