The Toast-N-Serve Magic Bag

[fifi]

Working at home today, I finally decided I needed lunch. I sliced some chicken breast (stolen from last weekend's stock making) and decided to pair it with some melted provolone (it is what I had on hand) and green salsa. I pre-toasted the split kaiser roll, then melted the cheese on one side in the broiler of the toaster oven. Then I buttered the other side (to prevent sogginess) and put the salsa and chicken slices on that and warmed that under the broiler. Then I assembled the sandwich.

About halfway through that whole fiddly process I came to the conclusion that I need some of these bags and a cheap toaster. I will await Jason's report on the snap together version before I commit.

The sandwich was pretty good, though.

[lamb]

Newsflash:

http://www.egullet.com/shared/wrap-news.pdf

The Toast-N-Serve MAGIC WRAP is released!

(you need Adobe Acrobat to view)

These differ from the Magic Bags in that they can be completely opened to a flat piece of teflon for easier cleaning and can accomodate THICKER sandwiches!

I have not received samples for testing yet but will shortly.

Hey, not for nuthin' but I bought some of these bags. Why can't I get a sample too??

[jhlurie]

Hey, not for nuthin' but I bought some of these bags. Why can't I get a sample too??

Found your own big-ass Food website and people will start sending stuff for review.

[jhlurie]

Okay, I've got to hold the new eGullet Cheap Toaster record.

K-Mart sale today: Home Essentials 2-Slice Wide Toaster, Model HELT300 - $4.99

And to think, when I realized I needed one yesterday, I almost broke down and bought the $9.99 one at Walgreen's, because it had a $3 rebate (which I'd probably never send in).

[Jason Perlow]

Impressive. Now all you need is the toaster bags.

[jhlurie]

Impressive. Now all you need is the toaster bags.

Rachel gave me one of yours. She offered two, but I just COULDN'T...

Did you get your new toaster "boxes" yet? (that's my nickname for the bigger build-yourself ones...)

EDIT - Okay, before you go and kill her, I did tell her I'd give it back if/when you ran short. I mean... that $4.99 I blew on the toaster was SUCH an additional investment.

[Jason Perlow]

We have several, we should be OK.

[jhlurie]

Heh. I should have known better. First time I saw you use the damn things you turned the toaster setting up too dark instead of simply keeping it low and going two cycles. So I wind up doing the exact same thing. and of course burn my bread. Duh!

Still, it worked pretty well. I ate Turkey pretty early today, so I was ready for a snack. Hot Peanut Butter Sandwich--bread slicked up a bit with Canola Oil, and that fresh sugarless Peanut Butter you grind yourself at Whole Foods, with a pinch of salt added. The Peanut Butter gets all melty and you don't even miss the Jelly (I wasn't in the mood for Hot Jelly).

[Jason Perlow]

You really gotta lubricate them. Butter or olive oil works good. Never tried it with canola oil.

I would try toasting twice on the medium to low setting first before attempting the dark setting.

Peanut Butter works really well with Banana. Also chop up a hershey bar and stud it into the PB.

[jhlurie]

Olive Oil seemed like a strange idea with Peanut Butter, and I didn't have any Peanut Oil. The Canola worked okay, I think. I'm pretty sure the burning was mostly because of the darkness setting. Also, maybe I waited too long and the Oil got absorbed into the bread a bit too much. I'm using that Korean bakery made thick white bread that soaks up stuff like a sponge.

EDIT - I love Elvis. But I hate Bananas. Sorry. Apples might work.

[bloviatrix]

My automatic reaction upon seeing that this thread was active today was "oh my god, they used it to create dishes for Thanksgiving." Damn, I was hoping to learn something new and unusual.

[elyse]

Canola oil, Jon? That is totally disgusting. You may as well added some Z Carb bars.

[Jason Perlow]

Olive Oil seemed like a strange idea with Peanut Butter, and I didn't have any Peanut Oil. The Canola worked okay, I think. I'm pretty sure the burning was mostly because of the darkness setting. Also, maybe I waited too long and the Oil got absorbed into the bread a bit too much. I'm using that Korean bakery made thick white bread that soaks up stuff like a sponge.

EDIT - I love Elvis. But I hate Bananas. Sorry. Apples might work.

