Trouble with Toasters

[idun]

............ and the other question is........... how well toasted, do you like your toast.

 

I like it brown, and a little butter on it and then I am in agreement, let it cool and then put boat loads of butter on it.

 

Such a simple thing and yet, it can be done and eaten in so many different ways and there is no 'right' way.

 

Manchester Piccadilly used to have a huge grill at the buffet that did the most wonderful toast, almost as good as at my Grandmother's when we toasted home made bread with a toasting fork in front of the coal fire.

 

 

[5-element]

Ah but Gardian you are assuming that one does have a grill. Perhaps "GRILLS" could be the next thread??? We could even have a special category on the forum, which competes with "Que Choisir" and "Best buys" [:)]

The only grills I have ever had, that seemed worth having, were the ones on my gas cookers in England, those lovely, no fluff, eye-level grills. I distrust electric grills, as I suspect they gobble electricity. Anyone cares to challenge that unfounded belief?

COLD toast??? Now, what a funny idea - it would never have occurred to me, and yet it seems quite popular...

To me it's a bit like cold soup, I've never been very fond of gazpacho or vichyssoise...

[just john]

My old Kenwood electronic 4 slice is still going strong 12 years on, whereas to keep up with fashion, my son has just chosen the Magimix Vision Toaster, which is see through, so you get to see the bread colour as it toasts, it also toasts one side, great for toasted sandwiches, (do you like your crunch on the inside or the outside?) luurxury indeed, when I were a lad we toasted one side with a fork.[:)]

Toast straight from the toaster warm enough to melt the butter is my preference. 

[just john]

OOpps, I see the double post button is broke already[8-)]

[AnOther]

All I really ask of  toaster is that it lives up to it's name and makes toast !

Unfortunately the Breville we currently have fails spectacularly on that front needing a double full cycle on max to even half decently brown a piece of bread and by that time it's done that it's also dried it out completely !

[img]http://www.uspree.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Breville-VTT273-4-Slice-Toaster.jpg[/img]

[Russethouse]

We have this one and we're very happy with it - 3 years and going strong....yes its a Duallit, but not top of the range.....

http://www.johnlewis.com/230874132/Product.aspx

[idun]

I like the idea of a toaster lasting a long time.................. well I would, if I thought that I could get it cleaned out reasonably from time to time.

I'm not a fanatical 'house cleaner', but I like things in my kitchen 'propre' and this Bosch of ours, is giving me much cause for concern with all it's crumbs stuck inside.

It is probably the dirtiest thing I use in the kitchen.

 

So two worries with it, 'old' crumbs and the risk of said 'old' crumbs catching fire.

[mint]

[quote user="5-element"]

Ah but Gardian you are assuming that one does have a grill. Perhaps "GRILLS" could be the next thread??? We could even have a special category on the forum, which competes with "Que Choisir" and "Best buys" [:)]

The only grills I have ever had, that seemed worth having, were the ones on my gas cookers in England, those lovely, no fluff, eye-level grills. I distrust electric grills, as I suspect they gobble electricity. Anyone cares to challenge that unfounded belief?

COLD toast??? Now, what a funny idea - it would never have occurred to me, and yet it seems quite popular...

To me it's a bit like cold soup, I've never been very fond of gazpacho or vichyssoise...

[/quote]

5-e, did you have to mention GRILLS?  You trying to stir it up and then we'll have idun going on about her oven AND her grill?

Come to that, I shall be starting on my so-called grill soon, except I don't want to hijack your thread.

Oh, for an eye-level gas grill but I guess they don't make them anymore as I haven't seen one since round about 1980!

