Perfect Toast Every Time!

[PointyOintment]

Macbeth: make sure you unplug the toaster if you leave the room!

User Manual says "Do not leave the toaster unattended while in use. Disconnect it
from the power supply when you are finished with it or when leaving the room."

Gor Blimey! I guess I will have to stick with the shitty toaster my dad found thrown away on a skip instead. Thank you for that life saving advice, I don't know how to repay you.

Hook it up to a PowerSwitch Tail or other relay connected to a PIR sensor to automatically disconnect it when you leave the room!

@Beeper: Consider that the toast may continue to toast due to its own heat after the heating elements have been turned off. I don't think this effect is likely to be as significant with toast as it is with other (higher specific heat capacity) foods such as eggs, though. However, if you want to measure it, you will need to toast several toasts to different toastednesses and measure their heat capacities with a calorimeter, and then fit a curve to get a function which you can integrate to find the final toastedness resulting from turning off the heat at a particular toastedness level. Also, consider that you can probably use the heating elements' resistance to sense their temperature, which may be useful for fine regulation—I assume they already use that effect for coarse regulation the same way incandescent lightbulbs do.

[Psi]

You should buy a solder paste reflow oven and modify it to toast bread


 

[Beeper]

PointyOintment,

The way post-cooking of toast is prevented in a toaster is clearly the clever ejection action when the toasting cycle is completed. Once the toast is ejected, no problem!

My strategy to achieve perfect toast is to heat whatever is to be toasted to the critical browning temperature, (toasting timer starts)hold that temperature with PWM control until the exact browning time dose has expired, then immediately eject the toast out of overtoast danger by the magic of "Pop-Up." My toaster literally tosses the toast out of the toaster, not just pops-up.

Update: I am wiring together a breadboard with MCU probe sensor interface and TRIAC PWM control and writing PIC C-code to boot(toast).

PSI, I will soon try my luck at SMD PCB's and this toaster to just toast work should provide the way to fuel my body with a mountain of peanut butter and toast to  give me the energy to work on modifying a toaster-oven for SMD work. Fortunately, there are already many who've posted on this SMD solder-melting topic.

[michael.hill]

Don't forget to add a special switch for bagel toasting, which, traditionally is only toasted on 1 side. (Actually, sliced bread was also originally toasted on just one side as well, but that's another thread in its own right.). You could also approach toast how I approach roasting a turkey. Cook it somewhat slow to start with to cook the inside, then raise the temperature to a blazing hot 450-500 F. Perhaps the very fundamentals of toast making and toast making culture should be reconsidered. I am going to propose starting off at a lower temperature and ramping it up after it it is at a sufficient temperature. The final texture should be slightly chewy on the inside, but a golden crisp on the outside with a gradient of textures. This would be akin to a well-prepared scallop or steak, where the gradient of doneness is essential to the dining experience.

Just a thought.

[Dave Turner]

A sideways thought!

My Grandmother had a fridge powered by gas which seemed crazy. It took some time for me to work out how it worked - I wasn't even in double figures at the time but the library helped.

I still think that kitchens should be monolithic in the sense that there could be a lot more exchange of heat. I'm not enough of an engineer to work it out though. I'm just convinced that it should be economically possible.

Any thoughts?

[Beeper]

David Turner,

The toaster does it's part in heat exchange. On a cold morning it it does a little to warm the kitchen and it is a nice hand-warmer as well all the while making toast.

While heat exchange things might be economically possible they also might be practically and aesthetically undesirable, like toasting bagels in a toaster. Somethings are done and have a bad taste and somethings are done in bad taste.

Michael.hill, we use the open-top flat-bed toaster (as described in my previous comments) for bagels, they are just too thick to fit in the toaster, too easy to get caught in it's works, and really, just one side is desired to be toasted.

The denizens of Macbethland's north have the right idea for bread products of all types, they do not worry about fat exchange more than heat exchange, it suits them well to just fry their bread in a sizzling puddle of sausage fat.