Torrejas: the history of the Holy Week recipe with the most versions around the world

The tower It is a simple recipe that allows us to take advantage of what is in the kitchen, but also a classic for Holy Week. Of European origin, this recipe can boast of having a huge family spread throughout the world because its ingredients, bread, milk and eggs, have been found, historically, in almost all cultures.

Like any popular recipe, talking about the origin, place and day of birth of the torreja or torrija as it is known in Spain, where it is especially popular, is at least complicated, and even more so when it comes to a preparation that is born from taking advantage of bread. hard to convert, after soaking it in milk or wine, into a spongy mass.

The first documented appearance of the torreja appears during the 4th and 5th centuries, when the Roman gourmet Marcus Gavius ​​Apicius reflected in his work a very similar product, despite dispensing with the egg as an ingredient and being submerged only in milk.

A snack that, before becoming a popular dessert that is already consumed at any time of the year, experts point out that its association with Holy Week is due to the use of leftover bread at a time when eating meat was not allowed.

And it is precisely the simplicity of its ingredients that works the magic that they can be found in many pastry shops around the world, as is happening these days in Madrid’s Formentor, who after winning the award for Best Traditional Torrija in Madrid 2024, makes its workshop produces about 7,000 units a day, according to the Spanish agency EFE.

Although torrija is the most common name in Spain, in the region of Galicia or on the island of Menorca they are also known as ‘torradas de parida’ or ‘sopes de Menorca’, respectively, since this recipe was considered a snack. High energy value for sick or pregnant women.

Other Spanish autonomous communities such as Cantabria and the Basque Country, in the north, share the name ‘toast’ when talking about torrijas, but it is in the former where this is a Christmas recipe, and not for Easter.

Although with some variations in its preparation, this bread bathed in milk and covered in egg to be fried and covered with sugar, also has countrymen outside of Spain, as happens in France, where their version of the torreja is the ‘pain perdú’ (bread lost).

In Portugal and Brazil, for their part, they choose to call them ‘rabanadas’ or ‘fatias de parida’ (also referring to their function as an energy boost).

From British lands comes the ‘eggy bread’, a salty version of our illustrious torrija, or the ‘poor knights of Windsor’, which is almost identical to the Spanish recipe.

In Germany, Denmark or Sweden they have the ‘arme ritter’, which, like many French toast recipes, uses brioche bread; and in Russia they have ‘grenki’, another version that they eat, above all, for breakfast.

The list of relatives continues in Switzerland with their ‘fotzelschnitten’ or in the Netherlands with their ‘wentelteefjes’, which, like in the rest of European countries, are not related to Easter, but rather to breakfasts and snacks.

In the United States we find the famous ‘French toast’ that immortalized a well-known scene from ‘Kramer against Kramer’, a torrija where butter predominates.

In El Salvador, and other Latin countries like Mexico, ‘torrejas’ are also eaten during Holy Week. Additionally, this version changes the final sugar to honey or molasses.

Another way to name the protagonist of this chronicle in countries like Chile, Ecuador, Peru or Colombia is ‘French toast’.