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German Toast

A bread-based dish soaked in egg, milk, and salt, then fried until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk 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 ↓

German Toast

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Beat the egg in a bowl.

  2. Add the milk and salt to the egg and mix well.

  3. Pour the mixture onto a platter.

Cook the toast

  1. Soak the bread in the mixture, turning occasionally until fully absorbed.

  2. Grease a griddle and brown the soaked bread on both sides.

  3. Sprinkle with sugar if desired.

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 + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Forms the base that soaks up the custard and browns into the finished toast.
Egg
Binds the milk mixture and helps the toast set when cooked.
Milk
Adds moisture that soaks into the bread and softens its interior.

The step that matters

Soak the bread until fully absorbed. If the bread is under-soaked, the centre stays dry and custard-like patches may not set. Turning it occasionally lets the liquid penetrate evenly before it hits the griddle.

“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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