Your French Toast Questions Answered By Experts

Where can I find an emotional support Rhoda?

She's like a fairy godmother.

That's very sweet, thank you.

If you're ever having a hard time in the kitchen,

just think of me and I'll appear right over your shoulder

cheering you on, nailed it!

[bell ringing]

Hi, my names Rhoda, I'm the video food director

at Bon Appetit and Epicurious.

Rhoda rescued it, and made it better.

Thank you You're welcome.

I'm Penny, I'm a professional chef

at the Institute of Culinary Education.

You probably know me as a level three chef.

Roasted bananas in maple syrup,

whipped crem fresh and a crumb topping.

Lorenzo here!

I'm a level two chef.

Oh my goodness [laughs] that's so nice!

I'm Rose, I'm a food scientist.

And I'm Emily, I'm only a level one chef!

I like to put ketchup on, because I'm a monster.

And here are all of the answers

To all of your questions

About french toast.

I bet I know what a lot of your questions

are gonna be about, custard ratios [laughs].

Let's spin that wheel!

Wow! Boop!

Do your worst, french toast.

All right, let's get this over with.

Snap, what is the correct ratio of milk

Eggs

And other stuff for the french toast custard?

I don't know, correct ratio?

So I just eyeball the amount of milk I'm gonna put in

Is it two eggs?

Is it one egg for every quarter cup milk?

That actually doesn't matter.

It's how long you soak it, or not soak it.

'Cause I made a boo boo and soaked it for a few seconds

too long, that's what Rose said.

20 seconds on each side.

Might be on the wet side.

So I hate to tell you this but

I actually never measure this.

Rose!

The ratio isn't set in stone,

it's really a personal preference

that can be a function of how dry the bread is

that you're using and what you want your final outcome

to look like and taste like.

If you twist my arm and force me up against a wall,

I would probably say somewhere in the vicinity of

three eggs, maybe about a quarter cup milk.

You know, don't go crazy.

If you're using two eggs, use half a cup of milk.

If you're using a cup of milk, use four eggs!

I use eggs and like a splursh of milk.

What I'm looking for is to loosen up the eggs

just enough so that they'll soak into the bread

and still not loosen them so much

that it's not super super liquidy.

If you like it a little bit more soft and gooey,

you can add a little more liquid,

then you're gonna have eggs.

As far as the other stuff goes, a pinch, a dash,

a glug, that's all personal preference.

Nobody does a recipe anymore because it's something

that you've been doing since a kid

so it's like my grandmother telling me her perogi recipe,

some flour, some milk, some eggs,

I don't know, figure it out.

I think if you're going,

believe in yourself and then it'll just happen [laughs].

That's not scientifically accurate, bye bye card!

[bell ringing]

One down, oh!

Do you prefer soaking or coating french toast?

I don't like my french toast super wet in the middle

so I'm kind of a quick dunker, really.

I'm a dunker.

I like to go in between.

I don't wanna leave it in so long that it gets

really really soft in the center

but a quick dip for me doesn't give you that

custardy interior that I really want in my french toast.

It's kind of a light, quick soak.

But it shouldn't sponge!

I prefer soaking!

I like my french toast wet.

Mmm, eggy.

When you let your bread soak in a custard mixture,

it's gonna get really disintegrated and wet.

It just sort of made a little hole here.

I am definitely a dipper.

I want enough custard in there

and so it softens the bread

and I can taste the egginess to it

but not so much that the interior is super soggy.

Yeah, that's no bueno.

I've heard the argument for coating

but I've never been more disappointed than when

I go to the restaurant and I get french toast

and it's just bread on the inside.

Like what's the point?

I could've ordered toast with eggs on it.

Soak it.

[bell ringing]

Here you go!

What's the best temperature to cook the french toast?

I don't wanna burn the sides,

yet have the center still be white.

That's a really great point,

medium? [laughs]

Over medium heat?

I know some people like to sear it right away

but then it's gonna be uncooked in the middle.

Too low and it's gonna take forever to get there

and you're not gonna get that beautiful browning.

You're using a burner with flame,

you gotta go a little lower than that.

If it's one of those, what we use,

which is a non-flame, you can go a little medium.

Medium heat is a pretty safe bet for french toast.

If you keep cooking at a really high heat,

all of the milk solids are gonna burn in your french toast

butter and you're gonna end up with some really off flavors

and a burnt french toast.

