# Scraping toast in the U.K.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [April 6, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185 "2008-04-06T15:18:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2008, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/41 "2008-04-06T23:01:01Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
The idea of a sandwhich _without_ butter or marge
[/quote]
Whoah! Careful with that stuff, Lobbers - mentioning margarine to Americans is nearly as dangerous as saying “Actually, instant coffee isn’t all that bad…”
> [@](#):
>
> If there is proof of an Evil God it’s moist bread.
Yeah. Summer pudding. Makes me gag just thinking about it.
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### Author:  [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/42 "2008-04-07T00:15:08Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
The purpose of toast racks (and I know I’m right about this, so my post is my cite) is _to allow the steam emitted from freshly-cooked toast to escape without turning the toast soggy_ - if you put the toast flat on a plate straight out of the toaster, condensation will form beneath the slices and they will go limp.
[/QUOTE]
You are indeed correct. It is also supposedly good to tap the toast to break the surface to help the steam to escape, thereby further minimising the danger of producing soggy toast.
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### Author:  [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/43 "2008-04-07T00:24:02Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
Whoah! Careful with that stuff, Lobbers - mentioning margarine to Americans is nearly as dangerous as saying “Actually, instant coffee isn’t all that bad…”
[/QUOTE]
Only to the elitists here. My experience with friends and family is that margarine is the much more common spread. Butter actually tastes somewhat weird to me on toast since I was raised on margarine.
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### Author:  [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/44 "2008-04-07T00:30:40Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
edit: the butter/marge acts as a water-tight protective layer. It adds the right kind of moistness to the whole experience too.
[/QUOTE]
First of all, in America, a sandwich is usually not very moist.
However, what usually goes next to the bread is mayonnaise. That has the fat content to act as a moisture barrier. The idea of substituting butter for mayo seems pretty weird to me.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/45 "2008-04-07T00:38:28Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray]
The idea of substituting butter for mayo seems pretty weird to me.
[/QUOTE]
Likewise, the other way around!
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/46 "2008-04-07T01:17:07Z")
Butter on a sandwich is weird to Americans? I grew up on the stuff!
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### Author:  [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/47 "2008-04-07T02:28:46Z")
Never had buttter on a sandwich myself, but my neighbors eat peanut butter and butter sandwiches.
I saw ‘em doin’ it, too, I did!
Proper toast requires a light spread of butter and then it get toasted until the butter begins to darken slighty. Now, that a fine piece of toast!
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### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/48 "2008-04-07T02:45:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Finally, toaster ovens only toast one side, unless you flip the bread. Quite good that way, too.
My toaster oven has a setting called “toast”, which toasts both sides at once.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/49 "2008-04-07T08:50:33Z")
[QUOTE=pmwgreen]
[QUOTE=Lobsang]
toast with cold unmelted butter is yum.
[/QUOTE]
Plus marmalade with chunks of orange peel in it. Double yum.
[/QUOTE]
Just the way Mum likes it. Personally I can’t stand toast with any butter/margarine unmelted. If I’ve left the toast too long to melt it all, it goes back in for a minute to get it all uniformly melted and soaked into the toast.
The Times Culture supplement had a review of a book on the history of bread. In it, the author described an odd way of preparing toast, a couple of slices skewered together with butter places on top, allowed to melt and soak through in front of a fire.
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### Author:  [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/50 "2008-04-07T08:58:53Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout]
The purpose of toast racks (and I know I’m right about this, so my post is my cite) is _to allow the steam emitted from freshly-cooked toast to escape without turning the toast soggy_ - if you put the toast flat on a plate straight out of the toaster, condensation will form beneath the slices and they will go limp
[/QUOTE]
My mind has been blown, all along I’ve bemoaned the condensation that forms below the slice of toast on my plate and the solution was staring me in the face from across the table! :smack:
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### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/51 "2008-04-07T09:52:41Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
On the one sided toast quote, were toasters less common in the UK until recently than in the US? I know my family for some reason didn’t have a toaster for years and we used to grill/broil our toast. If you didn’t turn it it would be done on one side. It’s kinda nice that way.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve no evidence other than my own experience, and no way of comparing with the US, but you may be right.
