Toast and Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Toast the bread slice thoroughly at a distance from a clear fire until evenly browned.
Place the toasted bread in a jug.
Pour enough cold spring water over the bread while still hot.
Steep
Cover the jug and let it stand for 12 hours.
Prepare it overnight for best results.
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 browns and flavours the water, giving the drink its colour and toasty aroma.
- Cold spring water
- Extracts flavour and soluble compounds from the toasted bread during the long soak.
The step that matters
Toast the bread evenly until browned. Browning builds the toasty flavour and colour the water picks up. Pale or burnt patches give a weak or bitter result, so the bread should be toasted evenly and not scorched.
“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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