Texas toast is a well-known side that was created in a state known for big, bold, and unique comfort foods. It's thicker than the average bread slice, and is buttered on both sides before being tossed on the grill or griddle. The story of Texas toast and the state it hails from is much more than a name.
Texas toast was created in 1941 at a Pig Stand restaurant in Beaumont. As the story goes, the restaurant manager Royce Hailey changed his bakery order one day. Instead of bread sliced in the normal thin slices, Hailey asked for at 3⁄4 of an inch.
Once the bread arrived, it was too big for the toasters. The Pig Stand toasted its bread for the sandwiches and other barbecue dishes, so the thicker bread had to be toasted somehow. That's when a line cook named Wiley W.
W. Cross took a piece of thick bread, slathered both sides with butter and placed it on the grill to cook — that bread was named Texas toast. The public respect for The Pig Stand and its innovations have worked to preserve the name Texas toast.
The Pig Stand opened in 1921 and was the first to create "carhops" to cater to the diners at the vehicles. It grew to quickly become the first franchise restaurant in the U.S.
The Pig Stand has also been credited at creating onion rings and the chicken fried steak. How the food industry helped preserve the name The name Texas Toast became synonymous with barbecue in Texas. It's now found in grocery stores and restaurant chains across the US.
Texas toast isn't just the named.
