(Getty Images/StockFood)
(Getty Images)
Breakfast:
A History
by Heather Arndt Anderson
AltaMira Press
Our “most important meal of the day” hasn’t always been held in such high regard.
In medieval times, the morning meal — before it had an official name — was considered the lowliest of eating habits. The Catholic Church even deemed it “crass and boorish.”
“It was presumed that if one ate breakfast, it was because one had other lusty appetites, as well,” writes food blogger Heather Arndt Anderson in her history of the meal.
By the 15th century, when the word “breakfast” — as in breaking the night’s fast — entered the vernacular, the nobles disregarded the Church’s decree and began eating heartily after waking.
Queen Elizabeth I was known for her big breakfasts. One such meal included: “Manchet [a loaf of white bread], ale, beer, wine, and a good pottage [stew], like a farmer’s, made of mutton or beef with ‘real bones.’ ”
In the Victorian Era, breakfast hit new highs. Rooms were devoted to the day’s first meal. And the rising middle class used the morning to show-off their newfound wealth in the form of gut-busting spreads that included eggs and cured pork products that look similar to the modern-day brunches.
Arndt Anderson shares the back story of our favorite morning meals in her book. The Post picked some of the best anecdotes:
TOAST
The ancient Romans arrived at the concept of toasting bread in order to extend shelf-life. Toast derives from the Latin word “tostus,” meaning scorched or dried with heat. By the 16th century, burned bread made its way to the British Isles, where it became fashionable to eat toast with alcohol. “Hence the notion of a toast to someone’s honor with a beverage,” Arndt Anderson writes.
FRENCH TOAST
There’s nothing French about it. This deliciously sweet breakfast treat came from the Germans. Recipes for “arme ritter” (which translates to “poor knights”) were made for German soldiers in the 14th century who could only afford eggs for protein. Thus, “German toast,” as it was known in the United States. The German label was replaced with a French one to remove any associations with the enemy after World War I — much in the same way “french fries” briefly became “freedom fries” after the Iraq war.
PANCAKES
Pancakes date back to ancient Greece, where “tagenites” were molded out of wheat flour, wine and curdled milk and then fried in olive oil and served with honey. Much later in the 16th century, a recipe for pancakes was published calling for a disturbingly rich “pint of heavy cream, four or five egg yolks,” and handfuls of sugar and flour. But pancakes as we know them only emerged in the 1747 American staple cookbook, “The Art of Cookery,” where pancakes were finally allotted less dairy and more flour to get “a proper thickness.”
WAFFLES
The world waffle entered the English language in the 18th century, around the time “Benjamin Franklin returned to America from a visit to France, bringing with him the long-handled waffle iron.”
Soon after, a bone-fide waffle craze (that rivals any cupcake craze in our days) hit New England, where parties called “waffle frolics” became all the rage. Sweet and savory toppings were also introduced then, ranging from “expected butter and maple syrup or honey to, of all things, kidney stew.”
CROISSANT
Another breakfast creation is misattributed to the French. The flaky pastry was actually invented by Austrian artillery officer and baker named August Zang, whom Charles Dickens named “the perfect baker.” Zang opened his Viennese bakery in Paris in the late 1830s — where sales of his “kipferl,” later renamed croissant because of its crescent shape, flew off the shelves.
OMELETTE
The earliest omelette recipe can be traced back to ancient Iran, where eggs and herbs were fried together into firm, flat discs and then served in wedge-like shapes. The omelette craze spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa and then into Europe, where they were named “tortilla” or “frittata,” depending on where they landed.
The French omelette, however, was coined in the medieval housewife’s guidebook called “Le Ménagier de Paris” in 1393.
BACON
Though a breakfast favorite since the 17th century, the melding of “bacon and eggs” was popularized in the 1920s by Sigmund Freud’s nephew, Edward Bernays, who is now considered the pioneer of public relations. To promote sales of bacon (to combat religious health fanaticism sweeping America then), he surveyed 5,000 physicians and reported that they recommend a “hearty breakfast” for better health. So, what makes a healthy breakfast? Bacon and eggs, of course.
Newspapers went hog wild with the story, shooting up sales of bacon overnight and cementing the marriage between the two as breakfast staples.
scahalan@nypost.com