Eggy Bread
Eggy bread — slices of bread dipped in beaten egg and fried in butter — is the quickest hot item on Çorum’s breakfast tables. Known under many names around the world (French toast among them), in Çorum it lives on the breakfast table in its plainest form: bread, egg and butter.
The Taste of Practicality
Two details make the dish: the bread should be a little stale, and the butter generous. Stale bread drinks up the egg like a sponge; fried in butter, the slices turn golden outside and stay soft within. The seasoning is usually limited to salt and pepper — though on some tables the slices are served with honey or clotted cream as a sweet version.
At the Breakfast Table
In Çorum, eggy bread completes the egg side of breakfast together with egg salad and beans with egg. Its use of leftover bread makes it a typical example of Anatolia’s anti-waste kitchen: bread is treated as the table’s most precious food and is never thrown away.
Eggy bread is also one of a child’s first kitchen experiments, and it keeps its place on Çorum’s urban breakfast tables today; village-breakfast restaurants often list it among their hot items.
🍳 How to make it
Ingredients
- 4 slices of day-old bread (village or wholegrain works well)
- 3 eggs
- ~3 tbsp milk (optional)
- Salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes
- 2 tbsp butter
Method
- Beat the eggs with milk, salt and spices.
- Dip the bread slices in the mixture, letting both sides soak it up well.
- Melt the butter in a pan and fry the slices 2-3 minutes per side, until golden.
- Serve hot with cheese, olives and tea.
💡 Tips
- Day-old bread absorbs the egg better; if using fresh bread, dip it briefly.
- Fry the slices as soon as they are dipped — they fall apart if they wait.
A traditional recipe; quantities and times are approximate and vary by household.