French Toast History

Now the next time we see French toast pop back up in history is during the medieval era.

The simple concoction of bread, eggs, and milk makes a batter that was used to make stale loaves more palatable. But it is disputed as to whether the individual areas of Europe stumbled upon this discovery by themselves or whether the French were the first to dip their bread and spread it around.

We know that there was a dish that was highly popular in the medieval era, particularly in England, called Suppe Dortae however, it’s unclear, however, whether it was brought over from what’s now France by the Normans, who may have delighted in something called tostees dorees before toppling King Harold II in 1066.

The first written mention of the FT comes from the court of Henry V of England. It was called pain perdu, or “lost bread,”. This is perhaps a reference to the fact that the battering rescues bread that would otherwise be discarded as too old.

Around the same time separate texts from around Europe also included their own versions of French Toast. In Spain it was called Torriga and in Germany it was called Arme Ritter.

Now before we go any further, I found something a bit strange about the German translation that I thought would be worth mentioning.

So Arme Ritter in English translates to Poor Knight.

I saw this and was immediately rock hard.

I knew there would be some mad little story about that origin of their version of the dish with a name like that.

What I came across was a little odd and doesn’t really make a lot of sense but I thought I’d share it anywho.

So the dish is thought to have gained its name from the order of knights established by Edward III.

Quick quote to summarise Edward III just in case anybody wasn’t familiar with him.

He was the flower of earthly warriors, under whom to fight was to rule, to go forth was to prosper, to contend was to triumph … Against his foes he was grim as a leopard, toward his subjects mild as a lamb.

Pretty decent ruler by all accounts.

These knights are men who have fallen on hard times after the battle of Crecy in 1346 where the English lost just 300 men and the French are thought to have lost around 4000 men.

Fun fact about the battle of Crecy, it was the first and biggest battle in which longbowmen fought against knights and won against overwhelming numbers. This is where the English Longbow established itself as a powerhouse in Medieval warfare.

Anyway, although the battle was a resounding victory for the English, a couple of knights were still captured by the French. And in order to be set free, they had to sell off their home estates and ransom themselves out of capture. Thus leaving them poor.

The story goes that Edward felt bad for these knights and set up the Poor Knights of Windsor. The knights were given residence in Windsor Castle, and they worked for their housing by performing duties around the castle.

As they were poor, they could only afford to eat bread, eggs and milk. Naturally, they experimented as eating the same shit every night would have been worse than being a captive of the French and eventually are said to have concocted French Toast.

Here is their recipe:

Cut two penny loaves in round slices, dip them in half a pint of Cream or faire water, then lay them abroad in a dish, and beat three Eggs and grated Nutmegs and sugar, beat them with the Cream then melt some butter in a frying pan, and wet the sides of the toasts and lay them in on the wet side, then pour in the rest upon them, and so fry them, serve them in with Rosewater, sugar and butter.

Now, this story is nice but I think it’s got a few too many holes for my liking.

Like surely there is cheaper stuff to eat than bread, eggs and milk? Gruel for example?

Not really buying it but still an interesting story of French Toast history.

Funnily enough, The Poor Knights of Windsor still exist today but are no longer necessarily poor and no longer called as such. They are now known as military knights and mostly consist of military pensioners.