If one were to define toast, then it would be sliced bread which has been browned to a certain degree by exposure to dry heat. Toasting obviously warms the bread, making it crisp so that it holds topping like butter and jam or marmalade, and as such is an integral part of a peculiarly English breakfast. Indeed some say you have never lived until you are sitting at a breakfast table surrounded by your family on a Sunday, armed with coffee or tea, the Sunday newspapers, and lashings of hot toast and marmalade. For many Englishmen this is simply heaven.
Toasting is often the way that stale bread is rescued from the bird table, and it can be made in a variety of ways.
The first and best known toasting method is the use of an electric toaster. This is a small household appliance specifically made for that purpose. There are narrow slots at the top of this electrical device, a settings which dictate how brown the toast will be. Usually a lever at the side of the toaster is pulled down thus switching on the element which heats and browns the toast. One of the best modern toasters is the Dualit toaster which normally comes in two, three, four, or six slots, and is very hard wearing producing classic toast.
If you are not going to use a Dualit electric toaster, then the next best, some say the best option is to use the grill on the cooker. Toast can be made this way one side at a time. By the way the American word for grill is broiler I believe.
The best thing about the grill is it allows a range of dishes based on toast. Tasty meals like cheese on toast, cheese and tomato or cheese and onion on toast. In each of these cases the bread is toasted on one side, and then grated cheese and topping placed on the other.
You can make toast in the old fashioned way over an open fire with a toasting fork, one side at a time. It is best done over the embers of a fire, even better if it is a wood fire. The fire must not be smoking or it corrupts the taste of the toast. The slightly woody tang to the toast made over a wood fire still remains for some people the best toast, despite the inconvenience.
It is the smell of toast that is one of the most evocative things. Particularly in my case the smell of burnt toast which takes me all the way back to my childhood, and remains my favourite way to make toast even today. This is done bearing in mind the possibility that burnt toast is carcinogenic.
Whilst you would normally eat toast with butter or margarine on it, in some countries it is more likely you will spread yeast extract, marmite or vegemite on it. Beans on toast or varieties of eggs on toast are popular and a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on toast gives you cinnamon toast.
There is however little doubt that the Dualit 3 Slice Toaster or any of the Dualit toasters remains the best way to produce consistent toast in high quantities.
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