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German Toast

German Toast is a fried bread dish made by dipping sliced wheat bread in a thick egg and milk batter, then frying in lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and wheat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,418 recipes. Both carry (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, melon. The science ↓

German Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk.

  2. Add enough flour to create a thick batter.

Prepare the bread

  1. Soak the thin slices of wheat bread in sweetened water.

  2. Dip each slice into the batter, coating both sides.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the coated slices in hot lard until browned.

  2. Serve hot with butter and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

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. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  2. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Wheat + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help the coating set and hold together when fried.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the batter, helping it coat the bread evenly.
Flour
Thickens the milk and egg mixture so it clings to the bread as a coating.
Wheat bread
Soaks up the batter and sweetened water, then fries to a soft interior with a browned exterior.
Lard
Fries the coated slices, transferring heat and encouraging browning on the outside.

The step that matters

Fry the coated slices in hot lard until browned. If the lard is not hot enough, the batter absorbs fat slowly and the slices turn greasy and soggy instead of crisp. Hot fat sets the coating quickly and drives browning.

“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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