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> Before people realize that they can't really make a 3-layer cake in a toaster Our 12-year-old recently tried to make himself "cheese on toast" by putting bot
by logifail 4y ago
> Before people realize that they can't really make a 3-layer cake in a toaster
Our 12-year-old recently tried to make himself "cheese on toast" by putting both cheese and uncooked bread into the (almost brand new, upright) toaster. Aaargh!
Cue the house full of smoke, a stern reprimand, then a couple of hours of my time wasted on removing every last piece of burnt greasy cheese from inside the toaster, followed by several empty runs with it outside to let it get properly hot and burn off the last of the fatty residues.
He was, at least, quite sheepish about his learning experience.
- flir 4y agoToaster pockets! A whole new world of bread-related experiments awaits.
- testesttest 4y agoAhhh, yea did that as a kid too. Although, I tipped it on its side. The trick was to make toast then microwave the cheese :) But seriously, my mom was furious. No YouTube required.
- fho 4y agoSame ... but for me it was plastic sleeves in a laser printer ...
- NickRandom 4y agoOr the other trick is to microwave the uncooked sandwich slightly (10-20 seconds) so that the cheese starts to melt and then toast it so bread and cheese both get toasty without burning.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago> The trick was to make toast then microwave the cheese Just use a toaster oven. They're horizontal.
- germinalphrase 4y agoFar more versatile.
- aendruk 4y ago“Just” procure a new kitchen appliance as a child
- LtWorf 4y agoI've been putting cheese in the vertical toaster my whole life… he just did it wrong. You have to put 2 slices of bread, cheese in between, and of course take it out before it all starts burning.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- anonymous0 4y agoYou are not alone. Moreover, I was honestly thinking that was the way _everybody_ did it.
- LandR 4y agoWould never have occured to me try and make cheese and toast in a toaster, although the cage someone mentioned is something I need to check out! I make my cheese and toast in a frying pan (I honestly thought this was way _everybody_ did it :D )
- trelane 4y agoI make grilled cheese that way. If you want a toasted/baked option instead, toaster ovens exist and are fabulous for this sort of thing.
- pgCKIN 4y agoPro tip: position your cheese slice as per leaving some margin at the bottom of the toast and press that zone.
- cupofpython 4y ago> then a couple of hours of my time wasted on removing every last piece of burnt greasy cheese from inside the toaster Do you have a fancy toaster? I wouldve just replaced mine, although mine is pretty basic
- rtkwe 4y agoThat's a super wasteful solution to this. The toaster is perfectly salvageable.
- cupofpython 4y agoSo drop it off at a salvage location. OP was complaining about salvaging it, like it was necessary. If you want to do is as a fun personal project, go for it, but it is wasteful of human time to salvage something that cheap rather than add it to a scrap pile for a professional salvage company to process in bulk. As a bonus, the kid learns that if you arent careful with your items they may break and be gone. you dont waste hours of your time on something that should cost about 1 hour of your time at work max. Edit: Agree to disagree, but my post is still a valid position to hold and im open to conversation. but sure use downvote as a dislike button - we are all familiar with where that gets us. okay guess im an asshole. go use a salvaged toaster in your kitchen. for $20, id rather not risk burning my house down or teaching my kids to put their hands inside the toaster but to each their own
- Grustaf 4y agoSeems better to teach the children to value their possessions.
- cupofpython 4y agoWhat better way to teach that than have them understand if they dont respect the way something is supposed to be used, they might break it? Could be fun to sit with them and take apart the toaster and assess it together and see if its worth cleaning or replacing and explaining why. But I wouldnt spend 2+ hours cleaning it by myself and then complaining about it
- samizdis 4y agoAt the risk of sounding like a salesperson, I'd like to mention a feature of basic/classic Dualit toasters - namely, the optional and elegantly simple sandwich cage. [1] The cage is designed to take two slices of bread with a filling (in my usage, always heavy on the cheese). You put this into the toaster slot, which is vertical, and safely make cheese/whatever toasties. So, your 12-year-old had the right idea, but not the right toaster. FWIW, and now going full salesperson, Dualit toasters are low-tech and minimalist. The timer is clockwork. There is no automatic pop-up function; you can depress a lever to raise the toast during cooking to check its colour, if you like. All parts are serviceable/replaceable. I've had my bog-standard Dualit (plus two cages) for 20+ years, and so far I've not had to replace even a heating element; and this with usage at least five days a week. [1] https://www.dualit.com/products/original-sandwich-cage https://www.dualit.com/products/original-sandwich-cage
- Dudeman112 4y agoGenerally I'm salty at people going full sales mode. But this time? I'm not even mad Sandwich cages are the kind technological solution people in general just have something of a blind spot against. Made myself a note if I decide to buy a toaster when I move next year Ah, the wonders of technology and engineering :)
- dmix 4y agoHow do you deal with the dripping cheese part? I’m guessing a tray at the bottom you need to clean?
