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Drink

To Make Toast-and-water

A simple drink made by steeping toasted stale bread in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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To Make Toast-and-water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a slice from a stale loaf, preferably a piece of hard crust.

  2. Toast the bread until it is nicely browned on all sides, avoiding burning.

Steep and strain

  1. Place the toasted bread in a jug and pour the boiling water over it.

  2. Cover the jug closely and let it sit until cool.

  3. Strain the mixture before use.

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
Its dry, toasted crust gives the water a roasted, nutty flavour and colour.
Boiling water
Extracts flavour and colour from the toasted bread as it steeps and cools.

The step that matters

Toasting the bread until nicely browned. Browning drives the Maillard reaction and caramelisation, which create the roasted flavour the water picks up. Burnt bread adds bitter, acrid notes that carry into the liquid, so the toast should be coloured evenly without going dark.

“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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