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Drink

Toast Water, or Crust Coffee

A beverage made by steeping toasted stale bread crusts in boiling water, then sweetened and served cold or warm.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the crust infusion

  1. Toast stale bread crusts until dark brown, being careful not to burn them.

  2. Place the toasted crusts in a large pitcher and cover with boiling water.

  3. Cover the pitcher closely and let steep until cold.

Strain and serve

  1. Strain the mixture and sweeten to taste.

  2. Serve with a piece of ice in each glass.

  3. Enjoy warm with cream and sugar.

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.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Stale bread crusts
Toasted crusts provide the dark, roasted flavor that gives the drink its coffee-like character.
Boiling water
Extracts the toasted flavor and color from the crusts into the liquid.

The step that matters

Toast the crusts until dark brown without burning. Toasting browns the bread through Maillard reactions and caramelization, which build the roasted flavor. Burnt crusts add bitter, acrid notes that carry into the whole drink.

“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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