I suspect the recent rise in popularity of the toaster in the UK is tied to the demise of the eye-level grill on cookers. Before we all had fitted kitchens with integrated colour-matched ovens and hobs, most people were probably given a toaster as a wedding present, and on finding (approximately six weeks after the honeymoon) that it had failed, gave up on it and used the grill, which had the advantages of working reliably, not taking up useful space on the counter, and allowing you to make cheese on toast.
Now that the grill in generally inside the oven, at approximately knee height, the old pop-up toaster’s come back into its own.
I’ve still never had one that worked properly, though.
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### Author:  [@Lazlo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lazlo)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/52 "2008-04-07T12:01:18Z")
I burned my toast while reading this thread ☹
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/53 "2008-04-07T12:13:11Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí]
On the one sided toast quote, were toasters less common in the UK until recently than in the US? I know my family for some reason didn’t have a toaster for years and we used to grill/broil our toast. If you didn’t turn it it would be done on one side. It’s kinda nice that way.
[/QUOTE]
Same here. We always used to use the grill. In fact, we’ve got rid of our toaster and gone back to the grill, now. It’s easier to fit loads of bread under a grill than a toaster.
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### Author:  [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/54 "2008-04-07T12:18:58Z")
I can remember us doing it under the grill in the 1960s, at which point we got a toaster and never saw any reason to go back to the old way. Since all toasters are made in China these days I can’t see why British experience of them should be different to anyone else’s. They all leave one side lightly scorched and the other properly done (or turn it up and get one side burnt black) unless you do two slices, when you’ll get two lightly scorched on both sides.
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/55 "2008-04-07T13:01:00Z")
The best toast is that made in front of an open coal-fire using a toasting fork.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/56 "2008-04-07T13:10:25Z")
Is it really (or was it really) that common to have stove-top grills in Britain? That’s a luxury item on this side of the pond.
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### Author:  [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/57 "2008-04-07T13:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar]
Is it really (or was it really) that common to have stove-top grills in Britain? That’s a luxury item on this side of the pond.
[/QUOTE]
This is the sort of grill we are talking about , and they are still very common on “free standing” cookers :- [High Level Grill](http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argos/images/160-4892726A68UC424450M.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nootka.co.uk/products/flavel-cascade-eca51w-gas-cooker..htm&h=300&w=250&sz=5&hl=en&start=2&tbnid=3sSwsJKsYqqfcM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgas%2Bcooker%2Bhigh%2Blevel%2Bgrill%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG)
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### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/58 "2008-04-07T13:27:01Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar]
Is it really (or was it really) that common to have stove-top grills in Britain? That’s a luxury item on this side of the pond.
[/QUOTE]
You know, with the language differences – grilling/broiling etc – I’m never exactly sure if we’re talking about the same thing.
[This is what we’re talking about.](http://www.gassouthwest.co.uk/cannon-worcester-eye-level-gas-cooker_1598.htm) Pretty much standard into the 80s, when the more expensive separate oven and hob units that fitted into the kitchen units became fashionable. As you can see, nothing luxurious about them. I think these days they’re very much the bottom end of the market.
Edit: Pipped at the post! Knickers!
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### Author:  [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/59 "2008-04-07T13:50:08Z")
Perhaps the difference in experience with toasters involves the difference in AC current? We are on 60Hz 120 current and isn’t most of Europe on a higher frequency / higher voltage system? Wouldn’t one of the fine Sunbeam toasters that turn my bread nicely tan here in Cornville USA explode brilliantly most anywhere in England?
As to butter, this is either not as uncommon as you think or my 6th generation ancestors held on to the habit for a couple of hundred years. I grew up with butter (or margerine cause it’s softer) as a condiment as well as mayo. Either that or something non-porus was used like a slice of cheese or piece of lettuce.
Mmm… butter and cucumber sandwiches, sometimes with some tomato slices.
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [April 7, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scraping-toast-in-the-u-k/444185/60 "2008-04-07T14:00:19Z")
I have lately been having problems with burned toast. However I know the root cause.
My toaster is used for both toast and bagels. However the proper application of heat for toast, does not create the proper bagel, it just sightly drys it out, so the Bagel requires a higher setting. This creates the eternal toaster dilemma. The damn knob is so inexact, everytime I change it between them, I don’t tune it exactly right, and my toast and bagels are often burnt, or weakly toasted. ☹
So for the futrue I either need 2 toasters, or one toaster with digital precision present tuning.
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