To Make Toast-and-water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the toast
Cut a slice from a stale loaf (preferably a hard crust).
Toast the slice to a nice brown on all sides, but do not burn it.
Place the toasted slice in a jug.
Steep and strain
Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the slice. Cover the jug closely.
Let the mixture remain until cold.
Strain the toast-and-water; it will be ready.
Alternative quick method
For a quicker version, put the toasted slice in a jug and cover it only with boiling water.
When the mixture cools, add cold water in the required proportion.
Strain the toast-and-water; it will be ready.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Toasted crust gives the water its brown colour and a toasted, roasted flavour.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavour and colour from the toasted bread into the liquid.
The step that matters
Toast the slice to a nice brown but do not burn it. Toasting browns the crust through Maillard reactions and caramelisation, which build the flavour and colour. Burnt bread turns bitter and carries that bitterness 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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