The Toast Topic

[badthings]

this is the formula:

[Cusina]

I like to go the zen method:

Be the toast.

Or the philosopher:

I think therefore I am toast.

[Squeat Mungry]

To produce the patches of butter most people said they prefered, the bread needs to be heated to at least 120°C, and the butter should be used straight from the fridge, applied unevenly within two minutes of the bread coming out of the toaster. The amount of butter should be about one seventeenth the thickness of the bread

I'm not convinced. I don't think I'd get optimum enjoyment of my toast if I let it sit for up to two minutes and then put on butter straight from the fridge!?! And how are you going to slice solid cold butter 1/17th the thickness of the bread?

Squeat

[gus_tatory]

this is the formula:

two things come to mind:

--i can't do all that math (the formula) every morning before making toast, and

--those who i know who hate cooking (their words) always use toast as the yardstick: if it takes longer to make than toast, they're not interested.

[jsolomon]

this is the formula:

What, no S or G?

[JAZ]

But I don't like partially melted butter on my toast. My goal with toast is to make sure that all the butter is melted before I start eating it. And hard butter is just wrong for toast -- it tears the bread.

[Huevos del Toro]

But I don't like partially melted butter on my toast. My goal with toast is to make sure that all the butter is melted before I start eating it. And hard butter is just wrong for toast -- it tears the bread.

I happen to like pats of butter on my toast. The trick, for me, is to apply thin pats spaced close enough together to insure a bite of butter with each bite of toast. Tearing is prevented by applying numerous pats and not trying to spread them. This is also one case where I prefer salted butter, the only case, in fact, that I can think of. I've tried melting the butter on the toast but you lose the crunchiness of the bread. I like the firmness and coolness of the pats of butter, contrasting with the crunchiness and heat of the toast. Hey, I've got this down "pat". (pun intended )

[liamsaunt]

I am not sure about the butter patch thing. Cold butter makes my teeth shiver. One of the best things about toast is the fact that it is warm! I like to apply the butter to my almost perfectly toasted toast in thin pats, and then put it briefly back into the toaster oven for melting and final perfect browning of the bread, which, after spreading the melted butter, results in a very thin even spread of butter on hot crispy toast. Mmmm...toast.

[Ling]

I have my butter ready on the knife to spread the instant the toast pops up from the toaster. I like my butter hot, melted, and generous.

I guess I must look funny with the knife poised, eyes steady on the toaster.

[Jeffy Boy]

But I don't like partially melted butter on my toast. My goal with toast is to make sure that all the butter is melted before I start eating it. And hard butter is just wrong for toast -- it tears the bread.

I happen to like pats of butter on my toast. The trick, for me, is to apply thin pats spaced close enough together to insure a bite of butter with each bite of toast. Tearing is prevented by applying numerous pats and not trying to spread them. This is also one case where I prefer salted butter, the only case, in fact, that I can think of. I've tried melting the butter on the toast but you lose the crunchiness of the bread. I like the firmness and coolness of the pats of butter, contrasting with the crunchiness and heat of the toast. Hey, I've got this down "pat". (pun intended )

Oh yeah! Gotta have a bit of that "warm toast - cool butter" contrast. I totally agree that you don't want the butter to be completely warm and melted! Same goes for dinner rolls.

[Mottmott]

The best toast is toasted on a cast iron pan with the contrast of texture between the inside and outside of the bread. Toasters? Feh.

[fredbram]

Just to add a bit of ethnic controversy, has anyone ever had decent toast in England? Think croutons with cold butter.

[browniebaker]

Just to add a bit of ethnic controversy, has anyone ever had decent toast in England? Think croutons with cold butter.

I grew up in the U.S., putting cold pats of butter on hot toast so that the pats partially melt and cool nubs of butter remain. The face of the toast gets softened by the butter. This is the way I always thought toast should be. Then I went to graduate school in England and had the "croutons" you refer to. I began to think that I had got it wrong all those years, since the English must be the world's authority on toast. Are they not?

I still prefer the toast of my childhood, but I can't help but have a niggling feeling that, the way I make it, it is not true toast -- not English toast.

[Cusina]

When I think Toast and England in the same phrase... I remember waiting at the corner shop at just the right time for the hot baguettes to be brought out. Racing through checkout, back to my flat, cracking it open, still steaming and slathering that bad boy with butter and wolfing it down. No toaster necessary. Hot bread + fresh cold butter = Yum.

[elyse]

If I have toast, I really like the butter to be melted. If I have hot bread, cold butter.

