So on Sunday I fed 30 folks Irish Toast, at Mount Vernon, before the public arrived and it was time to go to work with interaction and demonstrations. True, Mt. Vernon never saw hostilities during the AWI, but they host a weekend event where folks can come and see the venue AND get some information of what General Washington was up against when he commanded Continental Line troops.
So I'm sharing this as it works for any large gathering, especially if you're cooking over grills or a fire. Not necessarily authentic, but it does get the job done quickly, and gets calories into folks going to have a strenuous day. It's also good for church breakfasts, AND if you suddenly find you need to feed a lot of folks breakfast in the field and you're scrounging for kitchen gear, this recipe doesn't use measuring tools.
Large Party Irish Toast (two slices per person)
3 Dozen Eggs
2 12-ounce cans, evaporated milk
12 ounces water
one small container (1 ounce) cinnamon
one small bottle ( 2 ounces) vanilla
2 lbs. butter
4 ounces Irish Whiskey
4 loaves of Texas Toast
don't forget to buy some Syrup
One empty gallon water jug with good lid, and with flat sides
One very large steel skillet with a long handle, and...,
a long handled spatula (distance from the heat from the fire is a good thing)
Plus...,
a disposable, aluminum baking pan liner
a large tray to serve the Irish Toast
PREP: you will need a bowl, a whisk, a funnel, and a freezer with room for the gallon jug.
Break the eggs in groups of 1/2 dozen into the bowl and whisk into scrambled eggs, then pour this using the funnel, into the clean, empty jug. Continue until all the eggs are scrambled and in the jug. Add the two cans of evaporated milk. Use one of the empty cans of milk to measure out 12 ounces of water, and add that to the jug. Then add the vanilla and cinnamon. Add the four ounces of Irish Whiskey. Tightly cap the jug, shake very hard for about 30 seconds.
IF you're going to freeze the batter, DON'T add the whiskey until it's time to cook...it makes the batter tougher to freeze. If you do freeze the batter, you can do so if you are going to keep it in camp in a cooler for a day or two. (There should be enough room in the jug for expansion when freezing. :wink: ) The batter will keep in the cooler, probably with little or no ice until the second day.
My "military KP frying pan" will easily hold 5 pieces of toast lying flat, so it's pretty big...
To cook, with the lid on tight, shake the jug as the cinnamon will tend to gather at the bottom. Then pour some batter into the disposable, aluminum baking pan liner. Melt 1/4 of a stick of butter into the hot skillet (you only need to add butter every other batch of toast in the skillet), and then quickly dunk each side of the Texas toast, and immediately place them in the skillet for as many pieces as your skillet will hold. Texas Toast is 2x the thickness of normal sandwich bread...., so you cook in half the time, but it fills the lads' tummies as though they ate four pieces of home style French bread. :wink: Continue until your serving platter or what have you is full, and then crack open the syrup bottles and serve the guests. You continue to cook more Irish Toast as they eat.
Just Irish Toast and nothing else?
We also dumped 6 packets of Walmart "maple" sausage links into a copper pot with water, and brought that to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes, then covered it and set it aside, before we started the toast. The sausage links continued to cook as the toast was made.
We also served boiled coffee, and orange Gatorade (it was hot out).
So breakfast for 30 people, since we bought in bulk from Walmat and Costco, cost $2.21, not including gasoline, so figure a whopping $2.40 per person full cost.
:hmm:
Cleanup? Toss the batter-pan, toss the jug with leftover batter, toss any extra toast, clean the skillet & spatula, and put the remaining butter back into the cooler. Leftover whiskey belongs to the cook!
LD
PS..., the unit chef on hand (no really he's actually a chef) was injured, so I ended up doing the cooking, suggested I might skip a step and use "Fireball" or another cinnamon flavored whiskey and eliminate any cinnamon clumping, and not "misuse" the Irish whiskey...., :thumbsup:
So I'm sharing this as it works for any large gathering, especially if you're cooking over grills or a fire. Not necessarily authentic, but it does get the job done quickly, and gets calories into folks going to have a strenuous day. It's also good for church breakfasts, AND if you suddenly find you need to feed a lot of folks breakfast in the field and you're scrounging for kitchen gear, this recipe doesn't use measuring tools.
Large Party Irish Toast (two slices per person)
3 Dozen Eggs
2 12-ounce cans, evaporated milk
12 ounces water
one small container (1 ounce) cinnamon
one small bottle ( 2 ounces) vanilla
2 lbs. butter
4 ounces Irish Whiskey
4 loaves of Texas Toast
don't forget to buy some Syrup
One empty gallon water jug with good lid, and with flat sides
One very large steel skillet with a long handle, and...,
a long handled spatula (distance from the heat from the fire is a good thing)
Plus...,
a disposable, aluminum baking pan liner
a large tray to serve the Irish Toast
PREP: you will need a bowl, a whisk, a funnel, and a freezer with room for the gallon jug.
Break the eggs in groups of 1/2 dozen into the bowl and whisk into scrambled eggs, then pour this using the funnel, into the clean, empty jug. Continue until all the eggs are scrambled and in the jug. Add the two cans of evaporated milk. Use one of the empty cans of milk to measure out 12 ounces of water, and add that to the jug. Then add the vanilla and cinnamon. Add the four ounces of Irish Whiskey. Tightly cap the jug, shake very hard for about 30 seconds.
IF you're going to freeze the batter, DON'T add the whiskey until it's time to cook...it makes the batter tougher to freeze. If you do freeze the batter, you can do so if you are going to keep it in camp in a cooler for a day or two. (There should be enough room in the jug for expansion when freezing. :wink: ) The batter will keep in the cooler, probably with little or no ice until the second day.
My "military KP frying pan" will easily hold 5 pieces of toast lying flat, so it's pretty big...
To cook, with the lid on tight, shake the jug as the cinnamon will tend to gather at the bottom. Then pour some batter into the disposable, aluminum baking pan liner. Melt 1/4 of a stick of butter into the hot skillet (you only need to add butter every other batch of toast in the skillet), and then quickly dunk each side of the Texas toast, and immediately place them in the skillet for as many pieces as your skillet will hold. Texas Toast is 2x the thickness of normal sandwich bread...., so you cook in half the time, but it fills the lads' tummies as though they ate four pieces of home style French bread. :wink: Continue until your serving platter or what have you is full, and then crack open the syrup bottles and serve the guests. You continue to cook more Irish Toast as they eat.
Just Irish Toast and nothing else?
We also dumped 6 packets of Walmart "maple" sausage links into a copper pot with water, and brought that to a rolling boil for about 10 minutes, then covered it and set it aside, before we started the toast. The sausage links continued to cook as the toast was made.
We also served boiled coffee, and orange Gatorade (it was hot out).
So breakfast for 30 people, since we bought in bulk from Walmat and Costco, cost $2.21, not including gasoline, so figure a whopping $2.40 per person full cost.
:hmm:
Cleanup? Toss the batter-pan, toss the jug with leftover batter, toss any extra toast, clean the skillet & spatula, and put the remaining butter back into the cooler. Leftover whiskey belongs to the cook!
LD
PS..., the unit chef on hand (no really he's actually a chef) was injured, so I ended up doing the cooking, suggested I might skip a step and use "Fireball" or another cinnamon flavored whiskey and eliminate any cinnamon clumping, and not "misuse" the Irish whiskey...., :thumbsup:
