I’m a pleb from the deepest, darkest Eastern Europe so I like it hot, not cold, on the rare occasion when I eat it - we never buy sliced bread, which IMHO is the only acceptable bread to use. Though as you say, it’s really an English thing, at least for my generation. Nobody owned a toaster when I was growing up in Poland under communism, though my mother made what’s known here as French toast as a treat sometimes, to use up stale white sourdough (shop bought). But my English husband toasts every kind of bread: homemade sourdough, multiseed sourdough from a bakery - he’d probably try and toast Danish rugbrød.
What sort of bread do you have? In the Italy I know we buy (or used to) proper bakery bread but for ‘i tost’ they’d buy horribly processed bread from the supermercado.
A Polish writer, who lived in England once told me she was amazed when she first found out she had to look for the word “sourdough” to make sure she was buying what to her was everyday bread, because that’s what Poles mostly buy. It’s often made with rye flour, and sunflower or multiseed versions are popular, too. Crucially, it’s more affordable than here - I pay £5.25 for a loaf from Reeve’s, my local chain of bakeries. If there’s no bakery near you, as was the case for me most of the years I lived in Warsaw, supermarkets still usually sell a good selection from popular brands, including the mass market sliced white bread.
Cold so that you can spread it with what the Danes call "tooth butter". Toast cooled by leaning two pieces together (don't have my parents' old stainless steel modern toast rack and they are not something generally made these days). But crumpets should be hot with melted butter. And the white supermarket bread toast needs to be with marge, I think, in memory of staying in a schoolfriend's parents' hotel in Yarmouth.
I was a midwife and often made the best meal a mother will ever taste… hospital white toast! In my experience, it was only never ‘well toasted’ as:
1. Toasters on wards are so temperamental, often setting off smoke alarms so they were used with caution
2. As a midwife I was still responsible for the care of my ‘mum’ and didn’t want to be out of the room for too long whilst she was recovering.
3. It would actually be the second round of toast I made. The first would be for me as I would be close to passing out after hours of starvation and could eat a round of toast in 10 seconds flat to enable me to make the next round and get back to mum/my notes/ updating the computer etc
Ah this is so interesting. For four years I worked as a lay-rep at UCH maternity and I remember having a similar discussion with a midwife, not least about how toasters weren't allowed strictly speaking but some staff just smuggled one in, is this true/still the case??
I no longer work as a midwife but the ‘toaster’ debate was huge when I was practicing.
The toaster was removed once and we had to serve our women bread and jam… there was nearly a mutiny over it. It was the hill we were prepared to die on and we didn’t relent until management returned the toaster. We were instructed to set the toaster to the lowest setting and just give the (cheap and quite nasty) bread a quick lick of heat!
I would also add that we never had any knives and so we used to butter the toast using the back of a spoon.
In fairness, we didn’t have enough thermometers, BP equipment or staff so we let the lack of knives pass. They don’t call us ‘madwives’ for nothing!
I wrote more about my midwifery journey in a popular post here on Substack.
I would love to get it published. If you know of anyone at The Guardian who might be interested please do shout!
I like my toast all sorts of ways! I know exactly what you mean about 'hospital toast', and sometimes that's what you get in a hotel, especially if they bring your toast far too soon ... which makes my husband really, really cross. It's not my preference, but I do like it. I love a nice chunky piping hot slice of sourdough with honey or some interesting type of jam, or avocado and a properly runny poached egg; and I grew up with lots of interesting malt, fruit, soda and wheaten breads in Northern Ireland, all of which are delicioous toasted. But I think really my favourite is a think slice of an artisan white bloomer, dripping with marmalade or generously spread with Marmite, depending on the time of day, and as hot as it can be without burning.
