Tracing the First French Toast Back to Ancient Rome | Ancient Recipes with Sohla

Sohla El-Waylly traces the fascinating history of French toast all the way back to the Roman Empire, in this episode of Ancient Recipes with Sohla.

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Ancient Recipes with Sohla takes the food you know and love and traces it back to its origins. In each episode, Sohla El-Waylly details the surprising history of some of our favorite dishes as she attempts to recreate the original version using historical cooking techniques and ingredients. Along the way, Sohla highlights the differences between the ancient recipe and how we would prepare the modern version today.
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– Hey there. We’re here again, the “Ancient Recipes” kitchen. I am so excited. Today, we’re making ancient Roman sweet milk toast that was a precursor to French toast using its original written recipe. French toast actually has its origins going back to Rome. So maybe it’s not actually French, but Italian. I’m excited. Today, we’re making Italian toast using the… (record scratching) No, I can’t. I’m still gonna call it French toast. Was that weird? Hey there. I’m Sohla El-Waylly, and this is “Ancient Recipes with Sohla.” In each episode, we take a dish you may recognize and attempt to recreate one

Of the oldest versions of it to ever exist. It’s a little cooking, a little history, and a whole lot of me. What’s not to love? We constantly hear how breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Omelets, frittatas, pancakes, chicken and waffles, kuku sabzi, cereal, porridge, yogurt, the list of amazing breakfast foods is literally endless. But breakfast, the meal as we know it, didn’t become a thing until the 1600s. Throughout ancient times, in most cultures,

An early meal in the day was saved for children, those who were sick and old, or those who needed to get up really early to start working. When we say early, we mean early. In the Roman Empire, there are writings saying that breakfast was served as early as 3:00 or 4:00 AM.

Ancient Roman breakfast consisted of something quick and simple, usually eaten on the go. Bread, beer, cheese, fruits, nuts, maybe some leftovers from the night before. Super relatable to now, to be honest, grabbing some carbs or fruit on your way to work in the morning. During medieval times in Europe,

Eating breakfast was even considered a sin. These sumptuary laws were pretty strict rules on who was allowed to eat breakfast because it was considered gluttonous. But during the Tudor reign, breakfast became much more common. The hours of the first meal started shifting back closer to modern lunchtime.

People also started to more widely have jobs working for someone else as opposed to working their own land. That required them to work long hours without the ability to take a break. So, in came a larger breakfast to start the day. There’s another layer to this, though.

The idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is very much an advertising ploy from the early 1900s by cereal companies and an early bacon manufacturer hoping to get expert opinions to push their products. The recipe for this comes from the cookbook we’ve already dipped into a few times, “Apicius.”

This barley mash comes to us from our good old, go-to ancient cookbook. “Apicius.” Before we get started making this breakfast toast of the Caesars, we’re gonna start things off with the coffee Italians are known for, espresso. Coffee used to take a long time to make

Until espresso made its debut at the 1906 Milan Fair with something actually pretty similar to what we still use now. Cheers. Now I’m ready. I’m ready to get started. This is a loaf of bread that we made in the Pompeii episode, which seems like forever ago. It’s called panis quadratis. This recipe calls for any kind of wheat bread, though. When French toast spread throughout Europe and picked up the French influence,

It was named pain perdu, meaning lost bread. This was a way for people to still use their semi-stale bread, soaking it in eggs and milk to soften it. So to get some of that same vibe, we let the panis quadratis get slightly stale as well. So I’m gonna break this up and take

Off the crust and I’m gonna cut this into bite-sized pieces. This isn’t like the big slices of French toast that you see at like a diner. These are like almost like little croutons, little French toast nuggets, which I think is gonna be even better. You get a better ratio of crunch.

The only thing I remember from this episode, when we made the panis quadratis, is using the dowel to get the unique shape. Oh, and I believe that there were like, still loaves in the oven that were preserved. So we have a pretty good idea of what it looked like.

