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Spanish Toast

A sweet toast made by dipping bread in a milk, egg, and flour mixture and frying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, heat the milk.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, salt, and flour; cook until smooth.

Fry and serve

  1. Dip slices of bread into the mixture.

  2. Fry the dipped bread until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

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

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and bind it to the bread, giving structure and richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and softness.
Flour
Thickens the milk and egg mixture so it coats the bread smoothly.
Bread
Soaks up the custard, then browns in the pan for a crisp outer layer.

The step that matters

Cook the milk and egg mixture until smooth. Eggs can scramble if overheated, and flour can leave lumps if not stirred well. Cooking gently in a double boiler and keeping the mixture moving keeps it smooth and evenly thickened for coating the bread.

“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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