Toast

[ksitte]

After years of crummy toast while camping, I'm asking for ideas for a better way. Assume it's raining and you have no campfire. You have a grill and/or the Escape cook-top. Those over-the-burner fold-up things just don't cut it for us. And it seems like a lot of wasted propane just for one side of the toast. Grilling? Done that. In a skillet? Better but ...

Looking for a better way. Is it hopeless?

As you can tell, we're just looking for a way to avoid thinking about all the horrible fires in the west and the current politics of the US.

[northwinds]

I think my cast iron skillet makes good toast. Instead if buttering my toast, I melt a little butter in the skillet and cook one side in the butter. If I’m feeling decadent, I will make it on a thin layer of bacon grease. I mostly use the toast to sop up the yolk from my duck eggs.

[Iowa Dave]

Wow that’s the first reference to duck eggs I’ve seen in a long time. We used to get them from my grandma when I was a kid. That orange yolk is a thing of beauty. I had a friend from the neighborhood where I grew up. He went off to Vietnam pretty young and struggled for years.
I would run onto him once in a while. Each April he moved out of his Moms place and stayed outdoors the rest of the summer “camping” along the creeks and rivers, usually having a battle with alcohol. I ran into him when I went redhorse fishing one spring on a local creek we had fished as kids. I assessed his camp. He had one old cast iron skillet and I asked him what he ate. I’ll show you he said and took me down along the creek where he ran a Canada Goose off her nest and he took one egg out. I’ll fry this for you he said. I deferred and when I left he was looking pretty dry. I gave him $2.00 for a quart of beer and was on my way. Last I knew he was in an old soldiers home in southern Iowa but the Governor closed it and I’ve lost track of him. Kind of wish I’d eaten the egg with him.
Iowa Dave

[hrewer]

It just makes one at a time, but this has worked well for us.

GSI Outdoors Glacier Stainless Steel Toaster

[Jim Bennett]

After grilling, frying, campfire toasting, stovetop toasters and a couple other methods over the last near 50 years, I have bought a lightweight two slice electric toaster I use with my inverter. A bit of a change of methodology, but boy do we finally get some great toast, none of that dried out stuff. [emoji16]

[gbaglo]

First, skip the bread and get some English muffins. Toast them on the grill. What's not to like?

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

First, skip the bread and get some English muffins. Toast them on the grill. What's not to like?

You eat Good Glen ! Pat

[padlin]

I put in a 1000w inverter and bought the smallest toaster I could find.

[escape artist]

Hi: padlin... My problem with a small toaster is big bread slices. Cutting them in half takes twice as long. Oh wait I'm retired!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Bill and Earline]

Toastmaster from Walmart. 1036 watts. 1.25 inch slots. Under $20

We have one for the trailer and one at home. Travels fine.

Works great on the ETI supplied 1500 watt inverter.

[Thane]

If you like toast you may like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yfxjnySmBI

[uthorns]

I sat there and wondered who would pay to watch that guy or how much beer would it take to laugh at him. Then I was thinking well you sat there and watched the whole thing.

[Mike G]

There's nothing better than fresh bread, warm and moist from baking. But when we don't have that, we go to the other extreme and toast it... making it less fresh and somewhat dessicated, but at least it's warm once again. We humans are an odd lot! (I include myself.)


Personally, when camping I tend to take a loaf of Braum's (the local dairy store) raisin nut bread for breakfasts. Usually I eat it unwarmed and with butter. But if I have electric hookup, since I pack an electric 2-slice toaster I'll pop my bread in the toaster just long enough to get warm but not toasted. That makes the butter melt.

[Thane]

Originally Posted by uthorns

I sat there and wondered who would pay to watch that guy or how much beer would it take to laugh at him. Then I was thinking well you sat there and watched the whole thing.

Heywood Banks has quite a few funny songs, some folks just don’t enjoy such things, which is fine, but you don’t have to be insulting.

I’ve noticed this forum has declined in civility over the years and I am frequently hesitant to post because of snide comments such as this. I haven’t started a new thread in years because of this sort of forum degradation, which I suppose is inevitable with the general trend in internet norms.

Before posting something negative or insulting, folks should give a thought to if it is really necessary and if it promotes or hinders forum participation.

[gbaglo]

Thane. I believe you misread the comment. Read it again and then maybe delete your post.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Mike G

There's nothing better than fresh bread, warm and moist from baking. But when we don't have that, we go to the other extreme and toast it... making it less fresh and somewhat dessicated, but at least it's warm once again. We humans are an odd lot! (I include myself.)


Personally, when camping I tend to take a loaf of Braum's (the local dairy store) raisin nut bread for breakfasts. Usually I eat it unwarmed and with butter. But if I have electric hookup, since I pack an electric 2-slice toaster I'll pop my bread in the toaster just long enough to get warm but not toasted. That makes the butter melt.

Hi: Mike G... A baker once told me his Dads rule of thumb was "If you can't see teeth marks... there's not enough butter on it"!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Brookfielder]

We were quickly frustrated with that folding Coghlans toaster too. Took forever. We tried broiling in the oven, which worked, but there had to be a better way. I brought it up with a coworker of mine who was so pleased with the Camp-A-Toaster that he gave me one.
Now we have the hang of it, we are making good toast pretty consistently. If you don't mind a little smoke flavour, it works well over a campfire too.
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B007HRIYDY/...9325&camp=1789

[Sean Murry]

Originally Posted by hrewer

It just makes one at a time, but this has worked well for us.

GSI Outdoors Glacier Stainless Steel Toaster

I used this on a recent long distance bike trip I did. Fantastic. Folds flat so easy to put in your saddle bags on your bike, or tuck away easily in a cupboard on your Escape.

[C&G in FL]

I seem to recall an episode of Home Improvement when Tim the Tool Man had the “boys” from K&an construction were demonstrating how the prepared meals on the job site and one of them demonstrated making a toasted cheese sandwich with a cutting torch.

Disclaimer: Please don’t do this in the campsite and definitely not inside the trailer!

[Brian B-P]

I've never had a good stovetop toaster, but it seems from previous discussions that success depends on a substantial diffuser - not just a coarse wire rack or a single sheet of perforated metal.

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Wow that’s the first reference to duck eggs I’ve seen in a long time. We used to get them from my grandma when I was a kid. That orange yolk is a thing of beauty.

We had ducks for a while, so I ate a lot of duck eggs. They're essentially scaled-up chicken eggs - even the membrane is noticeably thicker.

Egg yolk flavour depends on the hen's diet, which is why free-range eggs are often better-tasting. Our ducks had a wide ranging diet (probably including frogs from the pond that they chose to nest beside), and their eggs tasted great.

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

... He had one old cast iron skillet and I asked him what he ate. I’ll show you he said and took me down along the creek where he ran a Canada Goose off her nest and he took one egg out. I’ll fry this for you he said.
...
Kind of wish I’d eaten the egg with him.

I'm guessing that a Canada Goose egg is pretty similar to a free-range Embden goose egg - we had those for a little while, too, but produced at a much lower rate. Think of the duck egg, doubled in scale again...