Talking toast

[Fat Guy]

I feel we're overdue for a comprehensive discussion of toast. There are so many issues surrounding this seemingly simple food. Let's hash some of them out.

Why is toast always better in the UK than in the US? Except, why in the UK do they so often intentionally cool their toast?

What's so special about Aga toast?

What are the criteria for judging good toast? Is it supposed to be crunchy all the way through, or is it supposed to be crispy on the surface but soft inside?

What's the best bread for toast?

What else do we need to settle?

[Chris Amirault]

Why is toast always better in the UK than in the US?

It's not.

Except, why in the UK do they so often intentionally cool their toast?

That's why.

What are the criteria for judging good toast? Is it supposed to be crunchy all the way through, or is it supposed to be crispy on the surface but soft inside?

In the middle -- and not soft but slightly chewy on the interior.

What's the best bread for toast?

Sourdough.

What else do we need to settle?

Doneness. I lean toward "well."

[Fat Guy]

I strongly agree.

[heidih]

I have not yet found the process that simply gets me two equally toasted sides without heart clenching drama. I have done it in the oven in desperation, turning and turning, but that is not right, I look forward to a solution without added appliances.

[Chris Amirault]

I have not yet found the process that simply gets me two equally toasted sides without heart clenching drama. I have done it in the oven in desperation, turning and turning, but that is not right, I look forward to a solution...

Well, here's your solution.

...without added appliances.

Um....

[Richard Kilgore]

I have been impressed with a Dualit toaster. Best toast I have had in a long time.

[Pam R]

What's the best bread for toast?

Sourdough.

Rye or a good, chewy bagel.

What else do we need to settle?

Doneness. I lean toward "well."

On this I agree.

[Kim Shook]

And why do restaurants seemingly have such a difficult time getting toast done enough? Most of the time when I order toast I get a piece of bread that resembles stale bread - it's dry and barely colored!

And the bread has to be sliced fairly thick - otherwise you end up with Melba toast, which is good, but not what I want with my eggs!

[Chris Amirault]

"Toast. Dark. You can't make it too dark. I won't send it back."

My entire family mocks me for this sentence, which they hear whenever we go out for breakfast.

[liuzhou]

why in the UK do they so often intentionally cool their toast?

They do? I was born in, and lived in the UK for around 45 years, and never came across this practice.

[Chris Amirault]

Lucky you. Indeed, it's common, if not dominant, practice.

[Holly Moore]

I toast bread in the salamander on my Garland range. Gives me great control and even browning. Very fast too. Not sure there is a faster method of toasting toast. Often too fast. A slight distraction or other lapse of focus yields charcoal.

Once the toast is finished I'll turn off the gas, take butter from the refrigerator, slice off a few very thin dabs, spread it about the toast and slide it back under the still hot salamander for quick melting.

in Philadelphia we have the Metropolitan Bakery. Their whole grain whole wheat makes great toast.

Edited June 7, 2011 by Holly Moore (log)

[gfweb]

UK toast is the very worst. Cool, clammy ...uggh. Depressing to see in the morning. A mystery that one would intentionally do this to a nice warm piece of bread.

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[pastrygirl]

Why is toast always better in the UK than in the US? Except, why in the UK do they so often intentionally cool their toast?

So the butter doesn't melt.

[Beebs]

On the 1 to 10 doneness scale (1 being barely warmed, 10 being burnt to a crisp), I like mine at a 7.

Butter only - no jam, no pb.

[annachan]

The ultimate toasts for me are the ones you find at a good tea cafe in Hong Kong. Thick toast (crisp on the outside and soft inside), then slathered with butter, condense milk and/or peanut butter.

[Katie Meadow]

Toast. It's even a beautiful word.

In the UK I was served toast that had been put in a vertical rack, each slice surrounded by air on all sides. Talk about a way to cool it down fast. It was bad, but it was better than the rest of the breakfast in my hotel. Because, after all, it was just toast. Cold and flavorless and cut too thin, but it was toast.

Many kinds of bread make excellent toast. Anybody who really loves toast knows that. And many kinds of toast are good with marmalade as well as butter, except of course for a bagel, but a bagel isn't toast, it's a toasted bagel. Cornbread isn't toast either, but it can be toasted. The better the bread, the better the toast. However, lousy bread can make tolerable toast if you are really in need of some toast.

The reason I don't like going out for breakfast? The toast is never the way I like it. All restaurants serving breakfast should put a chrome toaster on the table and let the patrons toast it themselves, so they can have perfect toast. Only dedicated toasters make great toast. Toaster ovens never make great toast because the heating elements are too far from the bread and toast too slowly, resulting in overly dried not hot enough toast. A broiler in a regular oven might make good toast, but I've never had the patience or the desire to make toast that way.

Toast should be made one piece at a time. No toast should be sitting on a plate when everyone has a piece of toast already. Stacking toast results in it's own special loss of quality and of course, ultimately, in cold toast. And cold toast means someone just doesn't care.

[Jenni]

Hmm, maybe in restaurants in the UK toast is cold. Never in our home, or in other home I have seen. How would butter melt if toast was cold? How would honey spread nicely? This is strange to me.

[liuzhou]

Yes, Jenni, they must be talking about hotel restaurant breakfast toast being cold.

But even if that is the case, it is because of slow / bad service. I wouldn't say anyone was intentionally cooling the toast in order to serve it that way..

[Jenni]

^^

Ah well, there you go then. This speaks of the flaws in restaurant service, not in English toast

[Chris Amirault]

Yes, Jenni, they must be talking about hotel restaurant breakfast toast being cold.

But even if that is the case, it is because of slow / bad service. I wouldn't say anyone was intentionally cooling the toast in order to serve it that way..

When I traveled in both England and Ireland, the toast came to the table in one of those little wire toast holders so that it sits upright. It was my understanding that it served to cool the toast and keep it from being too soggy (which it can do if it sits flat on a plate, I guess).

Perhaps people in the UK think that Yanks like their toast this way while on holiday??

[Pam Brunning]

Why don't you tell the staff what you require when you arrive for breakfast?

When breakfasting anywhere my first request is to be served the toast hot when I have finished my 'full English' to be accompanied by my coffee. If the toast or the coffee is not hot it goes back. We pay enough for B&B in the UK, make sure they serve it as you require it.

[CFT]

I like my toast well done too but with a soft/chewy middle. Some more porous bread get very crunchy, such that it is impossible to cut into smaller pieces for children without shattering into a zillion bits.

I think the reason why people might prefer cold toast is so that the butter doesn't melt and hence spoil the total crispness of the toast.

[liuzhou]

Probably a good contender for a 2011 IgNobel prize

and a bad science prize.

What kind of scientific write up talks in such subjective terms as "the ultimate contrast to the velvety yielding marmalade as the zingy orange flavours explode across the palate"?

The kind which is produced by a private research lab set up to write reports for the food industry. The report was commissioned by Duerr's a Manchester company which makes, guess what, marmalade.

[Mjx]

. . . .

What kind of scientific write up talks in such subjective terms as "the ultimate contrast to the velvety yielding marmalade as the zingy orange flavours explode across the palate"?

. . . .

Trust me, the copywriter probably blushes to think of this, unless she or he has a fantastic sense of humour. Not that I'd know anything about this sort of thing (coughcoughcough).

I prefer toast to be sliced thick (holds the heat better), crisp and dark golden brown on the outside, hot but not rusked on the inside. If it isn't hot enough to at least partly melt the butter, I find it pretty disappointing. Not that I'll necessarily pass on cold, charred, scrape-it-to-whatever-shade-you-like toast, however.