Attn Brits: What's fried bread?

In a few books I’ve read recently, there has been reference to someone preparing fried bread? Is this something other than toast?

It’s merely slices of bread thrown into the pan after you’re done frying other things such as eggs and bacon…

While I agree that it sounds digusting… it’s actually very tasty!

I don’t know what it is in Britain, but in the U.S., especially the west, it’s just what the name says: Bread that’s fried instead of baked. You take bread dough, flatten it out, butter it up on both sides, and stick it in the skillet. Quite good, actually.

Is this different from “fried dough” found at carnivals? (I hate funnel cakes and their ilk, so I’ve never ventured close enough to one of the vendors to see exactly what was going into the deep fryer.)

In Britain, it is exactly is wooba describes. Arteriosclerosis, anyone?

Hell, you can do it with regular slices of bread-rather than just toasting it, you can take the bread, butter on both sides and fry it on a griddle.

It’s one of those foods that smells about a thousand times better than it tastes. It’s not entirely dissimilar to a McDonald’s burger; you waddle away feeling bloated, unsatisfied and with an unusual hardening sensation in your arteries.

That sensation is supposed to be unusual?

Uh oh.

A more palatable and popular alternative is to take one egg, lightly beat it so the yolk and white are mixed, then pour onto a flat plate and coat a slice of bread on both sides.

Fry this and you have eggy bread, which is quite nice, especially if you use first press olive oil.

This isn’t fried bread though… this is French Toast (aka in Britain, Gypsy Toast)

The big difference here is that it’s supposed to be sweet (with maple syrup on it)… fried bread is a savory dish…

I’ve also had French Toast in which the egg coated bread is deep friend instead of being fried in a skillet. Much better tasting, but much worse healthwise (but isn’t everything?)

fried bread is best if you use the fat left over from frying bacon.

I agree mangetout. If you try to make it from clean oil, it has a rather odd taste, as if there’s something missing, and I don’t think it’s just the salt from the bacon. Yummy stuff, although I never thought of fried bread as a ‘dish’ before…:slight_smile:

Never heard french toast called gypsy toast.

Bread dipped in egg and fried was always ‘eggy bread’ when I was a lad, of course at some point I became aware that some folks call it French toast (but interestingly Frenc toast to me was a kind of square crispbread).

I think some people call eggy bread ‘fishermans toast’ but there are no doubt countless regional variations and names.

Fried bread is, as many above have attested, just a slice of bread (toasted or not) fried on both sides.

But I’ve got to point out that really you need to cook it in the oil left over after cooking bacon and sausages in the pan. You need all the lard from the sausages, and all the crunchy burnt bits from the bacon.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to cycle for another couple of hours. I find that if you exercise for about six hours a day, Monday to Saturday, you just about balance the calorie and cholesterol damage of a once weekly “full scottish breakfast[sup]*[/sup]” at one of the local beach cafes.

[sup]*[/sup][sub]sausage, bacon, lorne sausage, fruit pudding, black pudding, haggis, fried eggs, tomatoes, mushroom, fried bread, and beans[/sub]

No fried Mars Bar Gary?

Here’s another fried bread “recipe” for you - this one was actually given to me by a Canadian on IRC years ago, so the Brits clearly aren’t the only ones to be frying bread.

Take a slice of bread. Cut a 3" or so hole in the middle. Start to fry it. Now break an egg into the hole and continue to fry. Do both sides and you end up with a fried egg/fried bread hybrid. Rather tasty actually.

pan

Gah, don’t be disgusting.

Couldn’t eat one of those at breakfast - far more of an evening course.

Ah, so that’s what I’ve been doing wrong. Bacon with the sausage tomorrow! (I’ve got a huge loaf of sourdough just waiting to be fried!)

Is that Texas Toast?