Did the French Invent French Toast?

Despite being called “French toast,” this delicious breakfast treat isn’t French at all! One of the earliest recipes for “French toast” dates back at least as far as the 17th century when Americans used a variation of the recipe to make use of stale bread so it didn’t go to waste. But the dish itself is far older than that. The earliest documented recipe for French toast comes from an ancient Roman cookbook and was called pan dulcis, or “sweet bread.” This delicious concoction stuck around in various forms, turning up again in documents from 15th century England, where it went by its French name, pain perdu, or “lost bread.”