My like ideal French toast bread would be something like rich, like a brioche or challah, but I honestly think any bread really works. ‘Cause once you put syrup all over it, it’s delicious. We’re gonna break it up into little nuggets. So dainty. And I like that we’ve got these like, coarse edges.

So we’re gonna get lots of good, crispy crunchy. – All right, we’ve got our bread de-crusted and cut into pieces. Now we’re ready to soak and fry them. Here, I’ve got a little bit of olive oil heating up, so I think that’s gonna be interesting.

I don’t usually make my French toast in olive oil. And back then, goat’s milk was considered superior to cow’s milk. So we’re using goat milk here. I think that’ll add a little, nice, funky flavor. This is pretty much like how you make French toast now, you know? We got bread soaking, frying.

I think the one thing that I find interesting is that there’s no egg here. I’ve only ever made it with a mix of egg and like a little bit of milk. So here, we’re going all milk. So I’m just turning it to coat. And then we’re gonna add our little chunks

Right into this oil. Fry ’em until they’re golden brown. Nice sizzle. That’s always good. As soon as this bread hits the oil, the first thing I can smell is actually the sourdough aroma from the bread. This is like a naturally leavened bread. It’s not got commercial yeast, you know, ’cause she’s ancient. And I can smell that immediately. When you’re frying with such a small amount of oil,

You can’t really have a thermometer in there. So you figure out the temp based on the sound of the sizzle. When I put it in, it was maybe a little bit too hot, but now you can see after a few pieces are in there, this is the exact temp we want.

So this forefather to French toast was actually labeled as another sweet in “Apicius” and not seen as something Romans would eat in the morning. Instead, it was more of just a sweet side dish. The “Apicius” cookbook dates back to the 1st century and is the oldest surviving cookbook from the Western World.

It’s actually a compilation of recipes from many different authors throughout antiquity. Though it is from ancient Rome, there is so much Greek influence that it’s better to look at it like an ancient Mediterranean cookbook rather than just Roman. It contains recipes for so many different types of meals,

From the lavish, like flamingo, dolphin, and ostrich, to the simple, like pasta and porridge. I was able to catch up with our show historian and Professor of History at the University of the Pacific, Ken Albala, a few weeks ago to learn a bit more

About French toast and make sure our recipe is on track. Hi, Ken. Always good to catch up with you. So I know that this Roman version of fried milk toast we’re making isn’t exactly French toast. So when did the pain perdu as we know it start popping up?

– When that appears, that’s really in the 14th century. This is in a cookbook that is, again, attributed to this guy named Geon Terell, whose name was called Teovant, which means sliced wind. I assume that’s what he was doing with his knife or something. And you toast the bread first and it’s actually

Called tostees dorees, which means golden toasts. And what he has you do is cut the toast into little squares and then roast it on a grill. So it’s got a sort of grilled, you know, char to it, toast to it, which is fine, and then it’s just egg yolk.

So the egg yolks are beaten up, you soak that in the egg yolks, and then it’s fried in lard. So I’ll read you a little bit of it. You put it into the lard and then roast it until it’s beautiful and nicely golden. And then arrange it on a platter and put, sprinkle sugar on top. So, that’s really close to a, you know, a pain perdu. but it says to use hard bread. So this one is stale,

But most of the recipes actually don’t. They use fresh bread and toast it first. – Oh. Okay. Well, first of all, that was very good French, I just. – Medieval French. I know Medieval French, which is weird. – I feel like you should’ve had a beret on while saying that. But I think we should definitely try that version as well with the taste test ’cause that sounds really interesting. Are there any other recipes from “Apicius” that are kind of being eaten now as a breakfast similar to French toast? – Yeah, the one that I really like, there’s a whole series,

There’s actually nine of these recipes, and I did a translation of “Apicius” and decided to call them frittatas because that’s really what they look like. The first one has boiled brains, pig brains I think, with pepper, and cumin, and fish sauce, and wine, and eggs.

But it’s basically put onto a baking, a casserole, and you put that into a hot dish. So it’s kind of like a bain-marie. And you cover it up and it very gently cooks into a, you know, it’s set with eggs. Some of them have asparagus, which sounds wonderful.

