# One-Sided Toast - Calling all U.K.ers
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 4, 2001, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439 "2001-01-04T18:45:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [February 1, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/41 "2018-02-01T22:21:26Z")
I’d be surprised if any toaster (even zombie ones) was actually made here at all. They all seem to be made in China. Good luck getting one of those apart to fix it. I tried last week and the Chinese seem to have gone to considerable lengths to make sure you ruin it if you try.
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### Author:  [@MrFloppy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrFloppy)
#### Post date: [February 2, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/42 "2018-02-02T01:52:42Z")
I have the original UK vinyl pressing of Nothing Like The Sun cos I’m old and I bought it new back then in 1987 (it is AMA6402 for you discogs freaks). The lyric sheet has “I like my toast done on **the** side”.
So I would think that settles it.
And as a Brit, I know of nobody that prefers half toasted toast to errr…toast.
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### Author:  [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2018, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/43 "2018-02-11T00:26:14Z")
I think a lot of UK pensioners made toast in the oven. My grandmother essentially cooked bread in a grill pan in a stove. Toasting the bread on both sides took twice as much time but wasn’t that different since the upside still heats up.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2018, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/44 "2018-02-11T17:46:10Z")
The old-timers are used to rationing toaster-heat. Have to save it for the war effort, wot?
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### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/45 "2018-02-11T21:10:49Z")
Can I just say, I’m an Englishman and I don’t like tea.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2018, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/46 "2018-02-11T21:31:53Z")
There’s a Chicken Fingers place here that serves a side of texas toast with their meals. They somehow only toast it on one side. I hate it, toast the other side too, jerks!
Regular toast, I dunno about in a toaster, but in a toaster oven you can get two one sided toasted slices by placing one slice of bread on top of the other before toasting. Can be useful for some types of sammich. I still wouldn’t do it often or to eat as just toast
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### Author:  [@Clothes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothes)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2018, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/47 "2018-02-11T22:14:30Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#):
>
> Can I just say, I’m an Englishman and I don’t like tea.
No True Englishman, he!
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/48 "2018-02-11T22:37:16Z")
> [@MrFloppy](#):
>
> I have the original UK vinyl pressing of Nothing Like The Sun cos I’m old and I bought it new back then in 1987 (it is AMA6402 for you discogs freaks). The lyric sheet has “I like my toast done on **the** side”.
Well that’s obvious. Has anyone in the history of time ever wanted it only toasted on the edge?
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### Author:  [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2018, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/49 "2018-02-15T13:18:41Z")
I always thought it weird, and have occasionally mentioned it. The only person I know who does her toast on one side is from the same neck of the woods as Sting though, so maybe its a northeastern peculiarity.
But maybe just a peculiarity.
That said, I have encountered the idea of toasting what will become the inner face of a sandwich to withstand wet ingredients, but leaving the outside untoasted so as not to abrade the lips, and that was in an American diner. Doubt that was what Sting was on about, but I guess there may have been such a practice with non-sandwich toast in the UK for similar reasons, historically.
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### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2018, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/50 "2018-02-16T03:32:52Z")
My American grandmother used to make one-sided toast in the frying pan with lots of butter. It’s better than toast from the toaster, but I don’t eat it anymore for the good of my arteries.
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### Author:  [@flip-68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flip-68)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2018, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/51 "2018-02-16T16:14:05Z")
i grew up in UK in the 1970’s before having a toaster was an everyday thing - we put the bread under the grill and toasted one side. it was delicious - i highly recommend it. of course, once toasters became a thing - why bother with the grill?
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### Author:  [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2018, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/52 "2018-02-16T19:25:42Z")
Toast is the closest my mother gets to religion, and she’s never owned a toaster. My wife’s feelings on toast are much the same, and we don’t have one either. We did for a little while, but it broke, and we resumed using the grill. Which is really no hassle. It doesn’t seem to be something to “bother” with, any more than a toaster would be.
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### Author:  [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2018, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/53 "2018-02-16T23:40:59Z")
Under the grill? WTF? How do you even get the bread down there? Not to mention getting it out without burning your hands off? Over the grill okay, but apparently you have some weird alternate use of the word grill that in no way matches the grills I’ve used.
This is a grill
[ ](https://i.imgur.com/l9zAAvD.jpg)
how you gonna put something UNDER that???😕
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### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/54 "2018-02-17T12:25:39Z")
That’s not a grill, it’s a barbecue.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/55 "2018-02-17T12:57:40Z")
> [@TBG](#):
>
> Under the grill? WTF? How do you even get the bread down there? Not to mention getting it out without burning your hands off? Over the grill okay, but apparently you have some weird alternate use of the word grill that in no way matches the grills I’ve used.
>
> This is a grill
>
> [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](https://i.imgur.com/l9zAAvD.jpg)
>
> how you gonna put something UNDER that???😕
“Grill” in the UK means “broiler” in the US. (Context should make that clear, I would think.) ETA: Well, it can also mean that iron grate that you put over a fire, but primarily, you put something under a grill over there.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/56 "2018-02-17T13:07:26Z")
ETA2:
> [@](#):
>
> A grill is a part of a stove which produces strong heat to cook food that has been placed underneath it.
> [British]
> Place the omelette under a gentle grill until the top is set.
[Cite](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/grill).
> [@Mk\_VII](#):
>
> That’s not a grill, it’s a barbecue.
Yeah, here in the US, we can get very specific about what is a grill, barbecue, grilling, and barbecuing. Some people/regions use the words very loosely; others much more specifically. Colloquially, we do sometimes (perhaps often) refer to grills as barbecues, though for me, it’s more natural to call it a grill.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/57 "2018-02-17T13:12:32Z")
[Toast bread on the grill.](https://goo.gl/images/QF8pt5)
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/58 "2018-02-17T13:20:58Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> \*Two slices dropped together into the toaster so that only the outer side of each slice gets toasted - it comes out crisp on one side and steamy-soft on the other - load the un-toasted side with cheese and ham and put it back together as a sandwich - it has the crisp nature of a toasted sandwich, but the soft untoasted inside grips the filling so it doesn’t fall out.
I used to do the same thing when I was teenager. Bread was sliced more thinly in those days and I was often impatient to eat. Mind you, I did have time to slice a tomato to go with the cheese and ham.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2018, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/59 "2018-02-17T13:24:23Z")
> [@wolfman](#):
>
> Well that’s obvious. Has anyone in the history of time ever wanted it only toasted on the edge?
Bono?
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### Author:  [@Dave19](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave19)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/one-sided-toast-calling-all-u-k-ers/48439/60 "2021-04-27T18:42:22Z")
Called CHISELDECK in the UK.
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