[Food] Eggy Bread/French Toast

[karohemd]

Prompted by professoryaffle's top five recipes, I tried to find out why this was called "Arme Ritter" in German but have been without success so far.

However, I came across a reference on wikipedia that it's also called "Poor Knights of Windsor" in the UK? Have any of my UK friends heard this usage?

Clarification: What I'm talking about is (usually stale) bread slices coated in a beaten egg/milk mix and then fried in the pan, usually sweetened and seasoned with vanilla and/or cinammon. There definitely seem to exist a number of regional variations, both in style and naming.

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

It's always been eggy bread to me. I thought french toast was just really really thin toast, as well. LOL.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

really really thin toast

That's Scotch toast ;-)

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

Melba Toast!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I think French Toast is mainly used in the US.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I am vaguely aware, now you say it, of it being called "Poor Knights" -- but I think it must be just from having read it mentioned in some old novel, rather than from real life.

I wonder why Windsor specifically, or is it just that they were the only English order of Poor Knights?

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I don't know, that's why I asked. :o)

[djonma.livejournal.com]

What we call french toast is fried bread really. I've never even heard of eggy bread.

The windsor connection comes from The Poor Knights of Windsor I guess.
Chartered by some king or other. A George I think.

Dunno why it's called that though.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

The wikipedia page on the PKOW mentions that the name is also used for the above mentioned dish but doesn't give the connection, either. Weird.

Let's see what my vast friends list of learned weirdos brings up. :o)

[derekct.livejournal.com]

Eggie Bread or French Toast to myself.

[diasporal-waves.livejournal.com]

Never heard of poor knights, but I now want French toast! I know what I am having for dinner tonight...

[puddingcat.livejournal.com]

"French Toast" is bread (not stale!) soaked in omelette mixture and fried on both sides. No sweeteners or cinnamon involved - it's entirely savoury.

"Cinnamon toast" is buttered toast sprinkled with sugar cinnamon, then put under a nukingly hot grill until it goes crispy on top.

"Melba toast" is what you get when you split a slice of normal toast lengthwise, then toast the sides that used to be the middle to give very thin, crispy, dry toast. Good for dipping instead of Doritos.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Looking at various recipes, the type of bread and the addition of any seasoning or not seems to vary wildly. I guess it's one of those typical dishes that evolve in the family and are passed down the generations.

I need to try making Melba toast at one point. Sounds good.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Use a low grill. Melba Toast burns in patches very easily.
I've heard of Eggy Bread also being called "Gypsy Toast", but never "Poor Knights of Windsor", that's new to me.

And I agree with puddingcat, staleness would not enhance the French Toast/Eggy Bread experience one jot. I wouldn't use totally fresh bread for it either mind, that would be sacrilege.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

The bread being stale isn't necessarily important but it's a dish you can make with stale bread.

[mr-malk.livejournal.com]

Additonally:

A quick glance at a well known search engine led me to this explanation for Poor Knights of Windsor.

It says it dates back to the C14th, and was also known as "Poor Knights Pudding", which makes sense. It has the feel of a nice, cheap easy dish. I've never heard the term before though, and can't help thinking that it has been obsolete in mainstream British usage for some considerable time, but that the reference has never been updated in foreign cookery books, which have their own lineage, and don't cross check their trivia with contemporary usage!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

The interesting question is how the name came over to Germany (where it is the standard common name) in the 18th century.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Maybe German knights weren't as poor as English ones, so had been able to eat ordinary toast during the intervening centuries. Then they fell on hard times as a result of the Thirty Years' War...

Ah, another of Britain's wonderful contributions to world cuisine (according to the page linked above).

[eviltwinemma.livejournal.com]

This little snippet from your link made me laugh!

So I guess 'poor knights of Windsor' is short for 'poor knights of Windsor's pudding'.
observation by Geitner Simmons: Does that mean that before 1917 they referred to it as “Poor Knights of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha”?

[cabd.livejournal.com]

French toast in our family, eggy bread seems more common though.

Have you considered consulting Mrs. Beeton?

[viscount-s.livejournal.com]

I second Mr_Malks post - I'd heard that it was an old tradition that goes back to the late middle ages, where the local member of the nobility would provide food for his guests. Now, whilst the more honoured (and thus senior) of the guests would get a more fancier meal, protocol required that you provide food for everyone at the dinner table & the poorer of the knights were entitled to get the same treatment, as the richer people.

As a result, this dish turned up, allowing the lord of the manor to save face & feed the poorer of the knights with a cheap dish, whilst allowing the big-wigs to eat the fancier dishes.

Anyway, that’s what I read somewhere, many moons ago.

S

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

That sounds much more like a post-hoc inventive attempt at explanation than a genuine derivation of the term!

[whollyrandom.livejournal.com]

True, but it's a neat explanation.

This is of no help at all, but the French would call it 'pain perdu'.

[eviltwinemma.livejournal.com]

That would be "sweet eggy bread" to me, (savoury variation: black pepper instead of cinnamon, serve with ketchup) but I've got a couple of historical cookery books that mention the "Poor Knights" thing. Remind me to post amazon links to the books when I can find 'em.