Toast is bread that has been browned by exposure to radiant heat.
Toast began as a method of prolonging the life of bread and is thought to have originated with the Ancient Egyptians.
Toasting bread was a very common activity for the Romans. "Tostum" is the Latin word for scorching or burning.
For most of the 17th century in England, when making such dishes as toasted cheese, the toast was generally moistened in wine. However by the end of the century, people were buttering it instead and hot buttered toast was being eaten at breakfast.
In the Western world during the early 19th century there were a variety of methods for making toast, such as putting bread on multi-purpose toasting forks and holding it over a fire. Alternatively ornate, hinged bread holders could be attached to the side of a fireplace and swung into the flame.
The first electric bread toaster was invented by Alan MacMasters in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1893. The Scotsman approached Crompton & Co, one of the world's first large-scale manufactures of electrical equipment, with the prototype for a device that heated bread by running electricity through a metal element. The design went into production as the Eclipse, the world's first electric toaster. The Eclipse only toasted one side of the bread at a time and it required a person to stand by and turn it off manually when the toast looked done.
American inventor William Hoskins invented the electric heating coil in the early 1900s, which used used to create the first electric toasters. He was also the co-inventor of modern billiard chalk.
Charles Strite, a master mechanic in a plant in Stillwater, Minnesota, decided to do something about the burnt toast served in the company cafeteria. Using springs and a variable timer, he came up with the automatic pop-up toaster, which ejects the toast after toasting it. He received patent #1,394,450 on October 18, 1921 and the same year formed the Waters Genter Company to manufacture his toaster and market it to restaurants.
In 1926 the Waters Genter Co introduced their first electric toaster for the home under the Toastmaster name. The following year the McGraw Electric Company of Minneapolis purchased Waters Genter Co. and the Toastmaster brand.
In 1929 a patent was issued to Strite for the automatic pop-up toaster for home use. This first Automatic electric Pop-up toaster was marketed as the McGraw Electric Company's Toastmaster. It sold in Minneapolis at the retail price of $13.50.
Sliced bread was first introduced under the Wonder Bread label in 1930. Not only did the sales of sliced bread take off, but also automatic pop up toasters became a popular vehicle for toasting the sliced bread.
It took another 18 years for the automatic pop up toaster to land in the UK, where Morphy-Richards introduced the first model in 1948.
Pig and roast - rhyming slang for toast - dates back to World War II and refers to the basic menu eaten by British soldiers.
Robert Matthews, an English scientist at Aston University, conducted a study that dropped 21,000 pieces of buttered toast, finding that the toast landed buttered side down 62 percent of the time.
The perfect slice of toast should be cooked for precisely 216 seconds, according to a mathematical formula devised by a team of British researchers.
A toaster uses almost half as much energy as a full-sized oven.
A lightning bolt has enough energy to toast 100,000 pieces of bread.
A world record of 8ft 6in for the highest flying toast from a pop-up toaster was set at the Royal College of Art graduate show in 2008, when a slice of toast flew 2.6 metres (8ft 6in) into the air from a toaster.
Toasters cause nearly 800 deaths annually due to electrocution and fires.
The first known use of "toast" as a metaphorical term for "you're dead" was in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters, in which Bill Murray's character declares, "This chick is toast", before attacking the villain. The earliest known printed account is from The St. Petersburg Times of October 1, 1987.
Sources Food For Thought by Ed Pearce, Ideafinder
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| Pixiebay |
HISTORY
Toast began as a method of prolonging the life of bread and is thought to have originated with the Ancient Egyptians.
Toasting bread was a very common activity for the Romans. "Tostum" is the Latin word for scorching or burning.
For most of the 17th century in England, when making such dishes as toasted cheese, the toast was generally moistened in wine. However by the end of the century, people were buttering it instead and hot buttered toast was being eaten at breakfast.
In the Western world during the early 19th century there were a variety of methods for making toast, such as putting bread on multi-purpose toasting forks and holding it over a fire. Alternatively ornate, hinged bread holders could be attached to the side of a fireplace and swung into the flame.
 |
| Toaster before the use of electricity |
The first electric bread toaster was invented by Alan MacMasters in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1893. The Scotsman approached Crompton & Co, one of the world's first large-scale manufactures of electrical equipment, with the prototype for a device that heated bread by running electricity through a metal element. The design went into production as the Eclipse, the world's first electric toaster. The Eclipse only toasted one side of the bread at a time and it required a person to stand by and turn it off manually when the toast looked done.
 |
| Toaster with an Edison screw fitting, c. 1909. Wikipedia |
American inventor William Hoskins invented the electric heating coil in the early 1900s, which used used to create the first electric toasters. He was also the co-inventor of modern billiard chalk.
Charles Strite, a master mechanic in a plant in Stillwater, Minnesota, decided to do something about the burnt toast served in the company cafeteria. Using springs and a variable timer, he came up with the automatic pop-up toaster, which ejects the toast after toasting it. He received patent #1,394,450 on October 18, 1921 and the same year formed the Waters Genter Company to manufacture his toaster and market it to restaurants.
 |
| United States patent #1,394,450. "Bread-Toaster" filed 22 June 1920 and patented 18 October 1921. |
In 1926 the Waters Genter Co introduced their first electric toaster for the home under the Toastmaster name. The following year the McGraw Electric Company of Minneapolis purchased Waters Genter Co. and the Toastmaster brand.
In 1929 a patent was issued to Strite for the automatic pop-up toaster for home use. This first Automatic electric Pop-up toaster was marketed as the McGraw Electric Company's Toastmaster. It sold in Minneapolis at the retail price of $13.50.
Sliced bread was first introduced under the Wonder Bread label in 1930. Not only did the sales of sliced bread take off, but also automatic pop up toasters became a popular vehicle for toasting the sliced bread.
It took another 18 years for the automatic pop up toaster to land in the UK, where Morphy-Richards introduced the first model in 1948.
FUN TOAST FACTS
Pig and roast - rhyming slang for toast - dates back to World War II and refers to the basic menu eaten by British soldiers.
Robert Matthews, an English scientist at Aston University, conducted a study that dropped 21,000 pieces of buttered toast, finding that the toast landed buttered side down 62 percent of the time.
The perfect slice of toast should be cooked for precisely 216 seconds, according to a mathematical formula devised by a team of British researchers.
 |
| Pixiebay |
A toaster uses almost half as much energy as a full-sized oven.
A lightning bolt has enough energy to toast 100,000 pieces of bread.
A world record of 8ft 6in for the highest flying toast from a pop-up toaster was set at the Royal College of Art graduate show in 2008, when a slice of toast flew 2.6 metres (8ft 6in) into the air from a toaster.
Toasters cause nearly 800 deaths annually due to electrocution and fires.
The first known use of "toast" as a metaphorical term for "you're dead" was in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters, in which Bill Murray's character declares, "This chick is toast", before attacking the villain. The earliest known printed account is from The St. Petersburg Times of October 1, 1987.
Sources Food For Thought by Ed Pearce, Ideafinder
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