The Crisping of Bread
Apr. 27th, 2015 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowLet me begin, in fairness, by acknowledging that the pop-up toaster is a minor but genuine contribution to civilization. There are times when toast is called for, and the convenience of doing no more than press a lever, with no further attention required until the time comes to add butter or whatever, is a great benefit.
Sadly, I cannot say more than that. I once had a pop-up toaster; I stopped using it years ago (and eventually cannibalized its power cord as a makeshift rope). You see, to my mind, butter on toast should have the opportunity to melt into the bread - not cold butter scraped across the top of browned but cooling bread, but rather a symbiosis, bread suffused with butter, surrounded with light toasting but itself a cool yellow bit of ambrosia. Likewise for toasted cheese or cheese-and-meat sandwiches: they simply cannot be created a la pop-up.
My procedure is this: I place two or four slices of bread on a cookie sheet, or perhaps a sheet of aluminum foil. I run it under the broiler for a few minutes; when the bread is lightly browned, I pull it out. Then I flip the slices over and apply the chosen complements - a pat or two of butter, or a slice of cheese and/or a slice of lunch meat - and return them to the broiler. Another few minutes, and they come out; I do whatever assembling is necessary and whisk them off to the table. Often, during the second-stage toasting, I make a cup of coffee. This sometimes requires delicate timing (and sometimes the deliberate slowing of one or the other process), but usually works just fine.
This morning, though, the meat and cheese process went awry. When I pulled the bread out, at the end of stage one, I added the fillings, but neglected to flip the bread over first. I discovered that, given sufficient time (and the length of two broiler sessions is sufficient), bread will adhere itself to the cookie sheet, without browning to any significant extent. I had to remove them with a spatula (and do some scraping afterward); the combination of twice-toasting on one side and non-toasting on the other was, um, unique in taste.
I will exercise care not to repeat the error, in future.
Sadly, I cannot say more than that. I once had a pop-up toaster; I stopped using it years ago (and eventually cannibalized its power cord as a makeshift rope). You see, to my mind, butter on toast should have the opportunity to melt into the bread - not cold butter scraped across the top of browned but cooling bread, but rather a symbiosis, bread suffused with butter, surrounded with light toasting but itself a cool yellow bit of ambrosia. Likewise for toasted cheese or cheese-and-meat sandwiches: they simply cannot be created a la pop-up.
My procedure is this: I place two or four slices of bread on a cookie sheet, or perhaps a sheet of aluminum foil. I run it under the broiler for a few minutes; when the bread is lightly browned, I pull it out. Then I flip the slices over and apply the chosen complements - a pat or two of butter, or a slice of cheese and/or a slice of lunch meat - and return them to the broiler. Another few minutes, and they come out; I do whatever assembling is necessary and whisk them off to the table. Often, during the second-stage toasting, I make a cup of coffee. This sometimes requires delicate timing (and sometimes the deliberate slowing of one or the other process), but usually works just fine.
This morning, though, the meat and cheese process went awry. When I pulled the bread out, at the end of stage one, I added the fillings, but neglected to flip the bread over first. I discovered that, given sufficient time (and the length of two broiler sessions is sufficient), bread will adhere itself to the cookie sheet, without browning to any significant extent. I had to remove them with a spatula (and do some scraping afterward); the combination of twice-toasting on one side and non-toasting on the other was, um, unique in taste.
I will exercise care not to repeat the error, in future.
no subject
Date: 2015-04-28 09:20 pm (UTC)I rarely toast bread at all anymore, which is kind of sad, come to think of it.
Have you ever thought of buying a toaster oven? Same results (granted, you can only do two slices at a time), without having to heat the entire big oven. Toaster ovens are really useful for single people for a lot of other reasons, too.
When I was a kid we had a toaster that automatically started when you dropped the bread into the slot. This startled my aunt greatly when she came to visit and thought she'd put a couple of slices, ready to push the lever down when the time came.