My Meals are on Wheels

One of America’s Favorites – Texas Toast

A slice of Texas toast on top of a bagged loaf of bread.

Texas toast is a toasted bread with butter, and often garlic, that is often made from a type of packaged bread that has been sliced at double the average thickness of most sliced breads. The Texas toast loaf itself is often more squarish compared to most sliced breads which have a more curved side and top. While Texas toast bread can be used in the same manner as ordinary bread slices such as in sandwiches, it is especially useful for dishes involving liquids, such as barbecue sauce, or where extra thickness could improve the product, such as French toast. In addition, the often increased thickness of the slices of Texas toast lets it retain moisture and softness better than regular sliced bread. It is usually a white bread although there are whole wheat varieties. Producers of Texas toast in the United States include Franz Bakery, Mrs. Baird’s, and Safeway/Lucerne Foods.

Popular in Texas and its bordering states, Texas toast is often served as a side with southern-style dishes such as chicken fried steak, fried catfish, or BBQ. Texas toast can also be used when making toasted sandwiches.

The actual toast itself is made by putting butter or margarine on both sides of the bread and broiling or grilling it until it is a lightly golden brown. Depending on the recipe, the spread may contain seasonings including garlic, yielding a form of garlic bread. The toast may include cheese on one or both sides, similar to an open-faced grilled cheese sandwich.

The best-selling varieties of Texas toast are frozen breads, sold with a garlic or garlic and cheese spread which is applied immediately after baking. The best selling brands are the New York Brand of the T. Marzetti Company, Pepperidge Farm, and Coles.

Mozzarella and Monterey Jack cheese Texas toasts

Some recipes suggest regular or thick-sliced bread be cooked in a frying pan alongside fried steak, bacon, or other meat product in order to absorb the grease from the meat (cf. fried bread).

One claimant to the invention of Texas toast is Kirby’s Pig Stand. The once-thriving chain, whose heyday in the 1940s saw over 100 locations across the United States, also claims to be the originator of the onion ring. Texas toast may have been first created in 1946 at the Pig Stand in Denton, Texas, after a bakery order for thicker slices of bread resulted in slices too thick for the toaster and a cook, Wiley W. W. Cross, suggested buttering and grilling them as a solution. Another Pig Stand cook in Beaumont, Texas claimed he created the idea of grilling the bread. W.W.W. Cross is also credited for combining the Texas toast with chicken fried steak to create Kirby’s Pig Stand’s famous Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich.