Alastair Little, Richard Whittington

Melba Toast

Appears in
The Daily Mail Modern British Cookbook
The Daily Mail Modern British Cookbook

By Alastair Little and Richard Whittington

Published 1998

  • About

Melba toast is another of the edible things inspired by the Australian soprano Nellie Melba, along with the dish of ice-cream and peaches with a raspberry sauce created for her by Escoffier. The toast was supposedly made for her when she was recuperating at the Ritz in 1897, following a gruelling tour of the USA. Melba was a woman with a bella figura and the toast named after her was thought to be slimming, an idea which persists to this day.

Melba toast is easy to make by toasting slices of bread on both sides, then cutting off the crusts and running a knife between the toasted surfaces to produce 2 thin slices. If using a sliced loaf, you will find the untoasted surfaces rather gluey. Scrape this off before returning the bread under the grill on a low setting and toasting. Reposition the toasts frequently to get an even browning. The bread is now very thin and burns quickly.