Some have wild greens like tanzi and mustard greens and little chutes of cucumber. And he says you can add chicken to that. Now imagine all those things inside a frittata. That just sounds magnificent to me. There’s one made of rose petals, which is just magnificent. They’re pounded up and include other things.

So, it’s… But there’s a lot of foods in “Apicius” that really look like ancestors of the modern dish. – I feel like brains in a frittata sounds great ’cause it’s gonna be like creamy and rich. – Exactly. – That’s another fancy, I think that could be another.

We should just pull things right out of “Apicius” for a fine dining tasting. I think it would be great. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I’m really excited to dig into this French toast now. I feel like I’ve learned so much. – Well, I hope you enjoy them.

– We made the original Roman precursor to French toast, but I really liked hearing from Ken about the first version of pain perdu from medieval times. So, we’re gonna make that now. This recipe is from the medieval French cookbook, “Le Viandier.” It’s one of the earliest known European medieval cookbooks. So for this version of French toast, we’re gonna start off with some stale white toast. Feels familiar, but before we get frying, we’re gonna give it a little grill, which I haven’t done before,

But I imagine it’s gonna add some really nice flavor, nice bit of char. Gonna get a little color right on the flame. And then it’s gonna get dunked in pure egg yolks. No milk, no egg whites, straight up egg yolks. And then the final exciting twist

Is it’s going to be fried in lard. It’s a saturated fat, so it’s very different from frying in like a neutral oil. Because of that, your fried goods, they don’t get that like soggy, oily vibe. It’s just very crisp. I feel like the char’s gonna add a little nice, toasty flavor.

The egg yolks are gonna add a really nice layer of richness. And it is called golden toast, so it will be quite golden. We’re starting golden here, going golden there, golden there. It should be triple golden toast. This open fire toasting, this is exactly how my mom heats up roti.

It’s perfect for tortillas. You always get a nice puff. If you’ve got a gas burner, just get on there. Okay, so we got a nice toast on our squares. Now, best way to check and see if your oil is hot, just put a little egg in there. See, we got some bubbles.

I want my bubbles to be a little more vigorous, so I’m gonna… Oh, there we go. Vigor. That’s what we want. Now, dipping in egg yolk is really different from dipping in like a whole egg that’s beaten because it is so thick. So it’s not gonna really soak in there.

It’s almost like a coating. I imagine these are gonna fry up really fast. Here we go, first one. Nice sizzle. It’s a nice temp. So it’s really cool. The edges of the toast is kind of puffing up from the egg yolk. Check it out. Right along these edges here, we’re getting some nice little puff, kind of like when you just deep fry an egg, which is my favorite way to have an egg. Ooh. It’s poppin’. Wow.

So, the egg yolk, it didn’t seep into it the way you do normally with like a batter. It’s just on the outside. It kind of formed like a eggy tempura on the outside. Got really nice and puffy and golden and I imagine it’s gonna have a really cool texture.

I’m really glad we threw this one in ’cause this is very cool. I’ve never had anything like this and it’s not at all what I was expecting. So, that’s awesome. It’s always cool connecting with Ken. He knows everything about everything and he just casually throws in some like perfectly

Pronounced medieval French when you talk to him. It’s always fun. Now you can see, even though we are frying something wet, which oftentimes like ends up a little bit on the greasy side, because it’s lard, it’s still like very crisp and not greasy. After I finish these, while they’re still hot,

I’m gonna sprinkle with a little bit of sugar. This is like more of like an expert level fry, you know? I’m comfortable with popping. I’ve gotten all the burns, but if you’re not, maybe stick with the other toast. Okay, now that’s cool. It’s almost like it’s combining my favorite thing, which is a crispy fried egg, with French toast.

How can that go wrong? I’m even getting like maybe shrimp toast vibes a little bit. Now while it’s nice and hot, just like when you pull a donut outta the fryer, we’re gonna sprinkle it with some sugar. Cool, and I’m really excited to try this side by side

With our goat milk French toast. We’re gonna play a game. French toast actually isn’t truly French per se, with its origins tied to ancient Rome. So, we’re gonna guess if these foods I have on these cards are actually French or not. So the first one is quiche.

