The Science of the Perfect Toast
The scent of buttered toast, according to Bertie Wooster, is part of the general atmosphere of leisured coziness. What better way to start a day than with a cup of hot coffee and a piece of warm toast with a golden crust? We will explore the science of this winning combination of breakfast. We will look into coffee in a future article. Here, we focus on how to make a good toast.
We will follow the model we have established to unravel a cooking problem:
- Define “What is good?” We want our toast to have just the right shade of golden crust, with a warm and soft crumb.
- Find out what “good” means in terms of chemical and physical changes and under what conditions those changes happen.
- Determine how to control the cooking process for the food to achieve the desired temperature profile.