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Drink

Toast Water

A drink made by soaking toasted bread in water, then adding cream and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Toast Water

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Toast Water

Ingredients

Directions

Make the toast water

  1. Toast the bread slices slowly until brown.

  2. Break the toasted bread into small pieces.

  3. Place the pieces in a bowl.

  4. Pour the water over the bread pieces.

  5. Let it stand for one hour.

  6. Strain the mixture.

Finish and serve

  1. Add cream and sugar to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Bread + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,789 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Bread + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,638 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bread
Toasting browns the slices, giving the water a toasty flavour and colour.
Water
Soaks into the toasted bread and carries its flavour, forming the drink's base.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, fuller mouthfeel to the drink.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the toasted flavour.

The step that matters

Toasting the bread slowly until brown. Slow toasting browns the bread evenly through its interior, developing roasted flavour without burnt, bitter notes that would carry into the water.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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