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Dessert

French Toast

A sweetened bread dish made by dipping stale bread in egg mixture, frying, and sprinkling cinnamon and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

French Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Make the egg mixture

  1. Beat the egg slightly, then add salt and milk.

  2. Dip the bread slices in the egg mixture.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat a frying pan and add butter until melted.

  2. Brown the bread on one side, then place a small piece of butter on top of each slice.

  3. Turn the bread and brown the other side.

  4. Serve hot with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar, or with syrup.

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Bind the milk and bread together and set into a custard-like coating when cooked.
Milk
Moistens the bread and loosens the egg mixture so it soaks in evenly.
Bread
Soaks up the egg mixture and browns in the pan to form the crisp exterior.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and browning, plus rich flavour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown.

The step that matters

Brown the bread on one side, then turn it. Bread that is too hot will scorch on the outside before the custard inside sets; medium heat lets the egg cook through while the surface browns evenly.

“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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