Home › Dollar and Time Savers › A New Kind of Toast
A New Kind of Toast
When making toast, you will find it is a delightful variation if you place two slices of buttered bread together and then toast the outside of the two slices. They will become crisp while the center of the sandwich will be hot and delicious, the butter having melted. -Mrs. F. R. Q., Long Beach, Calif.
A reader's tip rather than a formal recipe, and it works: butter on the inside, heat on the outside, which is the same logic as a griddled cheese sandwich without the cheese.
- What "toast" meant hereMost likely a wire toasting rack or fork held to the coals or a gas flame, or an early electric toaster with open sides. Both toast one face at a time, which fits the instruction to toast the outside of the two slices.
- Do not use a pop-up toasterA buttered sandwich in a slot toaster will drip and smoke, and there is a real fire risk. Use a dry skillet over medium heat, a griddle, or a broiler about 4 inches from the element.
- Skillet methodMedium heat, 2 to 3 minutes a side, pressing lightly with a spatula. Butter only the inner faces if you want the original effect; butter the outer faces as well and you have essentially a grilled sandwich.
- Bread choiceThe tip does not specify a bread. Soft sandwich bread of moderate thickness suits it best; anything much thicker will crisp outside before the middle warms through.
- YieldTwo slices make one serving. Eat immediately: the steam trapped between the slices softens the crust within a few minutes.
Butterick, the pattern company, published its household books as an extension of the same market it reached with The Delineator, and this tip carries a name and a town rather than a kitchen-tested measure, which suggests it came in from a reader. The tip belongs to a period when toast was still made at the fire or under a flame rather than in a sealed slot, so toasting two slices as a unit cost no more fuel or attention than toasting one. It also gets more out of butter: sealed between hot slices, a small amount melts through both faces instead of sitting on top of one.