If I were to use my grill, I'd have to heat up an industrial size oven (and no, I do not see an option to heat up just half of the grill part) and it would take a minimum of 20 minutes on full power before it would be warm enough to melt the butter to go on the toast [+o(]

As for making the toast itself, I guess that'll be another half hour on full power and the electric meter would be spinning around like it is possessed by a poltergeist [6]

 

[idun]

But you can get them these days, cookers with eye level grills......... I knew I'd seen them when I was eyeing up new cookers that I cannot afford!

http://goo.gl/eZ84v

[mint]

D'you know what, id, one look at those cookers in your link and I have a strong vision of crispy, crinkly-edged bacon![:D]

[Rabbie]

[quote user="idun"]

But you can get them these days, cookers with eye level grills......... I knew I'd seen them when I was eyeing up new cookers that I cannot afford!

http://goo.gl/eZ84v

[/quote]Eye-level grills so the fat can squirt straight into your eye without you needing to bend down[:D]. A useful facility for one of my advanced years[:)]

[Pommier]

Back to toasters - we had a Tefal/SEB one which was hopeless, took ages, baked the bread etc, so in the end we got fed up with it and threw it away. As a temporary measure we bought a rather flimsy €8 one from Leclerc - and it's great! Plus if/when it packs up, we won't feel it owes us anything as it's been toasting away happily for over 2 years already.

[5-element]

Pommier, your post might clinch it for me. After seeing the controversy around the upmarket toasters, I might just doing like you do: buy cheap ones, hope I strike lucky, and ditch them when they go wrong (although this goes so much against the grain of what I believe in, as I so loathe this notion of everything being disposable).

Actually, my SEB toaster (now ex-toaster, since I completely demolished it when I tried to "fix" it)  came from a Secours Populaire braderie - so it was secondhand already![:D] - pity as it worked really well when it worked, but I don't know how long the previous owner might have had it for!

[dave21478]

This is a situation that typifies our society - some factory in China is spewing out cheapo toasters by the thousand, where they are wrapped in silly amounts of plastic and card, packed into containers and shipped from the other side of the planet. They go through God-knows how long a chain of trucks and trains, depots and warehouses until they find themselves in the tardis-like store room of Argos where we buy them for £4.99. It works ok for a few months, then when it breaks, we have ditched the receipt and besides - it was only a fiver, so it ends up in a landfill site. Or, if you are like me (or Chancer, I suspect!) you turn it upside down for a looksie, swear a bit and sweep up the crumbs, the turn it over again for a look at it. You then realise it is made of the cheapest, lowest quality plastic components, poorly moulded and badly assembled and you wonder how it worked for as long as it did. You decide to fix it, but encounter the first hurdle of "security" screws that require a screwdriver with a triangular or other silly shaped head to remove them. A few minutes rummaging in the box of broken tools you keep just for this sort of thing will turn up an old Phillips that you can use with a bit of grinder-work on it to make it fit. Then you realise that this is only half the battle and the rest of the casing is clipped together with clips that are impossible to unclip without breaking. Despite being unwilling to be beaten by this sort of challenge, you realise that its just not worth the hassle for a fivers worth of toaster so it ends up in the landfill anyway.

Toasters - like everything else - used to last much longer and were repairable, but they cost the equivalent of half a weeks wages!

As for how to eat toast, its lightly browned and allowed to cool but not get cold. Ideally, by the time you have scoffed the first slice, the butter should just be beginning to melt into the second. Which brings us to the age old debate about the controls. Mine goes up to six..... One barely warms the bread, two is a little under-done, two and a half is just right and three is a little over done. Four is properly burnt, and five ejects two slices of pure carbon. I have never tried it on six, but suspect it is possible to achieve nuclear fusion with it set that high.

Oh and I am probably half the age of you old farts, but still remember toasting bread using a wire coat-hanger bent into a little platform to hold the slice above the gas ring of the camping stove in the corner of the room - A room so small you had to remember to put the lid down before flushing the bog to avoid getting little splashes of bog-water on the bed.

[Gardian]

[quote user="dave21478"]some factory in China [/quote]

Is there anything that isn't made in China?

It won't be long before its teabags and baked beans - the end of civilisation as we know it.

[AnOther]

For those in the market for a new toaster and who shop in Carrefour the Grundig TA 5040 they have on offer at €23.50 (with  20 vignettes) is very highly rated.