Custard Bread
"Uncle John," S. C.
Take three pie plates. In the first one put some sweet milk with a spoonful of powdered cinnamon; in the second one beat up four eggs, whites and yolks; in the third one put some brown sugar. Cut some slices of stale bread, dip them first in the milk, then in the eggs, and roll them in the brown sugar and fry them in some butter until brown. Put those that are cooked in a hot plate. You can only cook three at a time in a saucepan. Keep them hot. Sprinkle a little powdered sugar and serve with a wine sauce for dessert.
French toast by another name — stale bread dipped through milk, egg, and brown sugar, then fried crisp and served with wine sauce.
- This is pain perduThe three-plate dip-and-fry is classic French toast — in Creole Louisiana, pain perdu, “lost bread.”
- “Sweet milk”That simply means fresh whole milk (as opposed to soured); it’s spiced here with cinnamon.
- Stale bread is the pointDry, day-old bread soaks up the custard without falling apart — fresh bread turns to mush.
- Fry in butter, in batchesThree slices at a time in a buttered pan; keep the finished pieces hot in a low oven while you cook the rest.
- Wine sauce finishA sweet wine sauce and a dusting of powdered sugar turn breakfast toast into a dinner dessert.
Frying stale bread soaked in egg and milk is one of the oldest ways to save a dish from going to waste — a version appears in the Roman recipe collection attributed to Apicius. The French call it pain perdu, “lost bread,” for the stale loaf it rescues, and nowhere did the idea take deeper root in America than in Creole New Orleans, where pain perdu remains a breakfast institution. Serving it as a sugared, wine-sauced dessert — as this recipe does — is a fine reminder that the humblest thrift dish could be dressed up for the finest table.
From page 61 of the 1904 edition.
Original page from the book
