Toast and Water
Ingredients
Directions
Make the toast
Toast the bread thoroughly at a distance from a clear fire until evenly browned.
Place the toasted bread in a jug.
Steep
Pour enough cold spring water over the bread while still hot.
Cover the jug and let it stand for 12 hours.
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
- Toasted bread gives the water a toasty, browned flavour and aroma.
- Cold spring water
- Water draws flavour and colour from the toasted bread during the long steep.
The step that matters
Toast the bread thoroughly until evenly browned. Browning develops the roasted flavour compounds that the water will extract. Pale or uneven toast gives a weak, flat flavour, while scorched bread adds bitterness.
“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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