I’m a pleb from the deepest, darkest Eastern Europe so I like it hot, not cold, on the rare occasion when I eat it - we never buy sliced bread, which IMHO is the only acceptable bread to use. Though as you say, it’s really an English thing, at least for my generation. Nobody owned a toaster when I was growing up in Poland under communism, though my mother made what’s known here as French toast as a treat sometimes, to use up stale white sourdough (shop bought). But my English husband toasts every kind of bread: homemade sourdough, multiseed sourdough from a bakery - he’d probably try and toast Danish rugbrød.
What sort of bread do you have? In the Italy I know we buy (or used to) proper bakery bread but for ‘i tost’ they’d buy horribly processed bread from the supermercado.
A Polish writer, who lived in England once told me she was amazed when she first found out she had to look for the word “sourdough” to make sure she was buying what to her was everyday bread, because that’s what Poles mostly buy. It’s often made with rye flour, and sunflower or multiseed versions are popular, too. Crucially, it’s more affordable than here - I pay £5.25 for a loaf from Reeve’s, my local chain of bakeries. If there’s no bakery near you, as was the case for me most of the years I lived in Warsaw, supermarkets still usually sell a good selection from popular brands, including the mass market sliced white bread.
Yes same re Italy and sourdough being the usual!
Cold so that you can spread it with what the Danes call "tooth butter". Toast cooled by leaning two pieces together (don't have my parents' old stainless steel modern toast rack and they are not something generally made these days). But crumpets should be hot with melted butter. And the white supermarket bread toast needs to be with marge, I think, in memory of staying in a schoolfriend's parents' hotel in Yarmouth.
Ooh Iike this
Simply HAS to be hot, and buttered straight away. Otherwise it goes in the bin!!
Ah so interesting. I don't mind it hot and buttered and then left to go cold, but I cannot eat hot toast...
No, has to be hot/warm for me!
I was a midwife and often made the best meal a mother will ever taste… hospital white toast! In my experience, it was only never ‘well toasted’ as:
1. Toasters on wards are so temperamental, often setting off smoke alarms so they were used with caution
2. As a midwife I was still responsible for the care of my ‘mum’ and didn’t want to be out of the room for too long whilst she was recovering.
3. It would actually be the second round of toast I made. The first would be for me as I would be close to passing out after hours of starvation and could eat a round of toast in 10 seconds flat to enable me to make the next round and get back to mum/my notes/ updating the computer etc
Ah this is so interesting. For four years I worked as a lay-rep at UCH maternity and I remember having a similar discussion with a midwife, not least about how toasters weren't allowed strictly speaking but some staff just smuggled one in, is this true/still the case??
I no longer work as a midwife but the ‘toaster’ debate was huge when I was practicing.
The toaster was removed once and we had to serve our women bread and jam… there was nearly a mutiny over it. It was the hill we were prepared to die on and we didn’t relent until management returned the toaster. We were instructed to set the toaster to the lowest setting and just give the (cheap and quite nasty) bread a quick lick of heat!
I would also add that we never had any knives and so we used to butter the toast using the back of a spoon.
In fairness, we didn’t have enough thermometers, BP equipment or staff so we let the lack of knives pass. They don’t call us ‘madwives’ for nothing!
I wrote more about my midwifery journey in a popular post here on Substack.
I would love to get it published. If you know of anyone at The Guardian who might be interested please do shout!
https://itwillgetbetter.substack.com/p/why-i-left-midwifery
I like my toast all sorts of ways! I know exactly what you mean about 'hospital toast', and sometimes that's what you get in a hotel, especially if they bring your toast far too soon ... which makes my husband really, really cross. It's not my preference, but I do like it. I love a nice chunky piping hot slice of sourdough with honey or some interesting type of jam, or avocado and a properly runny poached egg; and I grew up with lots of interesting malt, fruit, soda and wheaten breads in Northern Ireland, all of which are delicioous toasted. But I think really my favourite is a think slice of an artisan white bloomer, dripping with marmalade or generously spread with Marmite, depending on the time of day, and as hot as it can be without burning.
Oh gosh all that sounds so yummy.
These days I do like a substantial bread, even if white sliced.