My guess is not French because a lot of places around the globe have custardy, eggy things baked in a tart. Okay, the answer is yes. It started in the Lorraine region of France, but when quiche was invented, Lorraine was actually a part of Germany. I think it’s questionable, right?

‘Cause when quiche was invented, Lorraine was German. So I think quiche is German. And yeah, Lorraine is now French, but you let me know what you think. I think this could go either way. You could have a strong argument either way. I’m on team Germany for this. (bell ringing) Okay.

The next one, French fries. French fries, I don’t think French fries are French. In my mind, when I think of a really good French fry, my mind goes to the Netherlands, right? They’re the people with French fries and mayo. Let’s see. Not French. They’re actually Belgian. Wait, is Belgian the Netherlands? (laughing) I am wrong, but also not French. Okay, so the next one, baguette. I believe the baguette is French. I feel like the baguette is very unique. You don’t see much like it anywhere else. It has like a very specific ratio of crusty outside

To soft inside that I haven’t seen in a lot of other breads. So my guess is French. Wow. Not French. It’s actually Austrian, being a descent of an Austrian bread. Okay, crepes. Crepes, my guess, not French ’cause there’s some kind of crepe everywhere, you know? Like, injera’s a crepe, dos is a crepe.

So I think not French is my guess. Okay, it’s French. (incorrect buzzer) They have their origins going back to the 13th century Brittany, but there are thin pancakes that are part of many different cultures going back even further than that. Well, I clearly don’t know what I’m talking about.

Let’s eat this French toast now. – We have all the French toasts ready to go. I am very excited to try these out. Let’s go in order of age, so starting with the ancient Roman version. I’m gonna have a little nugget on its own, see how it is. Really crispy on the outside. I’m a slow chewer. (laughing) Mm. Really crispy on the outside. A bit dense on the inside just because of the bread we used. You know, this is a dense, ancient bread, but I really get the flavor of the olive oil, not so much the milk.

The milk is more like bringing a texture here. So, honey was the go-to Roman sweetener. So I’m gonna try a little bit with honey, you know, for that French toast, maple syrup vibe. The sweetness of the honey is really nice against the tanginess of the sourdough, the naturally leavened bread. Plus, I’m getting a lot of, you know, kind of grassy notes from the olive oil. So it’s all really nice together. I think the best part about this though is the texture.

Breaking the bread up into these pieces, you get so many like, crunchy, craggly bits. Like, ah. I don’t know if growing up you had like, the little French toast fingers. They’re really nice when you’re a kid, bite sized. I think this is even better. This is cool. Okay.

Now, we’re gonna go for our golden toast, the precursor to pain perdu. I’m just gonna get in here and pick it up and eat it. This actually tastes nothing like French toast to me. The first thing that I taste is that char from the grilling and the egg. The combination of the char and the egg gives it a lot of like, savoriness. And then we have that balance from the sugar. And it’s a really cool texture

’cause the toast is still a bit crisp because that egg didn’t really soak into it. So you got this crispy toast with the chewy egg on the outside. It’s like, very interesting. It doesn’t feel like French toast at all to me, but it’s really cool. What really surprised me

About making these French toasts was the way the crust developed with the egg on this one. I didn’t expect it to like, bubble up as much. I don’t know why, because this is what egg does in oil, but in my mind, I thought it’d be more of like a batter,

The texture that you have traditionally. So this, it was really cool. I think it’s really interesting how you get this crunch chew situation. So, that was really fun to be able to try that out. Well, I learned that French toast isn’t truly French, that it has changed a lot since the medieval era,

And that I actually prefer grilling my French toast before frying it. I love the burnt parts. Don’t hate me. It’s kind of amazing how food can instantly make you feel connected to the past cultures and time periods. It’s a little like a time machine of dough and sauce and sugar.

There aren’t many things like it. See you next time.