#12 Making Toast "Just Right"

Is there anything more insulting to your cooking skills than the smell of burnt toast? Its the toasters fault, you tell yourself. I set it at 3, and kept checking it every few moments. It was still bread-like. After a while, you mess around with the settings. See how you like being on 4, bread! Still nothing. Its just warm now. I'll go make a cup of tea. You better be more cooked when I get back, bread.


And more cooked it is. The smell, the smoke. The unavoidable urge to swear loudly. If I put this out in the garden, even the birds will complain about it. So it goes in the bin, and the process starts all over again.



This doesn't happen once or twice in a lifetime. Its almost every toast-making session. I'd bet even experienced chefs, who can rustle up duck a l'orange without a problem, have burnt their toast now and again.



But sometimes, you come back to the toaster just in time. You have a moment of realisation - "THE TOAST!" - and you rush back to the toaster with the familiar feeling of annoyance that you will, once again, have to throw away burnt toast and air out the smell for 3 hours. But no, it is just right. It smells divine, and the butter melts so easily into it. There really is nothing like feel-good toast. Except a second round of feel-good toast that is.