Toast – So Common Yet So Delicious

Toast gets a bad rap. It is usually served at diners with massive egg dishes and is hardly eaten. Almost all of us have toasters around somewhere, and everyone has a parent with an old toaster either sitting on the counter or in some kitchen cabinet. Yet one of the most luxurious and delicious snacks is toasted bread with either/or jam and butter smeared on top. Toast is usually a side note for breakfast and many people don’t even eat it, but we feel it needs to be elevated in rank to a culinary destination and highpoint.

Apparently ancient Romans toasted bread before fire to preserve it. They also would drop it in their wine thinking the charcoal would lessen the acidity. The Latin word tostum means to burn and apparently the idea to give a toast with wine originates from this concept.

There is an interesting article about toast and its evolution over time here.

I once had a roommate who swore his favorite food was toast. At that time this puzzled me. How could toast be that big of a deal?

Of course toasting or roasting things always makes them more flavorful. Think of toasting coffee beans, toasting meats, making caramel is the same concept, and bread always tastes better when it has been toasted. Even the worst tasting, mass-produced bread is more palatable once toasted.

As owners of a jam company we have to love toast. But usually when we sample our efforts it is just with a spoon so there are no other flavors to affect it. And at farmers’ markets we don’t offer any bread for people to taste our jams since it would require wearing disposable gloves and we think that is environmentally bad until a biodegradable disposable glove is invented.

However, at home toast is king. My favorite is our extremely limited feijoa jam on toast. And to be honest, even though we can be sort of elitist about food sometimes, when it comes to bread for toast we don’t make much of a fuss. Whatever is on hand will do.

My eureka moment for toast happened recently to be quite honest. We were at a diner having a massive breakfast before a long day of making apricot jam. It had been quite a while since we were out for breakfast and the ubiquitous plate of artificially buttered toast appeared next to my egg scramble with the equally ubiquitous single servings of jelly.

At first I scoffed at the idea to eat any of it, but for some reason I was still hungry after breakfast and sampled a nibble. I selected the concord grape jelly since I do love these grapes (we have a vine of them we make syrup from each summer for making sodas). And despite the humble bread and jelly it was downright delicious.

So the next morning I toasted up some Anna’s Daughters Sourdough bread we had (this stuff is amazing) and put on my beloved feijoa jam and I nearly had an orgasm. Since then I have become a toast fanatic. I would like to preface this pronouncement by saying when it comes to toast I am partial to very rich breads to toast such as brioche, pain de mie or croissants since you don’t need to add any butter – just jam.

This toast relevation led me naturally to think of toasters – specifically vintage toasters. We have a newish one that works just fine, but what exotic treasures are lurking out there I mused? A quick survey on Ebay revealed so many fabulous toasters picking out just one would be difficult. I immediately worried I could become some crazy toaster collector.

First off, I could get one for making toast in the fireplace which is a neat idea except:

lighting anything in your fireplace in San Francisco these days is illegal.

Or I could spring for a Universal Electric from 1906 that looks like a bridge and would probably burn our house down:

These open toasters while no longer in vogue due to safety issues, are quite brilliant since they allow you to constantly watch your toast and stop the machine once it gets to that perfect toasty moment you crave. New toasters hide everything up and it is trial and error to find the right setting.

Here is another open toaster made by Pan Electric with an iridescent finish that must be pretty rare since it was for sale for $1600:

Another from this period is by a company called Pelouze in a glamorous gold finish what was probably designed by someone who had fantasies of toasters in Versailles:

After enough houses burned down and fingers were disfigured, toasters closed up. The first style allowed the sides to open up where you inserted your bread seen here with an erotic Knapp-Monarch:

Apparently the first automatic toaster was by Toastmaster and from then on most toasters were top loaded and had a timer for popping up your toast:

Around this time, the 1930s, toasted sandwiches must have been all the rage because I found several sandwich toasters from this period. Check out this beautiful sandwich toaster by Hostess:

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And then there was an unusual open top toaster which is quite fetching and was made by Armstrong. Heck, you could cook up a meal on that thing – albeit just for one person.

Here is a cute one from Kenmore with red bakelite that is in the traditional open top design we still have today:

Some toasters had grills you could insert so you could toast sandwiches such as with this sleek, pink gold and chrome early 1960s Burg-O-Matic:

And in the 1960s you got the popular daisy motif which makes an appearance on this flirtatious little Toastmaster:

Toastmaster even made one with a handle! Why? So you could carry it into the bedroom for breakfast in bed?

Then moving up to modern times there is a wonderful toaster designed by Russell Hobbs – a company famous for making kitchen appliances since 1952 which cost around $300 (they are only 70 pounds in the UK where they are made):

Of course I refrained from buying anything, but I have a fantasy of having a toaster on the table when I do farmers’ markets so I can offer complimentary toast with the jam. Or who knows, sell a slice with jam for a buck. Of course that would require a few car batteries or a solar panel. Hey that is a good idea… But wait, the biodegradable glove problem…

But if I did pull this toasty extravaganza off, I would need to get a new commercial grade machine that could stand up to lots of abuse. The two industry leaders are Waring for around $500 which is my choice (it is dishwasher safe too):

And of course, Toastmaster in the same price range:

Are you intrigued? Even mildly? Perhaps estatically?

To read more on toasters you can always turn to Wikipedia.
For some innovative toaster designs today, check out Top 10 Toaster Designs.
You know there just has to be an association for toaster collectors!
And a museum just devoted to toasters located in Seattle! This site has an online gallery of all kinds of beautiful toasters, but I am afraid to even look since it surely would lead to my downfall.
Here is a page of a guy in NY who specializes in selling vintage toasters.

Anyhow, I hope you now will reconsider the importance of toast, and will choose your next toaster armed knowing there are so many styles and periods to match your every mood and aesthetic. And when you need jam for your beloved toast, you know where to buy it. I still haven’t developed a taste for plain toast – though I know that just might be the next step toward toastmania.