# What on Earth did I find in my friend's shed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398 "2015-11-24T02:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/21 "2015-11-24T16:23:09Z")
In stories about cleaning up after hoarders it’s traditional to come up with something truly bizarre, something no sane person would ever own, much less keep. A desiccated severed human foot is a good example. On behalf of all of us here I say: Please go back into the shed, basement, etc., and don’t come back until you’ve found something suitably bizarre to share with us. With pix. Bonus points if it stinks or is vermin infested. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/22 "2015-11-24T16:30:57Z")
> [@DoggyDunnit](#): > > 2 > > Keep in mind, I had only ever used toaster **ovens** in my life until that point. He looked at me like I was from Mars. 😃 You toast bread (in a toaster oven) with butter on it? (granted I make cinnamon toast that way, but never regular toast) ---
**Author:** ![DoggyDunnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@DoggyDunnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoggyDunnit)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/23 "2015-11-24T16:36:47Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > You toast bread (in a toaster oven) with butter on it? > > (granted I make cinnamon toast that way, but never regular toast) Yes. I always put the butter on first. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/24 "2015-11-24T16:55:44Z")
The whole and entire point of toasting bread in a toaster oven is that it’s a way to melt your toppings into the bread. Much better than the alternative of smearing cold rock-hard hard butter, etc. ineffectually over rapidly cooling barely warmed bread coming from a vertical toaster. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/25 "2015-11-24T17:09:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The whole and entire point of toasting bread in a toaster oven is that it’s a way to melt your toppings into the bread. > > Much better than the alternative of smearing cold rock-hard hard butter, etc. ineffectually over rapidly cooling barely warmed bread coming from a vertical toaster. Rock hard butter? My butter lives on my counter and is always spreadable. My comment wasn’t meant as criticism (as I said, I make cinnamon toast that way as well as toasted cheese), but that it never occurred to me to make regular toast that way. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/26 "2015-11-24T17:11:40Z")
So don’t store your butter in the fridge if you know you are going to use it for toast. It’ll be fine on the counter for a couple of days or more. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/27 "2015-11-24T17:30:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > The whole and entire point of toasting bread in a toaster oven is that it’s a way to melt your toppings into the bread. No it’s not. Toasting bread introduces several new flavors, thanks to the [Maillard reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction). Even dry toast tastes significantly different, and better, than untoasted bread. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/28 "2015-11-24T17:43:39Z")
Agree that butter doesn’t truly need to be in the fridge for food safety reasons. Despite common American germophobe handwringing to the contrary. But in FL anything not in the fridge or in a sealed container gets insects within a day. Our local ants seem to love butter. It also takes me about a month to use a single stick, so it would long since have become a molten blob carried down an ant hole were I to leave it out in my kitchen. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/29 "2015-11-24T17:45:30Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Agree that butter doesn’t truly need to be in the fridge for food safety reasons. Despite common American germophobe handwringing to the contrary. > > But in FL anything not in the fridge or in a sealed container gets insects within a day. Our local ants seem to love butter. It also takes me about a month to use a single stick, so it would long since have become a molten blob carried down an ant hole were I to leave it out in my kitchen. Yeah, perhaps the fridge is best in your situation. Yeech. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > No it’s not. Toasting bread introduces several new flavors, thanks to the [Maillard reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction). Even dry toast tastes significantly different, and better, than untoasted bread. I think his point was distinguishing toasting bread in a toaster _oven_ as a opposed to a vertical toaster that lets you melt the toppings. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/30 "2015-11-24T17:46:47Z")
ETA: simulpost w **IvoryTowerDenizen**. Not trying to pile on here. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > No it’s not. Toasting bread introduces several new flavors, thanks to the [Maillard reaction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction). Even dry toast tastes significantly different, and better, than untoasted bread. You missed my point. Yes, toasted bread tastes different than untoasted bread. Which was not what I was talking about. I was talking about the reason to toast bread in a toaster oven versus the reason to toast the same bread to the same degree of toastiness in a vertical slot toaster. And for that, the reason to prefer the toaster oven is that the bread can be horizontal and the topping(s) can melt into the bread during toasting rather than being added afterward to rapidly cooling toast. And the toppings can themselves perhaps be browned as well. (e.g. garlic & mozzarella on bread) ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/31 "2015-11-24T17:50:06Z")
