Melba toast is a dry, crisp and thinly sliced toast, often served with soup and salad or topped with either melted cheese or
pâté
''Pâté'' ( , , ) is a paste, pie or loaf filled with a forcemeat. Common forcemeats include ground meat from pork, poultry, fish or beef; fat, vegetables, herbs, spices and either wine or brandy (often cognac or armagnac). It is often ser ...
. It is named after
Dame
''Dame'' is an honorific title and the feminine form of address for the honour of damehood in many Christian chivalric orders, as well as the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system and those of several oth ...
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba (born Helen Porter Mitchell; 19 May 186123 February 1931) was an Australian operatic dramatic coloratura soprano (three octaves). She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian era and the early 20th centur ...
, the stage name of Australian opera singer Helen Porter Mitchell. Its name is thought to date from 1897, when the singer was very ill and it became a staple of her diet. The toast was created for her by a chef who was also a fan of her,
Auguste Escoffier
Georges Auguste Escoffier (; 28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Marie-Antoi ...
, who also created the
Peach Melba
Peach Melba (french: pêche Melba, pronounced ) is a dessert of peaches and raspberry sauce with vanilla ice cream. It was invented in 1892 or 1893 by the French chef Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel, London, to honour the Australian soprano ...
dessert for her. The hotel proprietor
César Ritz
César Ritz (23 February 1850 – 24 October 1918) was a Swiss hotelier and founder of several hotels, most famously the Hôtel Ritz in Paris and the Ritz and Carlton Hotels in London (the forerunners of the modern Ritz-Carlton Hotel Compan ...
supposedly named it in a conversation with Escoffier.
Melba toast is made by lightly
toast
Toast most commonly refers to:
* Toast (food), bread browned with dry heat
* Toast (honor), a ritual in which a drink is taken
Toast may also refer to:
Places
* Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place in the United States
Books
* '' ...
ing slices of bread under a
grill, on both sides. The resulting toast is then sliced laterally. These thin slices are then returned to the grill with the untoasted sides towards the heat source, resulting in toast half the normal thickness. Thus, it can be described as a thrice-baked food (see
rusk
A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake, rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a whea ...
).
Melba toast is also available commercially, and was at one time given to infants who were
teething
Teething is the process by which an infant's first teeth (the deciduous teeth, often called "baby teeth" or "milk teeth") appear by emerging through the gums, typically arriving in pairs. The mandibular central incisors are the first primary te ...
as a hard food substance on which to chew.
In France, it is referred to as ''croutes en dentelle''.
History
In 1925, the
Mayo Brothers
The Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, e ...
prescribed the "Eighteen Day Reducing Diet" to
Ethel Barrymore
Ethel Barrymore (born Ethel Mae Blythe; August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. Barrymore was a stage, screen and radio actress whose career spanned six decades, and was regarde ...
. It included Melba toast, which made the toast very popular at the time.
[Print-ad, 1925:https://www.sciencesource.com/archive/18-Day-Reducing-Diet--1925-SS2229623.html; and Sophie C. Cubbison, autobiographical sketch, unpublished typescript. Summarized in William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, ''History of Soybeans and Soyfoods in Mexico and Central America, 1877-2009'' (Lafayette CA: SoyInfo Press, 2009), 52-53. ]
See also
*
List of breads
This is a list of notable baked or steamed bread varieties. This list does not include cakes, pastries, or fried dough foods, which are listed in separate Wikipedia articles. It also does not list foods in which bread is an ''ingredient'' which i ...
*
List of foods named after people
This is a list of foods and dishes named after people.
A
* Poularde Adelina Patti – named for 19th-century opera singer Adelina Patti.
* Woodcock salmis Agnès Sorel – one of the dishes Agnès Sorel (1422–1450) is reputed to have ...
*
List of toast dishes
Toast is sliced bread that has been browned by exposure to radiant heat. It appears as a main ingredient in many dishes, often as a base on which other food is served.
Toast dishes
* Avocado toast – mashed avocado on toast. A variety of a ...
*
List of twice-baked foods
The following is a list of twice-baked foods. Twice-baked foods are foods that are baked twice in their preparation. Baking is a food cooking method using prolonged dry heat acting by convection, and not by thermal radiation, normally in an oven, ...
*
Mrs. Cubbison's Foods
Mrs. Cubbison's Foods is a company that specializes in stuffing products (also known as Stuffing, dressing). Founded in the U.S. in 1948 by Sophie Cubbison, Mrs. Cubbison’s Foods has grown to include other products, such as croutons and meatloa ...
*
Old London Foods
Old London Foods, a subsidiary of B&G Foods, is a company best known for its Melba toast products. Originally based in the Bronx and called the King Kone Corporation, the company changed its name to Old London Foods in May 1960 to match their be ...
References
Breads
Twice-baked goods
Toast dishes
Nellie Melba
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