This is truly mundane and pointless, but I think about it every morning. I am a very bad waiter when it comes to toast. I am always pressing the button to pop it up before its scheduled pop-up. I flip the bread around, push it back down and now because it’s partially toasted, I really can’t let it go for the full cycle so I have to press the button again. I’m guessing I press the button at least 3 times during a toasting session. I don’t like dark toast, so I’m always very vigilant when it comes to toasting. Someone should invent a see-through toaster.
When I toast bread I use a toaster oven. The lower element is a bit hotter than the upper element. Seeking perfection I flip the bread several times during the toasting process.
Assuming they are at home, why is the toaster not set to the perfect setting for their desired toast doneness? After buying a new toaster it may take a few trials to home in on the perfect setting but once that’s done, fiddling with toast doneness daily seems wacky / OCD.
I can see a problem with boredom while awaiting that scrumptious treat. But fiddling with it further delays the gratification. Ensure the knob is on 3-1/2 or whatever, load the bread, then busy yourself selecting your jam flavor, getting a plate & knife, refilling your coffee, etc.
But whatever you do, don’t fiddle with the half-cooked toast; you’re just making things worse, not better.
Sure, assuming you always toast the same bread every time, but I’ve found different loaves of bread, and different types of bagels, depending on their density, take more or less time to toast, so I have to keep an eye on things every time I use a different kind of bread.
The bigger question is, why does it take so long to toast a slice of bread? Electric toasters have been around since 1893, and they basically work the same way and take almost as long now as they did then. Why is there no flash toast technology that can toast a piece of bread in less than 10 seconds? These are the things that keep me awake at night.
I make Bagel/creamcheese/bacon/avacado sandwiches (labor intensive!) and always worry I’m going to burn the last remaining bagel and leave me hanging. A case of Toaster Distrust. So, I keep an eye on that last bagel.
I’m guessing there’s no way to do it in ten seconds. Toasters have to heat the bread’s interior for it to come out right. You could give the surfaces of the slice a quick browning but it wouldn’t create the proper crunch. Same with marshmallows - no good unless the interior is liquified.
Okay, isn’t that what a microwave oven does? We need to invent a cross between a microwave oven and a flash toaster. Someone needs to get right on this. The world has waited too long for this invention.
I pour the scrambled eggs into the hot pan, add salt and pepper, then push the toast down. I go back to scrambling my eggs, and the toast pops up right when the eggs are done. For this one meal, I’ve got the timing down pat!
My toaster got mis-adjusted once and instead of dialing it in I found the perfect time and then used the microwave to time it. WAY more work than just dialing it in a couple toasts.
My toaster oven has a timer to set how long to toast. No ability to preset the doneness level. In addition, when I had the temp set to toast, the difference between barely warm and nearly charred was about a millimeter on the timer. I lowered the temp just so I had a chance to get what I liked
I’ve never actually looked for a see-through toaster. I might have to get myself one, although my toaster is only about 2 years old.
Like others have said, you can’t just find the one perfect setting for all toasting scenarios. Raisin bread and cinnamon bread seem to toast much faster, English muffins seem to take longer than other breads, and bagels are somewhere in between. I don’t like my toast dark. I like it very light. And the smell of burnt toast is horrible. It lingers for a long time.
I should probably put this in the “What happens in TV shows but not in real life” thread but since we’re talking toast, I’ll put it here -
A piece of toast is buttered after it’s been taken from a big stack of cold toast that’s been sitting on the table. When it’s being buttered it has a loud scraping sound because it’s as hard as a rock. I always cringe when I see this. I think, how could anyone eat that?!
I feel the OP’s frustration. I have a cheapo slot toaster and I have a toaster oven. If I use the slot toaster, it’s fast but I can’t see the bread. If I use the toaster oven (depending on what I’m toasting) it’s at least a five minute wait.