Didn’t your mothers teach you how to make toast? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/32 "2015-11-24T17:53:09Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Agree that butter doesn’t truly need to be in the fridge for food safety reasons. Despite common American germophobe handwringing to the contrary. > > But in FL anything not in the fridge or in a sealed container gets insects within a day. Our local ants seem to love butter. It also takes me about a month to use a single stick, so it would long since have become a molten blob carried down an ant hole were I to leave it out in my kitchen. A butter dish with a cover isn’t that difficult to find. IME, they tend to be quite effective at arthropod exclusion. Anyway, if you stick a rock-hard pat of butter on top of the bread and put it into the toaster oven, there’s like a three-second sweet spot when the pat becomes spreadable. After that, it becomes a liquid that soaks into the bread, and through to the other side. So, spreading soft butter on the bread before putting it into the toaster oven would seem to be the way to go. I’ve never done it this way, of course. Would the side with the butter even toast? Or would you have toast on one side, and warm buttered bread on the other? I DID, when I was about six, suggest to my mom that it would save a lot of time if we buttered the bread before putting it into the toaster. That was when I learned about why that wouldn’t be a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/33 "2015-11-24T17:54:13Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > ETA: simulpost w **IvoryTowerDenizen**. Not trying to pile on here. > > You missed my point. Yes, toasted bread tastes different than untoasted bread. Which was not what I was talking about. > > I was talking about the reason to toast bread in a toaster oven versus the reason to toast the same bread to the same degree of toastiness in a vertical slot toaster. > > And for that, the reason to prefer the toaster oven is that the bread can be horizontal and the topping(s) can melt into the bread during toasting rather than being added afterward to cooling toast. And the toppings can themselves perhaps be browned as well. (e.g. garlic & mozzarella on bread) Sure, and garlic bread is one of the greatest foods known to man, but I’d still say there’s a difference in flavor between making toast (vertical or horizontal) then applying butter to it and preapplying butter on bread and putting it in a toaster oven. And handy tip from Mama muldoonthief - if the butter is still cold, shave a bunch of thin slices, put them on a plate, and put the plate next to the toaster. They’ll be perfectly, spreadably soft by the time the toast is done. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/34 "2015-11-24T19:54:45Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > In stories about cleaning up after hoarders it’s traditional to come up with something truly bizarre, something no sane person would ever own, much less keep. > > A desiccated severed human foot is a good example. > > On behalf of all of us here I say: Please go back into the shed, basement, etc., and don’t come back until you’ve found something suitably bizarre to share with us. With pix. Bonus points if it stinks or is vermin infested. 🙂 Or “buried under shed” is a common phrase in newspaper stories that start with “serial killer identified”. Although I suppose feet are actually more often found by dogs being walked in the early morning hours. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/35 "2015-11-24T20:03:25Z")
Not trying to be a tool, but how did you not know they were matches? ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/36 "2015-11-24T20:03:30Z")
I actually have a box of those that were left in the house by the previous owner. I use one a year. After the first use, I relight it with a conventional lighter. If it gets too short, I put it in a hemostat and it still works. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/37 "2015-11-24T20:06:39Z")
It’s obvious - you put the toaster on its side. Just be sure to put the butter side up. then put the plate in front of the toast slot, and the eject will shoot the toast onto the plate, butte side up. Of course, this is why granite countertops are so popular nowadays, the melamine ones were melting. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/38 "2015-11-24T20:24:55Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Agree that butter doesn’t truly need to be in the fridge for food safety reasons. Despite common American germophobe handwringing to the contrary. > > But in FL anything not in the fridge or in a sealed container gets insects within a day. Our local ants seem to love butter. It also takes me about a month to use a single stick, so it would long since have become a molten blob carried down an ant hole were I to leave it out in my kitchen. You need something like this for butter. Put softened butter in the dome part then a little water in the cylinder part and invert the dome into the water to store. This should keep bugs out. Soft butter on golden brown toast like god intended. > **[Walmart | Save Money. Live better.](https://www.walmart.com/?jcmp=pla:ggl:home_garden_a3:kitchen_dining_food_storage_a3_other:na:na:na:na:na:2&code=PLA15&k_clickid=44fb5f28-1124-408e-b89d-169b00813933&gclid=CjwKEAiAstCyBRDiqu75hvnX82kSJACgYI_Q4vfYJnxtq-1v7ARQbEH378IHzDkcJ34-GjvVmw-k4xoC__Xw_wcB)** > > Shop Walmart today for Every Day Low Prices. Join Walmart+ for unlimited free delivery from your store & free shipping with no order minimum. Start your free 30-day trial now! ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/39 "2015-11-24T20:35:16Z")
Yeah, those inverted-under-water butter keepers are the cat’s PJs. I just don’t use enough butter to bother with it. Thanks for the suggestion though. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398/40 "2015-11-24T21:29:54Z")
I just got home from work and had to have some buttered toast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-on-earth-did-i-find-in-my-friends-shed/738398.md?page=3)