If you're a level one cook like me,

air on the less hot side because you don't know

what you're doing [laughs].

If you're a level three cook,

why are you watching this video?

Unless you were in it,

in which case that makes perfect sense, hi!

So for me, it's a little notch above medium.

When it doubt, go with medium.

You very rarely have a very big problem.

Might have a little problem,

but you won't have a big problem.

Anyway, bye bye!

[bell ringing]

Okay, next!

Can chefs tell me rare an exotic toppings on french toast?

[laughs] How dare you!

I think ketchup is pretty exotic.

Rare and exotic!

Really, any kind of fruit.

Peaches, sometimes I've done peach compote.

Guava

You can try passion fruit.

Like a star fruit which is yummy and sweet.

Bananas.

If you're in Scandinavia,

maybe you don't have a lot of bananas.

I don't know, I don't know your life!

I've had a marshmallow sauce on top of french toast

which was really delicious.

I love fried plantains and mashed up and fried again

with sugar and oh my God.

But would you put that one a french toast?

If you're weird [laughs].

I suppose you could go savory and add some vegetables

or maybe avocados

Cayenne pepper?

I'm just thinking of things that would be unusual

to put on french toast now.

Bourbon.

You could probably do a variation on chicken and waffles

with french toast so you can add maybe a savory meat

Fish french toast, that sounds weird.

Bacon

Rabbit, would be unusual.

All right

Oh no, I'm keeping going, seaweed, kimchi?

All right, I'm done, okay, I'm done.

[bell ringing]

Here's the bell.

Here we go!

Why is it called french toast?

I wanna know because it has definitely nothing french.

I'm not really sure why it's called french toast.

Things in it could be french.

Bread is a very french thing.

I actually thought it was English because of bread pudding

I don't really know [laughs].

I have no freakin' idea.

Listen to the next person.

Actually, this dish is called pan perdue in France.

Which means sinful bread.

Which I believe translates to lost bread.

The implication is you're lost from God.

So it's the idea of using day old bread

and serving it in a different form.

We're not gonna call it sinful bread.

What's it called again?

Well you know, that french thing,

that french toast.

I knew something Rose didn't know?

They didn't teach that in food science.

[bell ringing]

All right, is there a way to make

Italian toast?

People are so funny.

Use pepperoni, I mean [laughs]

what is wrong with you people?

Oh, I suppose if you went to Lacomo

and had a beautiful view and you were looking at both

the alps and the lake

and you were in Italy

you could call it Italian toast!

Put a mustache on.

I don't know, drink some vino while you make it.

Maybe you could use an Italian bread?

I guess a brushetta maybe?

Brusketta, I don't know how you say it,

brushetta, I'm gonna go with brushetta.

Brusketta, in my mind.

You could use Italian bread to make french toast.

Chibatta

or a falcacha.

If you wanna make it for breakfast

you can do something like panatone

And if you wanna turn it savory,

a little dash of oregano perhaps.

Maybe if instead of butter you used some olive oil

That could be good.

So imagine this, it's bread, but it's round.

You put the sauce on it, you put cheese on it,

you put it in an oven, maybe a special oven,

you wait a little while, you bring it out,

Italian toast.

See what I'm saying there?

It's pizza, I'm doing pizza.

That's very odd, I'm gonna move on.

Dear Emily, is there such a thing as savory french toast?

Yes

Like garlic bread french toast.

Well that's a little crazy, come on now.

If you don't put anything sweet in your custard,

you definitely could embrace a move savory flavor profile.

You know you don't see it a lot but absolutely.

I don't know why, it's not a bad idea.

It's a vehicle, it can be absolutely anything.

You can make a crook madame or

a crook mansuier.

Let's say you had an olive bread

or maybe a bread with bacon baked into it

or something like that.

But at that point, is it really french toast?

I don't really think so, I think it's another category.

There's what Emily did in the video.

That was her justification for the ketchup, right?

Ketchup.

'Cause in her mind it was like scrambled eggs?

Yas!

There, that's your Italian french toast.

Move on, is that the same person?

Goodbye!

[bell ringing]

I'm hitting it too hard I think now.

Next a roonie.

This is a really good question.

What's the ideal thickness

Of bread for french toast?

It really just depends on what you like.

