Cool!
I did this all the time when I was a kid. Not a lot of margarine, because then you’d get a soggy mess, a light coating making sure to not leave a spot unbuttered. Toasty toast on one side, perfectly melted butter on the other side very ready for a teaspoon full of grape jelly,
Well, I did until my grandmother found out. Then I didn’t do it again.
Well, as Annie Xmas says, you could lay the toaster down on it’s side, nobody said the toaster has to be right side up!
Or, you could buy some of these…. though I think it would be a mess on the bottom.
Pan-frying pre-buttered bread is heavenly, and easy. I prefer it that way so much I didn’t replace the pop-up toaster after it broke.
But pan fried bread in bacon grease is divine.
I admit, it never occurred to me to not butter the bread before toasting it. So far I’ve seen no problems as a result of it; perhaps I just don’t butter the bread all that much?
Win.
I was always told as a child by my mother that one should never butter the bread first. A while a go my son got a hankering for pre-buttered toast at Grandma’s. I told him no, we shouldn’t do that. Imagine my surprise when my mother acted like she had never heard this prohibition before.:rolleyes: Grandchildren make parents quite forgetful.
I ignore my mom’s current position on pre-buttering and go with what she said back before the grandchildren melted her brain. 
Some troll posted a pic on Reddit of a “lifehack” to make grilled cheese by turning a toaster on its side, and it got to the top of the front page. Of course, this does not work for a variety of reasons, and best case you end up with toast rockets and worst case you totally melt your toaster.
A brain cancer patient I was supposed to be caring for toasted a toaster pre buttering the bread.
You can do it. You just need a toaster bag. I’m sure every college bookstore has them.
As a kid I’d toast the bread very very light, butter it, then put it back in for a second short go. I could never butter bread pre toasting because the bread would tear, so I though this was a good compromise.
Now I own a toaster oven and there is no issue.
Thanks, all, for the responses! I think I’ll keep buttering the bread first…
I must admit, my mind is a bit boggled by this - the vast majority of responders say it’s a bad idea, including several with experience of it causing fires, while a much smaller number say they do it with light amounts of butter successfully…and you plan to keep doing it?
Out of curiousity, why did you ask in the first place?
Of course he does. He knows which side is bread is buttered on.
^^ snorts soda
Thanks, carnivorousplant…
sorry.