Tostees Dorees: Medieval French Toast

I was browsing my print copy of Le Viandier de Taillevent, a French recipe collection originally written around the year 1300, and came across a simple recipe called Tostees dorees. I had never heard of this recipe but the directions seemed eerily familiar. Toasted bread dipped in egg yolks and fried in grease? That’s French toast!

I read somewhere that French toast originated in the 18th century and was probably named after a non-French innkeeper with the last name of “French.” Having dabbled in ancient Roman recipes I knew this legend masquerading online as “fact” wasn’t true and that bread soaked in milk and egg and fried in butter has been around for nearly 2,000 years. Apicius called it aliter dulcia (literally “another sweet dish” #296 in De re Coquinaria Book VII).

Variations on this dish show up in medieval and Renaissance Europe under a few names but…