I know in this video I said

the perfect thickness for french toast is about

three quarters to one inch.

It's thick enough that it can absorb a lot of the custard

but not so thin that it's gonna like fall apart.

You slice it in the middle

that way it's nice and fresh.

Then I would go about the nub of your thumb.

But if you wanna thicker bread, go for it.

Inch, inch and a half, inch and a quarter.

Maybe you wanna stuff it,

you're gonna need it to be thicker for that.

Try not to use the bread that you get

that's already sliced of course.

Just regular white, pre sliced bread.

Oh Emily did that.

A lot of those pre sliced breads,

they have a lot of chemicals in them

that keep them fresh for a very very long time.

These are not things that you necessarily want

in you french toast.

You want a bread that can stale

so that it soaks up more custard

so that you have a more delicious french toast.

Whatever bread you have will do it though.

I have to regress,

I said that I never use the sliced bread

from the grocery store like Emily did,

that is not true, I have but I've doubled it up.

I kinda glued it together with a butter and sugar mixture

and then I did the old soaks.

[bell ringing]

Needs a lighter touch, the bell, that's why.

All right, let's keep going!

Is it true that it's better to use stale bread?

I'm no expert, but I think so.

It sure is!

It's good to use day old bread actually.

First of all, it's a great way to use things

that you have that you'd otherwise have to throw out.

It's drier and it's gonna soak up more of the flavoring

and the custard that you're dipping it in.

If the bread is too moist to begin with,

it's not gonna absorb a lot of the liquid from your custard.

It's just, it's better, it's better.

But, you can use any kind of bread that you really want.

It depends on how much time you have.

I don't always have stale bread so I've done it

with fresh bread but I think stale bread is for sure better.

That's all!

[bell ringing]

Ah God, as long as the ketchup incident is addressed,

we're good [laughs]

You can garnish this with whatever you want,

I like to put ketchup on because I'm a monster.

I love french toast, I love ketchup.

But not together.

Leave Emily alone!

She is a lovely girl! [laughs]

The truth of the matter is I found that disgusting.

I'm sorry, Emily.

Not my personal preference

but Emily, you do you.

We'll let Emily deal with this one.

I like ketchup on my french toast,

that's all there is to it [laughs]!

Just maybe don't knock it till ya rock it.

Ketchup is used in a lot of culinary foods.

[bell ringing] Just not french toast [laughs]!

Listen if you're comin' to my house for brunch, Rose.

I don't like ketchup on french toast.

I'm not gonna make you that french toast.

I know!

I do like ketchup, and I like Emily.

But if I'm alone.

It's a rainy day, no ones home.

I've got eggs, I've got bread, I've got milk,

I've got ketchup, I'd do it again.

I'd do it every time baby!

And, it's good!

You all were talkin' about it

so obviously she did something right.

Allthis attention about ketchup, I like it.

Just keep caring about me, I don't care.

I want your hate, give it to me!

If you have so many questions,

why don't you just try it yourself at home,

and let me know.

Yeah you, this one.

Emily, is everything okay at home?

Yeah, it's fine, thanks, why?

I really need to know who hurt Emily this bad.

Who hurt you this bad?

When she pulled out the ketchup,

I literally started crying.

I'm so sorry to hear that

I hope you were not at work at the time

'cause that could be embarrassing.

Emily slipped back into level zero territory with this one.

When she pulled out that ketchup bottle, the world went dark

Everybody gangsta till Emily put ketchip on her french toast

When I saw the ketchup bottle,

my entire life flashed before my eyes.

Honestly, same.

Emily is completely right, she is a monster.

Yeah, I'm the heel of this series.

[laughs] They didn't know they needed a villain

till I came along.

Hi, 9-1-1, I'd like to report a crime against french toast,

I goobered a little on that one.

What is it, being too delicious?

For me, french toast is a decadent treat.

Delicious, for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner.

It's what you eat when you're on vacation

and feeling relaxed and eating way too much food.

It makes me happy and frankly in this world

we all need something that makes us a little happier.

That's what my dad made when I was a kid.

So that's the way I make it.

Experiment with your french toast,

have a good time with it

and in the end, you're gonna eat it anyway.

[laughs] Enjoy!

And that's everything

Everything Everything!

Everything there is to know--

Well, almost everything

About french toast.