Burnt Toast Water
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Toast the bread in the oven at 400°F (200°C) until it is burnt.
Steep and strain
Place the burnt bread in a pitcher and add the boiling water.
Cover the pitcher and let it stand until cold.
Strain the mixture when ready to use.
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
- Toasting it until burnt gives the water its dark, toasty aroma and flavour.
- Boiling water
- Extracts flavour and colour from the burnt bread as it steeps.
The step that matters
Toast the bread until burnt. Toast that is only lightly browned gives a weak, flat flavour. The bread needs to be deeply toasted so the water picks up the roasted, bitter-sweet notes that define the 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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