French toast, also known as eggy bread, Bombay toast, German toast, gypsy toast, poor knights (of Windsor), or Torrija, is a dish made of bread soaked in milk, then in beaten eggs and then fried. The earliest known reference to French toast is in the Apicius, a collection of Latin recipes dating to the 4th or 5th century; the recipe mentions soaking in milk, but not egg, and gives it no special name, just aliter dulcia “another sweet dish”.
Under the names suppe dorate, soupys yn dorye, tostées dorées, and payn purdyeu, the dish was widely known in medieval Europe. For example, Martino da Como offers a recipe. French toast was often served with game birds and meats. The word “soup” in these names refers to bread soaked in a liquid, a sop.
