FRENCH TOAST

WHAT A GREAT WAY TO USE OLD BREAD. The French invented it, so they say. But then again, the French are responsible for much of the underpinnings of modern cooking, except for pasta, which the Chinese claim to have invented and the Italians to have perfected.

Like all good European cuisines, very little is allowed to go to waste in France. They are adept at using all sorts of things in their cooking that most of us Americans throw away. Take tripe. Who, but a true gastronome or a starving peasant would think to eat an animal’s stomach? In the Wise Encyclopedia of Cookery, tripe is explained as a dish that is enjoyed by “society’s two extremes, the topmost and the lowermost strata, while the multitudinous middle classes of the world look upon it with genteel disdain and noses tilted.” There’s something to be said for the wisdom of the masses.

Then there’s the French appetite for “trail”--short for entrails. To prepare trail, as Craig Claiborne describes in his book, The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, you roast a whole bird, such as a woodcock, open it up and scrape the entrails into a pot, add a brown sauce and serve over toast—most likely made from the same sort of bread used in pain perdu, the French’s version of our French toast. Pain perdu, for those of us unschooled in the first language of diplomacy, means lost bread.

In short, French toast was devised as a way to use leftover stale bread. And stale bread is probably the best for French toast. If not stale, then bread with a little more substance than what we get from our commercial white sandwich bread will do.

I prefer to use the homemade bread that was a staple at our house growing up (see the recipe in the Baked Goods Section) and that we now get only on my mother’s Thanksgiving visits and the rare occasions when I try my hand at it. The trouble is, my mother’s bread never lasts for the requisite two days that the recipe calls for. Not to worry though, fresh bread will do, and you can even use fresh, store-bought white bread!

Like pancakes, French toast is best eaten fresh off the griddle or fry pan. Our stovetop griddle accommodates eight slices, so if more than four of us are eating breakfast at once; the cook gets to eat later and alone.

My recipe is eminently embellish-able, so have at it. It makes eight slices or enough to serve four people.

French Toast: The Recipe

For eight slices

Ingredients

4 large eggs, one egg for every two slices of bread.

About ¾ cup milk, half and half or cream , depending on how rich of a blend you like.

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ teaspoon cinnamon sugar (Try a little orange liquor or orange juice or some lemon zest for a different taste. Remember, a little goes a long way.)

8 slices of two-day-old bread (Fresh bread can be a little flimsy once it’s soaked in the egg and milk.)

3-4 tablespoons butter

Salt and pepper to taste

First: Whisk together the eggs, milk (or cream), vanilla and flavoring in a shallow bowl wide enough to accommodate a slice of bread. It’s easier to put all the ingredients into a covered container and shake them until blended, especially if you’re using cinnamon, which resists being incorporated into anything.

Second: Melt the butter in the skillet or on the griddle over medium to medium-high heat. Be generous with the butter.

Third: As the butter stops sizzling, dip a slice of bread in the egg mixture on both sides until it is saturated, then lay on the griddle or fry pan. Proceed quickly with additional slices until the pan or griddle is full. Cook until the underside is golden brown (about two minutes). Turn and finish cooking the other side (about one to two minutes) until it is golden as well.

And finally: Serve immediately with your favorite topping—powdered sugar, maple syrup, berries, jam, etc.