Toast is so ubiquitous that we almost overlooked it in our “Art of Breakfast” series. But, the production of it ranges from very simple to very complicated. This is because toast is so common that it has become part of who you are. If you are a simple person, simple is good. If you are complicated, your idea of toast is complicated. What we are after at the moment is how to make toast interestingly.
We’re telling you this because we want you to know about the bed and breakfast lifestyle. We often cook fun snacks for groups of people. There is outdoor cooking as well, because we love happy groups of people gathered around a nice fire, sharing. We have this “unmanicured abundance” that we want to share as well. We call all of this “Human Scale Living”.
Background
We’re doing a lot of articles on “the Art of Breakfast”. Here are some links
What is toast?
I keep thinking that even in Europe and California, everybody knows what toast is. You have a piece of bread, you put it into a toaster, in a minute or two it pops up, and you are good, right?
Wrong
Come to find out, the story of toast goes back a long time and can be made more interestingly.
According to Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toast
the first origin of the word “toast” in print was in 1430. Adding a piece of toasted bread to stale beer made both slightly more consumable. Both bread and beer were hard to come by at one point in history. Shakespeare referred to this in 1602 in “the Merry Wives of Windsor”: “Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in’t.
The three variables in toast are the type of bread used for toast, the means of toasting it, and the toppings and/or flavorings used to make toast more interesting.
Normal Toast
What we think of as “normal toast” is a part of “normal breakfast” and really developed in the USA in the early 50’s. For most people in the US, toast was made by your mom, who had time to stay home and make it. The bread of choice was “Wonder”, and the toaster of choice may have looked something like this:
Part of making toast more interestingly is the fact that this method is relatively modern. It assumes that you have electricity (which was not the case in the rural South until the 1930’s). It assumes you have access to Wonder bread (which was only sold nationwide on a widespread basis after 1930). Also, it assumes that you had enough money to pay for all of this, and for the majority of people in the US Southeast that was not the case until much later than that.
The more typical Southern US breakfast might have been more corn-and-bean related. Things were different without electricity, the ability to store food, and the willingness of someone to get up and make breakfast. The references on the internet to this are very limited. A PhD dissertation may be derived from the study of this.
Cultural References to Toast
Ah, this might make toast more interesting, if not interestingly.
First, in “Five Easy Pieces” the urgency of the Joker to get toast is a famous scene:
Secondly, an important stop on a Mission from God is the ongoing need for toast.
Thirdly, the word “toast” as a word for “finishing off in some kind of flame related way” was derived from the Ghost Busters:
Chain Hotel Toast
Have you seen these?
At the Hampton Inn breakfast, there is a little toaster like this that will make 560 slices of toast per hour, if turned up to “11”.
This is the pristine, ideal version of this. There is a less pristine, less ideal version. There are toast crumbs in it and around it. A truck driver and giggling Choir People are standing next to you waiting for their toast to come out. It never takes 10 seconds to make your toast, because it has to heat up. It actually takes more like 2 minutes, unless it is continuously fed.
At the Firefly, we do something just about the opposite, although you might have to wait a few minutes.
How to make toast interestingly: The Ted Talk
An important idea on the method of producing toast is in the following Ted Talk, by Tom Wujec:
There are several very important ideas in this talk. First of all, you can tell whether someone is from North America or Europe by the way they make toast interestingly. The European method seems to be mainly to take your bread, brown it in a pan with some oily nice stuff, and when done, put a nice topping on it. To most Americans, when the topping is raw egg, that is what “French Toast” is, although I guess we should have a conversation with a French person to figure out what he or she calls it.
Secondly, the more people involved in the toast making process, the more complicated the documentation of it becomes. This is not a surprise to anybody either. It’s a miracle anything gets done properly.
How to make toast more interestingly at the Firefly.
In the spirit of the fun of this, we had the Earth Goddess produce one of these diagrams and we got the following:
First of all, you can tell that Toast at the Firefly, if you get any, is made like a European would, by browning in a buttered pan. Secondly, you can see that how to make toast more interestingly is all about the toppings.
Bread Source
We have to talk about this. The Earth Goddess likes to stick to Keto, but the guests sometimes like some very nice French bread. Around here, this comes from one of the higher-end grocery stores in Greensboro, when it needs to. Bread is not keto, and is not around all the time, so if you want toast this way you have to negotiate it ahead of time.
Bagels
Not really. Yummy but not Keto. The coffee shop uptown has them I think.
Butter
The Firefly butter of choice is imported all the way from Wisconsin and is Amish, and can be most readily bought on a trip to Athens, which is about 30 miles away. One of the miracles of the modern age, for the time being, is that some homesick guy with a beard can get butter like his mom used to make if he or she wants.
There is always butter around. Evidently it is good in coffee.
Honey
The strong preference is local honey, made by local bees. The trip to Farmview Market is shorter and better. Also I think you can get local honey from the place uptown the Madison Produce Company.
Although, this is a preferred place for lunch rather than the purchase of local honey.
Blueberry/Strawberry/Blackberry toppings
The jury is still out on this. The Earth Goddess has the hookup on locally produced berries. In the case of the blackberries and blueberries, this is “very local” because we have a variety of these plants newly planted and waiting to bear fruit at the Firefly, pretty bed and breakfast near Madison GA.
Blackberry season in this part of the country is right around July 4th, and wild blackberries are so plentiful as to be a nuisance that need to be burned out. But, for the people who care to do so, one can go around and collect wild blackberries for free.
Methods of preservation are well known. Actually, better yet, why don’t you show us how? Come and stay for a few days and become part of the story.
Peanut Butter
Despite being the home of peanuts, the Earth Goddess typically just goes with Skippy Crunchy, because for just about everyone, that is what people think of when they think of peanut butter. When she tried to serve “craft peanut butter” no one liked it, and it was too much trouble to keep stirred.
The preference is almond butter, because of lack of added sugar and more keto-friendly.
Figs and Brandy
There is a story behind this. Apparently around Madison there is a crazy cat lady that lives by the tracks, and when figs are in season, she sells or gives them away. In order to get them, you have to listen to her, which takes a long time.
The method of preservation is to immerse them in brandy, some of which was around the place as a cold remedy:
If you do this, the sugary fig juice will leach into the brandy and make an interesting syrup, which will spread onto some nice toast.
Fruits and Interesting Toppings
Avocado and Tomato are a current favorite. It is just about to be tomato season, and the Avocados are especially good right now.
There is fresh rosemary and thyme growing around this place all the time.
Homemade Lemon Curd
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/homemade-lemon-curd/
The Earth Goddess makes hers something like this, when she has a couple of lemons. Hey, who knew that it would have eggs?
Here’s how “Taste of Home” makes it:
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1/4 cup butter, cubed
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
How to make Toast Interestingly
So what are we to make of all of this? Toast is who you are. How you think of it is the result of a long story. This is no different here at the Firefly. The way we make toast more interestingly is that everything behind it, including the big kitchen itself, has a story.
So maybe that is what it is. How to make toast more interestingly is to have an interesting story about it, and everything that goes into it. The reason you came to this place in the first place is about the story.
Be there in the square.
