Apparently, the answer is the toaster.
The first commercial toaster went on sale 100 years ago this week.
Originally called the D12, it only toasted one side of bread at a time, and you needed to watch it to prevent the toast from burning (I think we've all had a similar model at one time or another).
The toaster became popular because toast is an ideal way to keep stale bread edible for another couple of days, and this way, you didn't have to make a fire every time you wanted a slice
It soon appeared that it was diffiult to cut the bread to the right size for perfect toast-too thin and you got a mouthful of croutons, too large and the outside would be burnt black while the inside was still cold.
So, bakeries began to pre-slice bread so that they would be the ideal size for toast.
I love little bits of history like this.
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Toast is my favourite food though when I think of the enormous leaps in technological development over the last century, I wonder why the toaster's design has largely remained static. Where is the enormous paradigm shift in how we make toast?
ReplyDeletewell they do have the pop up toaster
ReplyDeletewhat i want to know is wht the temprtaure guage goes up so high. mine goes up to 8 and i've never had it higher than 3-and that is for muffins. has anyone ever tried to see what happens when you toast a piece of bread at the maximum?
Maybe frozen bread?
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