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French Toast

A sweetened bread dish cooked by dipping slices in beaten eggs and milk, then frying in butter.

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.

Cook and serve

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

  2. Fry the dipped bread slices in the hot butter until golden brown.

  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
Bind the milk and bread together and set into a tender, custardy structure when cooked.
Milk
Adds moisture to the egg mixture so the bread soaks it up and stays tender inside.
Bread
Soaks up the egg mixture and then crisps and browns in the hot butter.
Butter
Fries the bread, adding fat that promotes golden browning and rich flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and contributes to browning on the surface of the toast.

The step that matters

Fry the dipped bread slices in the hot butter until golden brown. Frying over medium heat browns the surface before the soaked interior overcooks. Too low a heat leaves the toast pale and soggy; too high scorches the outside before the custard inside sets.

“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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