Talk:French toast

Gypsy toast

I can't find any specific source that says WHO first called it gypsy toast, or when, or why, but if you do a simple Google search for "gypsy toast" you will find many, many hits, including many recipes for it. Some of them appear to date back at least several years and all of them seem to be reputable enough. Unless we can definitely show that it was introduced into WP by a vandal and THEN outsiders started calling it by that name because of the WP source, I would be inclined to leave it in. And keep looking.... (Just looked at my magisterial M-W Unabridged of 1940 and *IT* has "french toast" but not "gypsy toast". Hayford Peirce (talk) 20:46, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

Just did a careful examination of the History of the phrase "gypsy toast" in the Wikipedia article, and it was only inserted about a week ago. So my speculation that *other* sources were using WP in order call their recipes "gypsy toast" was wrong. You can find internet recipes for "gypsy toast" going back at least five years or more. Hayford Peirce (talk) 20:56, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

Google Books finds mentions of Gypsy toast more than 10 years old:

• Nigella Lawson, 2010
• Élodie Bonnet, 2006
• It's even mentioned in a Gypsy cookbook, Gypsy Feast, 2004 p. 77

That said, Gypsy toast can also mean other things

• A "toast" for drinking (supposedly) used by Gypsies
• a recipe involving stewed tomatoes
• fried eggs and toast [1]
• bread fried in some chicken/goose fat and garlic, in a Hungarian cookbook p. 253

But it is not a very common name, so it's not clear that it belongs in the article at all. --Macrakis (talk) 22:21, 1 July 2020 (UTC)

I agree. Unless there are some actual British restaurants that list it on their menus as "gypsy toast", I would remove it. A few websites are not enough. Hayford Peirce (talk) 15:18, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi Nice to meet you all! ~ this source here mentions Gypsy toast as one of the names. Regards ~mitch~ (talk) 16:29, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

@Peterdjones: It was added to the article in 2013. Gypsy/Gipsy toast/bread does seem to have some currency, but it is rare in Google Books, and doesn't seem to appear in standard references (OED, Oxford Companion to Food, etc.). Maybe the original adder can give us some more background.

Mitchellhobbs, random newspaper articles are not great sources for things like this. There's a good chance that the reporter relied on WP for those names. --Macrakis (talk) 16:34, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Yea I kinda figured they might be off of WP ~ after I did some checking about the paper ~ it's a stand alone ~ that why I did not make it RS ~ Here is a little bit of reading, talking about North England I just started researching ~ ~mitch~ (talk) 16:40, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Although ~ the Daily Press owned by Tribune Publishing speaks of Gypsy toast in one of their articles, maybe an RS? ~mitch~ (talk) 17:05, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Okay, THAT certainly seems like a reliable source. On the other hand, Newport News is in the United STATES, not the United KINGDOM. Hayford Peirce (talk) 17:12, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

LOL ~ Yea I'm still looking around the UK ` I got to go and run some errands ~ I'll do some more when I return ~ Nice to meet both of you all ~ ~mitch~ (talk) 17:35, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Okay, so I guess I'm not going after all. "a tiny pot of home-made brown sauce to go with my gypsy toast" ~mitch~ (talk) 18:09, 2 July 2020 (UTC)

Having a mother who cooked a lot and who read and used a lot of cookery book and magazines, having lived all round the UK, I am pretty sure 'Gypsy Toast' was not a UK thing until relatively recently. As in, it's an import via American media exposure, and celebrity chefs have included it in their books as it is something novel rather than traditional. SandJ-on-WP (talk) 15:34, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

References

There should be an attempt to explain why “French toast” is so-named

This article offers no explanation as to why a dish that clearly wasn’t invented by the French is called “French toast”. From what I’ve read, there isn’t a definitive explanation, but the “most popular theory” is that it is named not after France, but some 18th-century American restauranteur called “Josef French”. People who read this article will want SOME explanation, and 1 or more of the strongest available should be provided—even if one has to qualify that no specific explanation has been solidly confined. It would be unfair to leave readers clueless when explanations—however inconclusive—exist. A topic called “Possible Derivations of the Name”—providing at least 1 theory, along with assessments of its/their reliability, would suffice. 24.112.172.98 (talk) 08:06, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

agreed! It's a weird omission. 119.18.0.30 (talk) 07:52, 15 July 2023 (UTC)

Do you have a reliable source for this?

As for "It would be unfair to leave readers clueless when explanations—however inconclusive—exist." That's not really the Wikipedia approach. If there are reputable writers who make plausible claims, that's one thing. But I can't find any trace of a Josef French, let alone of his being connected to this dish. --Macrakis (talk) 19:45, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

Name

I keep seeing references to French toast being called eggy bread…seriously why would anyone with more than 3 brain cells call it eggy bread, it’s called French toast. 101.119.92.239 (talk) 08:42, 30 December 2023 (UTC)

Guessing because you live in Australia (according to your IP) rather than Northern England, where this is a common, uncontroversial name. 阝工巳几千凹父工氐 (talk) 00:28, 1 January 2024 (UTC)

French Toast APICIUS recipe includes [and beaten eggs] documented - revision needed

Directly taken from text translation includes [and beaten eggs] The Project Gutenberg eBook of Apicius: Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome, by Joseph Dommers Vehling. ""[296] ANOTHER SWEET DISH ALITER DULCIA BREAK [slice] FINE WHITE BREAD, CRUST REMOVED, INTO RATHER LARGE PIECES WHICH SOAK IN MILK [and beaten eggs] FRY IN OIL, COVER WITH HONEY AND SERVE [1]. [1] “French” Toast, indeed!—Sapienti sat!"" see link https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29728/29728-h/29728-h.htm Pretzelfactory (talk) 14:17, 24 June 2024 (UTC)