[snowangel]

For various and sundry reasons, dinner did not happen tonight. Chalk it up to kid activities, kitchen renno, whatever. It just wasn't happening.

So, it was about toast, and what one does with toast.

My first piece of toast was slathered wih Hope Butter.

But, I should digress, and in the hopes of a deer in the deep freeze, I am all about empting said out. That would include some Acme bread, which had been removed earlier in the day, so it was thawed. It is good.

Diana's first slice was with peanut butter (Jiff).

Heidi and Paul opted for easy over eggs (fried in bacon grease).

Peter opted to make tuna salad (tuna packed in olive oil,, dressed with Hellman's and a tidge of mustard).

I opted for another piece with Hope butter, while I contemplated the alternatives.

As I contemplated said alternatives, I espied a thing of some spanish roasted peppers in the cupboard. Added an anchovie (salt packed, natch) and a tidge of crushed red pepper.

Following this, Heidi and I each ahd a slice of toast with dijon and liverwurst. The toast was almost blackened. I do like my toast well toasted. No wimpy barely-golden toast in this household.

Toast is a wonderful vehicle. I am reminded on another of my favorite toast things, but sadly, now out of season Some bacon, somewhat, but not too much, fried. A piece of toast. A slice of cheese. A slice of a tomato (must be fresh, in season, no styrofoam need apply). Topped with that bacon which has been started, but not finished.

The whole thing finished under the broiler. Cheese, melted. Bacon, more cooked. On TOAST.

Eat.

I love toast. I just might go and make another piece of toast. Perhaps topped with a scrambled egg?

How you do you love toast, outside of butter and perhaps some jam?

Edited November 15, 2004 by snowangel (log)

[fifi]

OH, my dear. You have hit a nerve. I am having a hard time eating when I need to and toast is always a vehicle. Currently I have an assortment of "healthy" breads and I tend to good butter, peanut butter and marmalade made from that calamonidin tree that my sister discovered.

Toast seems to set me up for other culinary gustatations. I will often prepare a slice of toast then go on to that bowl of chili or whatever.

[Jake]

Toast with pate (foie gras pate if I'm really lucky)

Toast with roasted garlic

Toast with marrow

Toast with cretons

Toast with beans

Oh God, I'm hungry now, need toast.

[Huevos del Toro]

Topped with cheese and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, broiled until melted and bubbly.

[little ms foodie]

mmmm! I love toast!! When I was in grade school it was my favorite after school treat! I would put 2 pieces of white bread in the toaster but just toast until just starting to crisp the bread. Take the barely toasted bread out and slather with butter. Pop it back in the toaster and toast until golden. Repeat with entire package. Little did I know that this would fry my mom's toaster.

I like it with a spread of butter and a slice of cheddar so the cheese gets warm but doesn't really melt.

avocado slices on toast with s&p

chunky peanutbutter!!!

mmmmmm! I love toast!

[Fay Jai]

I was at the Washington Restaurant Association's award dinner last night (Congrats, Dad! Lifetime Achievement Award! You deserve it!) and while they were passing around the appetizers, my whole table remarked on how the smoked trout would have been MUCH better on toast, yeah ok, it might have been like a grown up tuna fish sandwich.....Mmmmm....trout on toast....

[Verjuice]

Depends on the bread!

Truffled egg toast.

Labneh and honey.

Great olive oil and Maldon sea salt.

Almond butter and sour cherry preserves, with a swirl of maple syrup.

Hummus or baba ghanouj and olives.

Aioli, particularly on potato bread.

Sauteed mushrooms and their juices.

Basil mayonnaise or pesto and sweet, oven-roasted tomatoes.

Avocado and bacon, especially on sourdough.

Thin melting slabs of dark, bitter chocolate. This is especially good on toasted panettone. Even better when the chocolate toast is crowned with a slice of Camembert and run underneath the broiler for a few seconds.

Compound butters: vanilla, hazelnut, strawberry, roquefort, tarragon.

And so on,

[Carlovski]

Really good rustic country bread, cut thickly and toasted on a griddle so it get the dark lines and a really crunchy exterior is fantastic.

The scary thing is so is plastic sliced white done in a toaster - in their place.

The first is for olive oil, salt garlic and maybe a ripe tomato, or maybe some white beans and chorizo. The second is for a fried egg or maybe baked beans (From a can).

If I ever open a restaurant I'm going to call it toast.

[eunny jang]

Buttered white toast. DUXELLES.

There is no other answer.

[Fritz Brenner]

buttery toast topped with a lightly poached egg, salt and pepper.