Milk toast

{{Short description|Breakfast dish}}

{{Distinguish|Milquetoast (disambiguation){{!}}Milquetoast|text=Milquetoast}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2014}}

{{more citations needed|date=April 2013}}

File:Milktoast.jpg

Milk toast is a breakfast dish consisting of toasted bread in warm milk, typically with sugar and butter."An Alphabet For Gourmets" by Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher, MacMillan Salt, pepper, paprika, cinnamon, cocoa, raisins or other ingredients may be added."A Stew or a story: an assortment of short works by M.F.K. Fisher" by Joan Reardon, Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher, Counterpoint Press, Originally in Bon Appetit, 1978. In the New England region of the United States, milk toast refers to toast that has been dipped in a milk-based white sauce.{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/87/r0075.html |title=Bartleby |publisher=Bartleby |date= |access-date=2013-11-17}}

File:Milk toast.jpg with a dash of cinnamon]]

Milk toast was a popular food throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries{{Where|date=October 2024}}, especially for young children and for the convalescent, for whom the dish was thought to be soothing and easy to digest. Although not as popular in the 2000s, milk toast is still considered a comfort food.{{cite web |last=Clough |first=Caroline |url=http://chicagoist.com/2007/04/06/milk_toast_in_the_morning.php |title=Chicagoist |publisher=Chicagoist |date=April 6, 2007 |access-date=2013-11-17 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120403034135/http://chicagoist.com/2007/04/06/milk_toast_in_the_morning.php |archivedate=April 3, 2012 |df=mdy-all}}{{cite web |author=Queenkungfu |url=http://www.recipezaar.com/Moms-Warm-Milk-Toast-Bedtime-Snack-217799 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907113650/http://www.recipezaar.com/Moms-Warm-Milk-Toast-Bedtime-Snack-217799 |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 7, 2012 |title=Recipe Czar |publisher=Recipezaar.com |date= |access-date=2013-11-17 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/bread-and-milk-recipe/index.html |title=Nigella Lawson recipe |publisher=Foodnetwork.com |date= |access-date=2013-11-17}}

Food writer M. F. K. Fisher called milk toast a "warm, mild, soothing thing, full of innocent strength", and wrote, of eating milk toast in a famed restaurant with a convalescent friend, that the dish was "a small modern miracle of gastronomy". She notes that her homeliest kitchen manuals list it under "Feeding The Sick" or "Invalid Recipes", arguing that milk toast was "an instinctive palliative, something like boiled water". Fisher also notes that for true comfort, a ritual may be necessary, and for "Milk Toast people", the dish used may be foolishly important{{Clarify|reason=who are milk toast people and why is the dish foolish|date=October 2024}}. Her favorite version of milk toast has the milk mixed 50/50 with Campbell's condensed cream of tomato soup in a wide-lipped pitcher called a {{Lang|it|boccalino}}, from Italian Switzerland.