Folks of a certain age remember short-order cooks slinging around such slang as graveyard stew and Adam and Eve on a raft. Graveyard stew is a colorful name for toast and milk, while Adam and Eve on a raft refers to poached eggs on toast.

We found plenty of other terms whose appearance inspired nicknames, and a surprising number of them include toast. Consider angels on horseback, a savory dish of oysters wrapped in slices of bacon and served on slivers of toast. Angels on horseback is a far cry from devils on horseback. That latter term is applied to a savory snack of prunes wrapped in bacon slices and served on toast.

The white of the oysters and the dark of the prunes inspired the names angels and devils, but no one really knows how rinktum ditty came by its name. Rinktum ditty is a mixture of tomato sauce, onion, cheese, egg, and seasonings served on toast. Unlike rinktum ditty, the story behind French toast is well-known, if unsubstantiated. As the story has it, the frugal French were the first to soften stale bread in a mixture of egg and milk and then sauté it.

We'll close by toasting two more nationalities whose names are served up with critters. Scotch woodcock is buttered toast spread with anchovy paste and topped with soft scrambled egg, while Welsh rabbit names melted, often seasoned cheese that is sometimes mixed with ale or beer and poured over toasted bread or crackers.