The Toaster: A Short History
February 10, 2006 by Maricar
Filed under Cooking, Product News and Reviews
Toast and jam. Eggs Benedict on toast. Nothing says breakfast like a lovely golden brown slice of toast. The ubiquitous appliance has been around for almost 100 years, with its basic design unchanged for half that time.
A little physics lesson from the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Applying radiant – i.e., not direct – heat to the surface of bread begins to change the chemical composition of starches and sugars in the bread. Above 310 degrees, those compounds caramelize, or turn brown, take on different, usually stronger flavors, and become stiffer. The process is a Maillard reaction. In other words, toast.
Too much heat turns them to carbon – burned toast.
The first commercially sold electric toaster was patented by General Electric in 1909. But the pop-up model for the home, the Toastmaster, didn’t “pop-up” until 1926. Since then, we’ve seen various combinations and configurations… toaster/microwave, bagel toasters, toaster/egg cooker, and George Foreman’s “8-In-1 bake, roast, broil, grill, griddle, bun warmer, rotisserie, roast and toast unit”.
So tomorrow morning, while you wait for the “sproing” indicating that your toast is ready, ponder the history of this little gizmo. It’s come a long way to give you a warm start to your day.
[Image source: The University of Exeter]
