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French Toast

A sweetened bread dish fried in butter after dipping in a milk and egg mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

French Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the milk and salt.

  2. Dip each slice of bread into the egg mixture, ensuring both sides are coated.

Fry and serve

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Fry the coated bread slices in the hot butter until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Sprinkle sugar over the toast and serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set during frying to form the custard coating that holds the bread together.
Milk
Adds moisture to the egg mixture, keeping the bread soft inside after soaking.
Bread
Soaks up the egg mixture and browns in the butter to form the toast.
Butter
Conducts heat to the bread surface and adds fat for browning and flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the exterior caramelize slightly when sprinkled on the hot toast.

The step that matters

Fry the coated bread slices in the hot butter until golden brown on both sides.. The butter must be hot enough to brown the egg-coated surface quickly. If the heat is too low, the bread absorbs excess liquid and turns soggy before the egg sets and browns.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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