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🍞 How to make french toast

Dry the bread, mix three eggs to a cup of milk, and soak until a slim dry spine remains. A first plate tonight, with the science that keeps the center custard.

4
lessons
~10 min
to learn
🔬 Science
subject
Ages 6–12
level
Start the course →

What you’ll learn

  1. The plate you wantName what French toast is, scale a four-person batch, and handle the raw egg soak the way the FDA asks.French toast is custard cooked inside bread. Three eggs per cup of milk is a tested starting ratio. Salmonella is real: keep eggs at 40 F or below, wash up, and cook the center to 160 F.
  2. Bread that can drinkChoose and dry the loaf so it can soak without collapsing, matching soft bread and crusty bread to different treatments.Staling firms the crumb, but real drying makes room for custard. Soft loaves often want oven-drying; crusty loaves may not. Thickness is a clock.
  3. The custard and the soakMix a smooth custard and soak each slice to a slim dry backbone, about thirty seconds a side for sandwich bread.Whisk sugar and spice into the eggs first. A pinch of cinnamon is enough. Soak until the custard walks in a quarter inch. A rag is too far.
  4. The pan and the plateFry over medium heat in butter and oil until the faces are gold and the center springs back, then hold slices on a rack.Gold is Maillard. Black with a wet middle is high heat. Hold on a rack, not in a steam pile. Tonight, watch the wet spine disappear.

Questions this course answers

Why does day-old or oven-dried soft bread make better French toast than a floppy fresh slice?

Fresh sandwich bread is already full of water. Gritzer found it fell apart or cooked pulpy. Stale or oven-dried slices hold their shape and still cook up moist.

In your own words, why can three eggs per cup of milk set into custard inside bread, while a splash of milk with one egg often stays soggy or tastes like omelette on toast?

Gritzer's tests at Serious Eats made three large eggs per cup of milk the working ratio: custardy and fluffy, not eggy and not soggy. Too little egg and the soak is sweet milk that never sets. Too much egg and you taste omelette.

Match each part of French toast to the job it does

Dry bread drinks. Eggs set. Medium heat browns without burning past a raw center. The dry spine is what keeps a soaked slice from tearing.

Put these steps in the order that keeps French toast custardy, not soggy

Dry first, so the crumb can drink. Mix a smooth custard. Soak to a spine, not a rag. Fry long enough for the center to set.

Daniel Gritzer compared fresh, stale, and oven-dried bread. What happened with soft sandwich bread?

Fresh soft bread fell apart or cooked with a wet, pulpy center. Stale was better. Oven-dried performed best for sandwich bread, challah, and brioche.

What does the FDA tell you to do with dishes that contain eggs, including a soaked slice of French toast?

The FDA wants egg dishes cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. The Egg Safety Center lists French toast on that same line. Keep eggs cold, on a fridge shelf, not in the door. Do not taste the raw soak.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • Daniel Gritzer, Perfect Quick-and-Easy French Toast, Serious Eats, three eggs per cup of milk, oven-dried soft bread versus fresh and stale, crusty loaves the other way, https://www.seriouseats.com/perfect-quick-easy-french-toast
  • Daniel Gritzer, Special-Occasion Breakfast: Challah French Toast With Orange and Rum, Serious Eats, 26 March 2019, same 3-to-1 egg-to-milk ratio and why cream can taste greasy, https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-challah-brioche-french-toast
  • PJ Hamel, French Toast, King Arthur Baking, challah or sturdy stale bread about 5/8 inch thick, 30 seconds a side, butter plus oil, about 2 minutes a side, hold in a hot oven, https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/french-toast-recipe
  • Lan Lam, French Toast Without the Fuss, America's Test Kitchen, 30 January 2019, whisk dry ingredients into eggs first, soak about 1/4 inch leaving a slim dry backbone, https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/1280-french-toast-without-the-fuss
  • FDA, What You Need to Know About Egg Safety, 5 March 2024, Salmonella, 40 F storage, cook foods containing eggs thoroughly, egg dishes to 160 F, leftovers 3 to 4 days, https://www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/what-you-need-know-about-egg-safety
  • USDA FSIS, Shell Eggs from Farm to Table, keep eggs in the carton in the coldest part of the refrigerator, not in the door, https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/eggs/shell-eggs-farm-table
  • Egg Safety Center, Cooking eggs to the right temperature, French toast listed at 160 F with the knife-clean doneness test for baked egg dishes, https://eggsafety.org/cooking-eggs-right-temperature/
  • Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking, the science and lore of the kitchen, Boussingault 1852 sealed-bread staling by starch retrogradation and reversal near 140 F / 60 C when starch gelates again

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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