Toutons are a cornerstone Newfoundland breakfast, born of the resourceful bread-and-pork-fat cooking of English, Irish and West Country settlers who needed calorie-dense foods in a harsh climate. The dough is the same bread dough used for the household loaf, fried in rendered pork fat (scrunchions) until golden, and served with molasses and sometimes butter. The dish is essentially unknown outside the province, a marker of Newfoundland's isolation and deep English roots.
A thick, golden, crisp disc of fried bread, the inside pillowy and faintly yeasty, the outside carrying the savory tang of pork fat, drizzled with dark, bittersweet molasses. Eaten hot, it is hearty, rustic and comforting.
Bread dough is risen once, then portioned into flat discs and left to rise again briefly. The discs are fried in rendered pork fat (the scrunchions fat), which gives the savoury backbone and the deep golden crust that ordinary oil cannot. Frying is done over medium heat so the inside cooks through before the outside burns. The molasses is the traditional sweet counter to the savoury fat.
Variations
A modern version fries in butter instead of pork fat. Some serve toutons with maple syrup.
On the Palate
Where Toutons sits in the Canadian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
6 steps · 15 min
- 112 min
Prepare bread dough: mix 500g flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 packet yeast and 300ml warm water; knead, rise 1 hour.
- 25 min
Punch down; pinch off egg-sized pieces and flatten into discs 1.5cm thick; rest 15 minutes.
- 38 min
Render 150g diced salt pork in a pan over low heat until the bits (scrunchions) are crisp and the fat has run out; keep the fat in the pan.
Watch outRender the salt pork slowly until the scrunchions crisp and the fat runs clear — that pork fat is the savory backbone plain oil can't give.
- 48 min
Fry the dough discs in the hot pork fat over medium heat, 3-4 minutes per side, until deep golden and cooked through.
Watch outFry the discs over medium heat, not high — the inside must cook through before the outside burns, so keep it steady and golden.
- 52 min
Drain briefly on paper.
- 62 min
Serve hot, drizzled with molasses, with the crisp scrunchions on the side.
Archive tool suggestions — not reviewed
These legacy suggestions have not been evidence-reviewed and are not presented as required tools.
