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Mennonite Toast
Beat up three eggs well, add a pint of sweet milk and a pinch of salt; cut slices an inch thick from a loaf of baker's bread, remove crust, dip slices into the eggs and milk, fry like doughnuts in very hot lard or drippings, till a delicate brown, butter and sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve hot. - Mrs. J. P. Rea, Lancaster, Pa.
This is deep-fried French toast, and the frying is what distinguishes it from the pan-cooked version most cooks know. The batter is very thin by modern standards, so the bread does the work.
- The hinge: bread and fat temperatureInch-thick slices of a sturdy white loaf hold their shape; fresh soft sandwich bread will collapse in hot fat. The recipe asks only for "very hot" fat, which in practice means the usual deep-frying range, hot enough to seal the surface immediately, or the slices drink it.
- "Sweet milk"Simply fresh unsoured milk, as opposed to the buttermilk or clabbered milk also kept in the kitchen. Whole milk is the right substitute; a pint is two cups.
- Batter ratioThree eggs to a pint of milk is a thin custard, closer to a soak than a coating. Dip briefly rather than letting the slices sit, or the centers will be raw and wet when the outside browns.
- "Fry like doughnuts"Meaning submerged in deep fat, not in a skillet film. About two inches of fat in a heavy pot is enough; fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash.
- Lard or drippingsBoth work and both taste of themselves. Lard is neutral enough for a sweet dish; bacon drippings will read savory. Refined peanut or vegetable oil is the modern default.
- DrainingThe original goes straight from fat to butter and sugar. Drain on a rack for a moment first, otherwise the powdered sugar dissolves into a glaze and the underside stays greasy.
- YieldThe batter is enough for roughly eight to ten thick slices, serving four. Hold finished slices on a rack in a 200F oven while you fry the rest.
Bread dipped in egg and milk and fried is one of the oldest ways of rescuing stale loaves, recorded in medieval European kitchens long before it was called French toast; German-speaking households knew versions as arme Ritter, "poor knights." The name here points to the Pennsylvania Mennonite communities around Lancaster, and the recipe carries a contributor's name and town in the manner of the community-compiled cookbooks of the period. Worth noting is the instruction to use baker's bread: it specifies a bought loaf rather than assuming a home-baked one, and the uniform crumb of such a loaf takes well to being cut into even thick slices and deep-fried.