Greetings, toast enthusiasts! Here’s a list of interesting facts about toast you may not know:
1. Contrary to unpopular belief, “Toast” denotes any bread product that has been toasted.
2. The word “toast” comes from the latin “tostare,” meaning “to toast.”
3. The process of toasting involves closely exposing a bread product to a source of radiant heat for a short time, causing the outer surface to crispen and thereby become delicious.
4. “Soldiers” are the colloquial name for sliced strips of toast, commonly used to dip into boiled eggs but may also be covered with any type of spread and eaten as a less messy and cumbersome alternative to eating a whole piece of toast. The number of “ranks” depends on how many slices are made of the piece of toast, and it is commonly believed that eating the Colonel first is bad for morale.
5. French Toast, while delicious, is not true toast because it’s the eggy coating that is browned, not the bread itself. Moreover it is typically prepared in a pan and therefore fried, not toasted.
6. Canadian neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield, while operating on epilepsy patients, discovered the “Toast Centre” of the human brain, which is wholly dedicated to detecting when toast is burning.
Check back regularly for more Fun Toast Facts!