Apples and Brie might be cool.

[jhlurie]

Canola oil, Jon? That is totally disgusting. You may as well added some Z Carb bars.

Look, the only alternative was Olive Oil. I had some Almond Oil but used it up a few days ago. I wouldn't normally use Canola as a topping, but it seemed like I'd hardly taste something that neutral over the Peanut Butter (and I didn't... it cooks off pretty completely in these bags)

[Jason Perlow]

Canola oil, Jon?  That is totally disgusting.  You may as well added some Z Carb bars.

Look, the only alternative was Olive Oil. I had some Almond Oil but used it up a few days ago. I wouldn't normally use Canola as a topping, but it seemed like I'd hardly taste something that neutral over the Peanut Butter (and I didn't... it cooks off pretty completely in these bags)

Actually a lot of high school cafeterias use canola oil when making grilled cheese.

[elyse]

Tastes like fish.

Edited November 28, 2003 by elyse (log)

[Jason Perlow]

Tastes like fish.

Youre thinking of something else...

[jhlurie]

Tastes like fish.

Must be like the soap/cilantro thing. Canola Oil tastes like absolutely nothing to me.

[elyse]

Jason Perlow Posted: Nov 27 2003, 11:39 PM 

(elyse @ Nov 27 2003, 11:38 PM)

Tastes like fish. 

Youre thinking of something else...

And that would be...?

Edited November 28, 2003 by elyse (log)

[Squeat Mungry]

I made grilled cheddar cheese for lunch today in the bags. I put butter on the outside. I don't think I personally would use canola because to me, like Elyse, it has a kind of of 'fishy' or some other undesirable-type flavor. I really don't like to use it much on the stovetop either.

As for toaster settings for cooking in the bags, I find that with the toaster I have the winning combination is two toastings with dial set about halfway between what seems to be medium and what seems to be medium-dark. Somewhere about 70-80 percent along the way of the 'swoosh'-like scale I have to work with.

[Gary Soup]

I made grilled cheddar cheese for lunch today in the bags. I put butter on the outside. I don't think I personally would use canola because to me, like Elyse, it has a kind of of 'fishy' or some other undesirable-type flavor. I really don't like to use it much on the stovetop either.

My wife has used Canola oil (at my non-binding suggestion) for all her frying since she stepped off the boat, er, plane from China. Neither she, her finicky daughter nor I have found anything objectionable about using Canola oil for high-heat cooking. It is, after all, produced by a strain of the same plant that produces the most widely-used cooking oil in China. She's never tried stir-frying a grilled cheese sandwich, though.

[jhlurie]

Yeah, like I said. The "fishy" taste of Canola must be another one of these Cilantro/Soap things where a definite group of people taste it that way, and another group doesn't.

Hmm. New eGullet topic here? We've talked about the Cilantro/Soap thing before, but never whether that same effect happens with other foods.

EDIT - Okay let's see if I'm nuts. New topic on this subject here (click me).

Edited November 28, 2003 by jhlurie (log)

[jhlurie]

Okay, today's experiment was called "lets see if we can leave the frying pan hanging up on the hook". I took some sausage (some nice genuine Andouille), sliced it extremely thin, and stuffed it into the Toaster bag with some sliced raw onion (not yet between bread). Two toaster cycles later, at a medium-dark setting, I had a lovely perfectly evenly cooked sandwich filling. Together with some sharp mustard, I put this filling between two pieces of bread (lightly brushed on the outsides with Olive Oil), put this concoction into the bag, and one toaster cycle later had a pretty damn good sandwich. Now whether or not I saved any time over using a normal toaster oven or frying pan is debatable, since it took three toaster cycles in total, but it was a reasonably amusing experience, a pretty good sandwich (mostly because of the high quality ingredients) and cleanup took approximately 4.5 seconds.

[hjshorter]

I love these things.

Yesterday it was extra sharp cheddar and bacon on buttered whole wheat. Mmmmmmmm. Today I made a cuban sandwich. The cubano took 2 cycles on medium to achieve perfection, probably because the roll was unbuttered. The grilled cheese was perfect with only one medium-dark cycle.

[joiei]

Finally, mine got here and just in time. I found a $5.00 toaster at Target. Now off to La Donna's on Cherry Street for some cheese.