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Drink

Toast-awd-water

A simple infusion made by steeping stale bread in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Toast-awd-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 a nice brown on all sides, avoiding burning.

Steep and serve

  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 cold.

  3. Strain the mixture before serving.

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
Toasted bread gives the infusion its toasty, roasted flavour and brown colour.
Boiling water
Hot water extracts flavour and colour from the toasted bread as it steeps.

The step that matters

Toast the bread until brown, not burnt. Toasting builds the roasted, caramelised flavour and colour of the drink. Burnt bread adds bitter, acrid notes that carry into the infusion and spoil the tea.

“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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