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Drink

Toast Water

A drink made by soaking toasted bread in boiling water and seasoning with salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Toast Water

Toast Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the bread

  1. Toast the bread slices in the oven until brown.

  2. Break the toasted bread into small pieces.

Infuse and strain

  1. Pour an equal amount of boiling water over the bread pieces.

  2. Let the mixture infuse for 1 hour.

  3. Strain the mixture through a thin cloth.

Season and serve

  1. Add a pinch of salt and serve hot or cold.

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

What each ingredient does

Bread
Toasting browns the bread, adding roasted flavor that the water picks up during infusion.
Boiling water
Extracts flavor and soluble compounds from the toasted bread pieces, forming the liquid.

The step that matters

Toast the bread until deep brown. Browning drives the Maillard reaction and caramelization, which create the roasted flavor and aroma. Pale bread gives a weak, flat-tasting 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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