Toast and Water
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the toast
Cut a crust of stale bread about twice the thickness of regular toast.
Toast the bread until completely browned, but not burnt.
Make the toast water
Pour boiling water into a jug to your desired amount.
Add the toasted bread to the jug and let it stand until cold.
For added flavor, infuse with thin slices of lemon, dried orange peel, or currant jelly.
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 releases browned, roasted flavour into the water as it steeps.
- Boiling water
- Hot water extracts flavour and colour from the toasted bread quickly.
The step that matters
Toast the bread until completely browned, but not burnt. Browning drives the toasted, caramel-like flavour that gives the water its character. Undertoasted bread tastes flat and pale, while burnt bread adds bitter, acrid notes that carry into the water.
“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.
You might also like
Vegetable Soup350 recipes
Raspberry Vinegar214 recipes
Brown Coffee with Egg175 recipes
Blackberry Cordial129 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.