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French Toast

A simple dish of bread soaked in beaten egg and milk, then fried in butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter 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 the custard

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. Add the milk and salt. Mix well.

  3. Slice the light bread.

  4. Dip each slice into the mixture, allowing it to absorb some milk.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat a griddle. Add butter.

  2. Brown the soaked bread slices on the griddle.

  3. Spread with butter.

  4. 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. Bread + buttertop 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

Egg
Binds the milk to the bread and helps the slices set and hold together when cooked.
Milk
Soaks into the bread to moisten it and supplies the liquid that gives the dish its custard-like interior.
Light bread
Soaks up the egg and milk mixture, then browns on the griddle to form the crisp outer surface.
Butter
Adds fat that helps the bread brown evenly on the griddle and adds richness.

The step that matters

Brown the soaked bread slices on the griddle. Bread that is too wet or a griddle that is too cool will steam rather than brown, leaving the slices pale and soggy. Enough heat and a brief soak let the surface caramelise and set.

“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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