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Toast and Water

A simple method of toasting stale bread and steeping it in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Toast and Water

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut a crust of stale bread about twice the thickness of regular toast.

  2. Toast it carefully until completely browned, but not burnt.

Steep

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

  2. Cover the jug and let it stand until completely cool.

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 rich, roasted flavour and colour.
Boiling water
Extracts flavour and aroma from the toasted bread crust into the liquid.

The step that matters

Toasting until completely browned but not burnt. Browning drives the Maillard reaction and caramelisation, which create the roasted flavour. 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.

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