Pain perdu

Considered an early version of the famous breakfast fare called french toast, pain perdu is a simple French dish that is based on old, stale bread. The use of stale bread for this dish is even suggested by its name, which translates to lost bread or wasted bread in French. To make pain perdu, slices of stale bread with their crusts removed are soaked in an egg-and-milk mixture before they’re fried in melted butter until nicely colored and crispy. A recipe for a dish called payn perdu was found in an old English cookbook dating back to about 1430. This version calls for dipping slices of bread in beaten eggs, then frying them in butter, and finally serving the fried slices with sugar on top. According to Martha Washington’s Book of Cookery, pain perdu was adopted by the English early on, and thereby the recipe for the dish featured in almost any English cookbook. Another version hailing from the 18th century suggests soaking crustless bread slices in a combination of beaten eggs, cream, wine (Sac), sugar, and nutmeg. The soaked slices of bread are then fried in butter and enjoyed with a sauce made with sugar, butter, and Sac.