An apocryphal story

 

衝撃の事実 pic.twitter.com/wq0O4Opmi0

— ごじむ (@goji_mutyu) March 21, 2021

Myth: French Toast is French.

But before we give our man Joe all the credit, let’s check the facts. According to a collection of recipes from the early 5th century AD, the dish we now know as French toast existed as early as the age of the Roman Empire. In their style of French toast, called Pan Dulcis, Romans would soak bread in a milk and egg mixture, then fry it in oil or butter.

French Toast Isn't French - Here's How It Got Its Name

Is French Toast Really French?

According to promotional literature produced by IHOP, the first written mention of the delicacy comes from the court of Henry V of England. It was called pain perdu, or “lost bread,” perhaps a reference to the fact that the battering rescues bread that would otherwise be discarded as too old

 Vernacular texts from around the same time refer to virtually identical dishes called either “nun’s toast” or “poor knights of Windsor.” In Spain, it was called torriga; in Germany, arme ritter.

A contradictory, though highly dubious, creation myth holds that French toast owes its creation to an Albany, N.Y., innkeeper named Joseph French. Legend has it that French whipped up a batch of the golden-brown treats in 1724 and advertised them as “French toast” because he’d never learned to use an apostrophe “s.”

Another unlikely story is that French toast was always called German toast until World War I, when the change was made for patriotic reasons. Though French toast certainly gained nationwide popularity during this era, it’s generally agreed that this tale of disrespecting the Kaiser via toast-renaming is apocryphal.

An apocryphal story is probably not true although it is often told and believed by some people to have happened:

似たような料理自体はローマ時代からあった、と。イギリスでは捨てるようなパンを生かした料理として知られていたが、同じようなものはスペインにも独にもあった。

　一説によれば、宿屋の主人のFrench さんがメニューで「フレンチトースト」として宣伝していた。本来French's Toast とすべきだったが、文法に弱くアポストロフィをつけ忘れた、と。もっとも、もともと「ドイツトースト」といわれていたが、第一次大戦のとき愛国心から「フレンチトースト」にかわったのだという人達もいるーしかしどちらも疑わしい話であるようである。

-ーーーそう言われると、話はずれるが、Mcdonald'sもアポストロフィがついてたんだ！