Toasters – I want well browned outside soft inside!

Just in a holiday cottage at the moment and it has a dualit toaster. Now previously I’ve only had cheap toasters which toast but I like it nice and brown, and they tend to dry the bread out completely.

This dualit thing though is well browned outside but soft inside, toast perfection for me.

Problem is dualit ones cost a fortune! Are there any cheap toasters that will give me toast perfection at a budget price?!

Try thicker slices of bread

Yeah but I’m using Warburton’s toastie which I always use, just at home I get a brown crunchy slab when it pops up

None of this is important.
What is important is what are you putting on your thin slices of toast.
😆 🤣

+1 on the Dualit, but it is also about the bread. Seasons bakery in Ingleton sourdough is the gold standard.

Are there any cheap toasters that will give me toast perfection at a budget price?!

A mate does product development of just this kind of thing for a lot of the major brands. They’re all made in China and he said that the Chinese just can’t make decent toasters. Kettles and everything else… no problem, but they can’t get toasters right

Have you thought about upping the Warbies ante?

Get the toaster hot first. Run it once empty so the bread is going into a hot toaster rather that sitting in a cold one while it gradually warms up

the Chinese just can’t make decent toasters.

Exactly. Hand-built in the UK since 1945, Dualit products are a true testament to British engineering.

British toasters for British bread.

Look at the wattage of the cheaper toasters. (And the one you’ve got that compares poorly to your holiday toast romance) There’s no magic ingredients inside them other than a heating element – the only variable is how hot the elements get

a two slot dualit is about 1000w, some cheap ones might be half that

British toasters for British bread

I blame the influx of panini presses and baguettes

Get the toaster hot first. Run it once empty so the bread is going into a hot toaster rather that sitting in a cold one while it gradually warms up

This. Second round of toast (which hardley ever happens as we have a 4 slot) is always much better rather than dried out crisp.

Buy a cheap toaster and swap it for the Dualit one in the holiday cottage when you return home and hope they don’t notice 🤣

As above. Buy the most powerful toaster you can and heat it up before putting the bread in.

If you can, try looking at the element structure as well, so you can get a powerful one with a lot of element coverage in terms of surface area.

Toasters generally don’t have power controls, only time, so the most powerful will brown the outside the quickest.

Dualit are fab, you can replace the elements too, mines about 30 years old. Love the aged patina

There’s no magic ingredients inside them other than a heating element – the only variable is how hot the elements get

Not sure thats correct, but then I havent looked at the wattage of a particular toaster and compared it with another(I imagine though they are pretty similar). But time in the toaster before it automatically pops it up is just that. The little dial increases or decreases the time its spent cooking before it stops.

Im sure there will be other facets to the equation, insulation for example, as in how hot it gets inside, distance from the rack that holds the bread in relation to the element.

At my mates place yonks ago, we used to use a cleverly bent fork to hang the bread in front of his gas fire because he didnt have a toaster, but I suppose none of us were toast connoisseurs, and warm and crispy bread is warm and crispy bread.

.

EDIT:

Dualit toaster – £78 1100w

Asda basic toaster – £13.50 1000w

BALMUDA The Toaster 3rd Gen K05E – Black (Preorder: Late February)

Every loaf of bread has a top and a bottom. For best results, place each slice with the top facing out. For “mountain-shaped” bread, the “peak” is the top. For square and other bread, check which side is on top when the bread is on the shelf.

Imagine getting it the wrong way round and missing the opportunity of a perfect toast.

Quite frustrating I would imagine, especially as the Balmuda toaster requires a four stage operation with every attempt.

I wonder if it can press trousers? 😉 😜 😆

Melba toast! But Dame Nellie was an Aussie.

I often find toasting frozen sliced bread gives a softer interior. Just need to add a bit to the timer on the Dualit; I cannot comment on how well this works with a cheap toaster.

Get the toaster hot first. Run it once empty so the bread is going into a hot toaster rather that sitting in a cold one while it gradually warms up

Yeah, I do my practise toast on number 3 and it comes out good. I then do my actual toast on number 3 again but it comes out burnt.

Toasters are not yet clever enough in their number settings to account for the pre heating on the first round.
Can’t wait for AI toasters.

I often find toasting frozen sliced bread gives a softer interior.

It’s not something I do with toast but I do find this with frozen pizza sometimes.

Dualit toaster – £78 1100w

Asda basic toaster – £13.50 1000w

Also Asda toaster 750w 

and Asda toaster 2000w

so there can be a fair bit of variation – I’d be surprised if that second one is correct info though – a 2000w toaster would usually be a 4 slice one. But who know maybe its fab

going through the range that Asda sell there – a lot don’t quote wattage but the mid-range brand name ones typically are 700-800w

Edit – I think the Dualit is actuallly 1200w is two slice form

Surely the big elephant in the room here… toasters that don’t fit a full slice of UK bread in and/or toast the full slice?

Surely the big elephant in the room here… toasters that don’t fit a full slice of UK bread in and/or toast the full slice?

This is one of these all too common design floors the makes you wonder why is this products even for sale. See also stainless steel tea pot in cafes in the 80s-90s that would not poor with out dribbling, our horifically badly designed cutlery drainer that allows items to fall through the side.

Dualit is the think persons choice….who happens to have a wedge of cash in their pocket at the time!

It is literally the last toaster you’ll ever buy as every single component can be purchased and (as long as you have a few brain cells to comprehend a YouTube video and have opposable thumbs) are replaceable by your average pleb.

It makes nice toast (although the slice size is relatively modest so it can’t handle some of your new fangled toastable bobbins) and is an ethical purchase in a buy well buy once kind of way.

If the Dualit is a bit much, I probably shouldn’t ‘recommend what I have’, but the Sage does produce lovely toast. Easily less than 20p per use at this point.

We bought a Dualit a few years back, about seven I think. Still going strong. One of these, but I’m sure it was cheaper then (pre COVID, Brexit and Ukraine invasion).

https://www.johnlewis.com/dualit-architect-2-slice-toaster/p231746231

If it died tomorrow I’d replace it with the same, even with the increased cost.

If it died tomorrow I’d replace it with the same, even with the increased cost.

Kind of negates paying a premium to buy something renowned for being economically repairable

Kind of negates paying a premium to buy something renowned for being economically repairable

Ok if it got stolen tomorrow I’d replace it with the same, happy?

I’ve got a Dualit and had it for about 2 years now and it’s great. Toast is not something that can be done lightly.

happy?

Not anymore – I’ve got a lovely 4 slice Architect in the kitchen and now I daren’t sleep in case someone steals it 🙁

The man knows the price of everything and the value of nowt. You’ve literally just found the answer to one of life’s struggles. Buy a bloody Dualit, What are they, like a ton? You say you’re in a holiday let, so unless you’re cleaning it then you can afford it. Next year buy a huge twelve-slice Dualit and stay at home eating toast.

Want soft in the middle? Toast two slices of thin cheap bread in a cheap toaster, and sandwich a non-toasted slice between them. Done. Saved you a hundred quid.

Buy an aga….

Toast it on the hottest plate

Done

horifically badly designed cutlery drainer that allows items to fall through the side.

This properly boils my piss. I made the mistake of getting a wire cutlery drainer and more often than not teaspoons skitter straight through the sides and onto the counter. Like, surely this is not a difficult design?

Toast is not something that can be done lightly.

Well, no, otherwise what you’d have there would be warm bread.

Want soft in the middle? Toast two slices of thin cheap bread in a cheap toaster, and sandwich a non-toasted slice between them.

An inverse Toast Sandwich?