Fwd: on "French" toast

[Sam Clements]

Here's what I have put together from a few hours of reading credible
sources, including posts on this list.

     Referring to a dish which involves dipping a piece of bread into an
egg/milk mixture, then frying the bread, we come up with----
l.  1882 OED, "French Toast,"  From F.E. Owens 'Cook Book'
2.  1886, "Spanish Toast",  "HOW TO COOK WELL" (found by Barry).
3.  1887, "American Toast", White House Cook Book(by Gilette).
There is an 1857 cite from Barry for German Toast, but it just ain't the
same recipe. (So, IS there a "German Toast" cite pre-1900?)

Here we have three different names for the same dish, all used in cook books
within a 5-year time frame.  So what does that mean?  What I would like to
know is:

l.  Does a database search of say, 1880-1910, indicate that one term
predominated?
2.  Would a database search of post-WWI indicate that German Toast
disappeared and French Toast prevailed?
3.  Would a database search of 1900-42 vs. a database search from 1943-1960
indicate that there was a shift from "German Toast" to "French Toast?"

For what it's worth, I called my mother last night.  She was born in
Danville, VA. in 1923.  She doesn't remember eating or hearing of "French or
German Toast" until sometime in the 1950's-60's when she made it for me as a
youngster.  For what it's worth, she could be classified as a lower
middle-class white Southern American for most of her early years.

Could "French Toast" be a rather 'Northern' dish?

I apologize  if this isn't the proper way to ask these questions.

Sam Clements

----- Original Message -----
From: <nee1 at MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: Fwd: on "French" toast


> The _Chicago Tribune_ agrees: today's Tempo section had an article about
> renaming various things (including Belgian Waffles) and claimed that
"French"
> toast got that name when people were renaming German things.

 Barbara