Author Topic: Making Toast  (Read 2474 times)

BuzyG

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #15 on: 09:14:49, 26/05/18 »
When I was young we lived a caravan roaming life. Toast was an everyday part of our breakfast routine. The men used to make long handled (the handle about 15" long) forks out of wire (could be found anywhere on most farms) with a pair of pliers. A bit crude but they worked. The fork end was nearly as broad as a modern day slice of bread with three prongs. On most days when the weather was in our favour it was us kids that had to make an outside fire, or keep the one made the day going all night. We also had another job, we had to find and cut Y shaped bits of wood (6" to 9" long) to balance the fork handle in.

So the fork end was stabbed through the bread (I can't rember ever having sliced bread when I was young) and by a bit of trial and error the fork was balanced so the bread was directly in front of the flames. In those days we only used butter, magarine was unheard of and families were very much into local jams. When toasted the bread was always covered in soot and smut so we all went through the ritual of scaping it off, most important, the knife did not touch the butter and jam until the scraping had been finished. If we made an error it was a real clip around the ears!

When the weather was bad the toast was made in the caravan, using one of the forks, but this time pressing the bread against the grill of the coal fired stoves that were used then. Breakfast was slower on these days because we could only toast one slice at a time.

Every year we used to go to Cranbrook, Kent, hop picking and so on. If any of you know Cranbrook, there is a steep up and down hill by the windmill. At the bottom of the dip, from the direction of Cranbrook school to the windmill, there used to be a local bakery on the right, (a private house now) they made some fantastic bread. Again it was the kids job, at the crack of dawn or soon after, to run down the road, buy X amount of loaves and run back before the bread became cold.

I have fond memories of toast, butter and large mugs of tea first thing in the morning before we all went off to the fields to work. Thanks 'alan de enfield' for bringing this toast memory to my consciousness again.
Now I'm hungry. O0

gunwharfman

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #16 on: 11:19:03, 27/05/18 »
This 'making toast' topic has also made me remember a routine loaf of bread practice, which I haven't thought of, or seen I think for about 60 years perhaps. As a child I don't remember sliced bread. The routine that I do remember again, thanks to Alan, his topic has made me feel quite nostalgic. I remember the way my mother and her sister Brittania (plus the other ladies in our 'wagon train') always cut their loaves. It was always white bread, I don't remember brown bread at all. 

The ladies (it was a matriarch culture, they were in charge!) always buttered and jammed the bread first, standing up usually so they could wander from child to child, sometimes there could be a lot of us around, then with a big fresh loaf tucked under one arm, still in its paper wrapping and in an upright position, they gripped it with one hand and then use their really sharp knives with the other to cut each child a slice or two. My Aunt Britannia used to sing to us as she did it. I didn't realise until years later was that was her way of keeping us kids under control. She used to make horrible tea though, two thirds sterilised milk and a dash of tea, ugh! Another job for us kids was to always keep the knives sharp.


alan de enfield

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #17 on: 11:48:59, 27/05/18 »

There is some concern amongst the 'weight-watchers' so I have moved on to Mk3 and Mk4 toasting racks.


The original Mk1's were just an odd bit of flimsy wire I found and were a bit 'feeble'
Mk2 (as previously shown) were (now I have measured correctly) 4mm wire and the pair weighed in at 22g.
Mk3 now has 2mm wire and is sturdy enough to 'do the job', and weighs in a 10g for the pair.
Mk4 is a further development using some 1/2" square wire mesh (left over from building an aviary). A one-piece option weighing 8g


So there you have it :




April

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #18 on: 23:38:46, 29/05/18 »
There is some concern amongst the 'weight-watchers' so I have moved on to Mk3 and Mk4 toasting racks.

 :-[ I thought 22g was a perfectly reasonable weight, I do hope my attempt at humour didn't make you think I was being critical.

Hate will never win

alan de enfield

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #19 on: 05:29:36, 30/05/18 »
Not at all - 'watch the grams and the pounds will take care of themselves'.

marmottungsten

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #20 on: 00:27:25, 31/05/18 »
But isn't that mesh galvanised steel?  Zinc gives off poisonous fumes when heated and this could transfer to your toast..Not recommended.

alan de enfield

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #21 on: 09:10:14, 31/05/18 »
But isn't that mesh galvanised steel?  Zinc gives off poisonous fumes when heated and this could transfer to your toast..Not recommended.



Thank you for your concerns.

You are correct It does give off zinc oxide fumes which can cause 'metal fume fever' from which folks involved in welding often suffer if there is insufficient ventilation, however my investigations suggest that these fumes are only produced at 'welding temperatures' as the zinc approaches its melting temperature of 420 degrees C and that galvanised coatings are considered to be 'safe' up to 210 degrees C.


Zinc is actually good for us but the problem with working with galvanised products and  Zinc Oxide production is that you can
easily overdose. The comparison made is usually 1 or 2 paracetamol is no problem, take the full bottle and you are in trouble.


I am guessing that there are a couple of factors in my favour :

1) I will be in the 'open air' with the heat rising, so if there is any Zinc Oxide gas it will be carried away.
2) I will not be leaning over breathing in the gas,


and perhaps most relevant,


3) If there is going to be any zinc oxide produced it will done pretty much immediately the wire mesh is hooked over, and once it has 'gone' it is quite safe to put on the bread, and will be safe for all future uses.

marmottungsten

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Re: Making Toast
« Reply #22 on: 11:12:57, 31/05/18 »

Thank you for your concerns.

You are correct It does give off zinc oxide fumes which can cause 'metal fume fever' from which folks involved in welding often suffer if there is insufficient ventilation, however my investigations suggest that these fumes are only produced at 'welding temperatures' as the zinc approaches its melting temperature of 420 degrees C and that galvanised coatings are considered to be 'safe' up to 210 degrees C.


Zinc is actually good for us but the problem with working with galvanised products and  Zinc Oxide production is that you can
easily overdose. The comparison made is usually 1 or 2 paracetamol is no problem, take the full bottle and you are in trouble.


I am guessing that there are a couple of factors in my favour :

1) I will be in the 'open air' with the heat rising, so if there is any Zinc Oxide gas it will be carried away.
2) I will not be leaning over breathing in the gas,


and perhaps most relevant,


3) If there is going to be any zinc oxide produced it will done pretty much immediately the wire mesh is hooked over, and once it has 'gone' it is quite safe to put on the bread, and will be safe for all future uses.


After reading your post I wondered if such wire netting was available in safe materials so I looked up welded stainless steel mesh and found a company that makes it in various wire sizes, square sizes and widths (from 4" wide), but it seems they only seem to supply it in 50m (164 feet) rolls.  You might be able to trick them into sending you a free sample but it might not be big enough for your needs.  There are probably other companies making the same mesh who can supply smaller amounts but I only did a quick search.  Just for fun I looked up Titanium mesh, but it is only fine mesh used for filters, and a search for Titanium wire brings up rolls of Ti wire no bigger than 1mm diameter...Anything larger than 1mm is classed as Ti rod...And you can buy 2mm Ti rod, already cut to convenient lengths, on amazon for a reasonable price, which might be worth a try if you wanted to save some weight as well, for example: https://www.amazon.co.uk/EsportsMJJ-10pcs-2mmx250mm-Titanium-Round/dp/B074W4LX1H/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527760738&sr=8-2&keywords=2mm+titanium+rod

 

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