There’s nothing quite like freshly baked bread – but unfortunately it doesn’t stay fresh very long and I sometimes end up with bread that is a bit stale. No problem – a hundred-year-old cookbook recommends using stale bread to make toast.
Whew, this sounds complicated. Maybe I’ll just use my electric toaster. Hopefully it won’t remove the “superfluous moisture” too quickly.
A Hundred Years Ago 
Lol.. your last comment is just what I said to myself when finished reading. You would have to think ahead to slice the bread to set over night for toast in the morning . It is true that toast tastes really good when your sick though. Mom would always burn it slightly when we youngins had the stomach bug, she said a little charcoal was good for us.😀
My mother also gave us toast when we were recuperating from the stomach bug (and I did the same for my children), though I don’t think that she burned it a little – though, who knows, maybe a little charcoal is good for us. 🙂
And Sheryl, you probably won’t be turning the dough into pure wheat farina easily digestible by sick persons…
Probably not. 🙂
My word. This sounds like one of those instructions manuals that can turn two or three simple steps into pages of impenetrable prose! On the other hand, there may have been a time when toasting bread wasn’t common, and instructions were helpful. It is true that oven toast, properly done, can outshine that made with an electric toaster.
I’m glad I’m not the only person who finds overly detailed instructions difficult to follow. By the way, I love the phrase “impenetrable prose”. You have a way with words.
I bake all our bread—almost always sourdough, which keeps very well. But toast is a saviour. Bread and butter pudding is another great use for stale bread.
French toast is another great way to use stale bread. I’m impressed that you bake most of your bread. Sourdough bread sounds wonderful.
It toast! The instruction sheet, I mean. Egad!
The author was just covering her bases. 🙂
hehe
My mother loved what she called “oven toast,” which no doubt was a throwback to an earlier time. But basically, she just threw it in the oven after she’d made a roast or whatever. Toast is one of my favorite comfort foods. I usually dry out the ends of the bread and throw them in the blender for crumbs. It’s all good.
Toast is a wonderful comfort food. Your comment reminds me of how my mother generally tore the ends of bread into small pieces and dried them. She then saved them until she was making something that needed them (bread pudding, stuffing, etc.)
That was quite a treatise on toast — more than I needed to know. You made it most amusing.
More than you wanted to know? 🙂 Some authors can take things to extremes when providing directions.
Yes, some food writers go overboard with directions. A few others do not explain enough, leaving you wondering about the whys and wherefores.
I sometimes wonder who the audience is for the food writers to provide extremely detailed instructions. Maybe it is people who aren’t very familiar with the basics of cooking.
As much as it no doubt required much more work, I’m quite sure toast made this way was tastier and more aromatic than anything we get from the modern toaster oven. Not that I have any intention of going back to that method… 🙂
Sometimes easier is better – even if the quality might be slightly better with a more tedious method.
Good grief! I bet they wished they had toasters back then. We always made toast over the coal fire when we were kids, it was always lovely.xxx
Your comment makes me wish that I could try toast made over a coal fire. It makes me think of advertisements I’ve seen for a pizza restaurant chain which advertises that they cook the pizza over a coal fire.
I can actually remember the grandparents of a friend of mine had an ancient machine that you had to open, then grill each piece one side at a time. It was up to you to make sure nothing got burnt. Talk about a faff!
Toast-making technology sure has changed over the last century – though electric toasters definitely aren’t a recent invention. 🙂
I remember the same toaster mentioned by Margaret21. My grandparents used the same kind and it took a lot of attention to make sure that the toast didn’t burn.
It sure is a lot easier to make toast today than it once was.
Although our new toaster took me quite a while to find the crumb tray!
First thing I ever learned in Home Ec was how to make cinnamon toast! Seems silly now when we have smart toasters and pre-sliced bread. Doing toast over an open flame or under the broiler is an art!!
We must have had the same home ec teacher. 🙂 Like you, cinnamon toast was the first thing that I learned to make in home ec.
I need more coffee just to digest this tutorial! My toaster oven broke several years ago and I still haven’t replaced it, I just stick the bread in the oven on low when I want it thawed or warmed. Granted, not a coal oven 🙂 I’d be more inspired to make bread pudding with stale bread. At least that’s something to look forward to—dessert!
Bread pudding sounds yummy. Dessert is always good (as long as I don’t think about the calories).
Exactly, why didn’t they just plug in their toasters? I’ve known this for years. Just because the bread isn’t perfectly sandwich soft anymore doesn’t mean it won’t make good toast. Fun post as always.
Times sure have changed since 1920. It’s nice to hear that you enjoyed this post.
Too funny! First thing I thought of was French Toast!
Similarly to you, I make French toast when I have stale bread.
Toast or some kind of pudding. They do seem to have over-complicated doing toast though! 😀
I have gluten-free bread and a loaf is just too much for me, so I tend to freeze it and thaw our a couple of slices as and when I need it. But then I guess that isn’t something you could do back then!
Home freezers weren’t yet on the horizon in 1920. 🙂
I don’t know why I never thought of this! I freeze stale bread and take the grandkids to feed trout at our state fishery with mine…lol
Your comment brings back warm memories of feeding fish on school field trips to a state fishery. Feeding fish is another good use for stale bread.
My grandkids love it. Before I retired last year I use to take my developmentally disabled clients there and they loved it too. I just had to keep them from eating the bread…lol
Interesting article as always. When we had our 1730 house in New Hampshire, I had an antique iron toaster that you held over the fire. Never used it because I thought it would be too hard not to burn it.
It probably took lots of practice to become skilled at using those old-fashioned iron toasters.
Shery, We still occasional make bread crumbs to use when we have stale bread. Life was very different one hundred years ago.