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[personal profile] scottobear
French toast was most likely not invented by a Joseph French of Albany, New York, in 1724. I do not see and I cannot find any evidence supporting the claims on behalf of Mr. French, though plenty of people are willing to give him credit.

In addition, the Oxford English Dictionary has a citation for French toast under the entry for "French," some 64 years before Mr. French of Albany supposedly coined the term. It appears to be the same food, even if the recipe varies a bit (mainly by the absence of eggs and the soaking after toasting rather than before).

From the OED, second edition:

"1660 R. MAY Accomplisht Cook VI. 162 French Toasts. Cut French Bread, and toast it in pretty thick toasts on a clean gridiron, and serve them steeped in claret, sack, or any wine, with sugar and juyce of orange."


Most of the entries found on the Internet and in news articles (such as here and here) stem from a single unverified source, a source without attributions, notes, bibliography or any other supporting documents.

Tsk Tsk. For what it's worth, I'd always thought French toast was simply toasted French bread.

french

Date: 2003-03-15 05:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] peradouro.livejournal.com
I've talked about the word french as it applies to food with several people conversationally and we sort of concluded it was just a misnomer meaning "fried". Kind of like the mistake people make with refried beans because of the word "refrito".

Re: french

Date: 2003-03-15 06:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
Not a bad conclusion, I suspect!

hey i wonder.........

Date: 2003-03-15 06:25 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spiderstomper.livejournal.com
what can ya find on the family name of grae?

Re: hey i wonder.........

Date: 2003-03-15 06:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
Oh, heck, that'd be pages, probably. I'd think a good google search with the region (if you know where the family started) would work well.

Re: hey i wonder.........

Date: 2003-03-15 06:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spiderstomper.livejournal.com
heh........i was guessin it would be pretty large.....i was curious as to if you had some special sites that you used besides google......


hows spring break going down there?

and has the air and sea show happened yet?

Re: hey i wonder.........

Date: 2003-03-15 06:41 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] scottobear.livejournal.com
spring break is just winding up. If there's a particular site, I 'd look with the LDS folks. Mormons are big into geneology and have a huge database.

no air and sea show yat, as far as I know.

Re: hey i wonder.........

Date: 2003-03-15 07:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spiderstomper.livejournal.com
heh......youd know if the show started......remember the odd and sudden appearance/sound of those wonderful flying machines!

wyatt says hello to his cousin newt!

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