- ajdude 4y agoRemovable stainless steel tray at the bottom of the toaster. The metal panels that the toaster rests on are easily accessible too. It doesn't have a spring-loaded "pop", but rather there's a lever on the side of the toaster to lift or lower the toast.
- natch 4y agoIt’s explained on the website.
- 4y ago
- kordlessagain 4y agoWe had an employee who once tried cooking bacon in a toaster oven and it caught on fire. Filled the office with smoke, so it happens.
- julianlam 4y agoWell then this employee must've done it wrong, because I cook bacon in my toaster over (and now an air fryer) all the time. However, you do need a tray on which the bacon sits, which was perhaps your employee's mistake.
- ziml77 4y agoAre people using the word toaster to refer to two different appliances in this thread? In American English a toaster is a device that holds bread vertically between heating elements. There's a similarly named device called a toaster oven which is essentially a standard electric oven that's been shrunk down to countertop size.
- notdonspaulding 4y agoBoth the parent and grandparent to your comment were referring to a toaster oven.
- civilized 4y agoWaffle iron. It's a horizontal toaster and applies enough pressure to cook faster. Leaves cool marks. Just don't burn yourself! (Technically applies to the toaster as well though)
- blntechie 4y agoHorizontal sandwich toasters are the popular kind of toasters around my parts. It can make from plain toasts to fully stuffed sandwiches and are not that hard to clean either. I guess Americans will consider them more as a grill though.
- tempest_ 4y agoIn North America you would be more likely to encounter a panini press. I have seen that fancy horizontal mitsubishi toaster on youtube but never one in store.
- washadjeffmad 4y agoPanini presses are less common here only* because they take up more kitchen real estate than a smaller upright appliance and can be reasonably replaced by a skillet. "George Foreman grills" were in vogue for a few years in the 2000s, but I rarely ever see them now. *Probably also because American bread is awful.
- ajross 4y ago> Our 12-year-old recently tried to make himself "cheese on toast" by putting both cheese and uncooked bread into the (almost brand new, upright) toaster. Aaargh! I know it's tempting to blame modern technological monstrosities for this nonsense, but kids were lighting toasters on fire before the internet. Source: lit a toaster on fire, prior to the January 1983 IPv4 migration on the ARPANET (and long before I knew what any of that meant).
- framapotari 4y agoI don't think anyone was blaming modern technology, or anything specific, for this nonsense?
- undersuit 4y agoThe "cheese on toast" anecdote was told in response to someone blaming modern technology for "outright faking craft and cooking tips". Contextually I gathered that modern technology might be part of the conversation.
- framapotari 4y agoThat's one way to read it, but it might just be a related anecdote that the poster wanted to share. Without any explicit mention of blaming modern technology I don't think it's fair to make the assumption that the text is doing that. Just because you respond to something doesn't mean you are either refuting it or agreeing with it.
- t_mann 4y agoKudos for not just throwing away the toaster. Will have benefited the learning experience.
- undersuit 4y agoWhen I was 10 or 11 on a camping trip I watched an adult make sopaipillas, on a propane camp stove no less. So the morning after I get home I get up at 6AM and try to recreate the recipe from memory. My mom is a bit a of health nut, so for flour I used the whole-wheat we had available and instead of a frying oil I used olive oil. I turned on the gas stove and smoked the entire 2000sqft two story house out with a grease and burning dough fire. Even if a video I could watch online was available in the 1990s, the recipe would still fail no matter how safe the instructions were because I misunderstood the base concepts. My mom taught me safety in the kitchen afterwards.
- mensetmanusman 4y agoHere is a hack for extremely fast grilled cheese. Basic idea is to make the components separately: 1) toast two pieces of bread until they are dry and quite brown, this is important (to remove the water ) so that the bread does not heat up in the microwave 2) while it is toasting, cut up cheese for each slice, I use quarter inch thick 1“ x 2“ pieces, usually four per slice 3) after the bread is toasted, put them on a glass plate and butter them, then cover each with the slices of cheese 4) microwave 30s until the onset of melting 5) optional to add cold deli meat the sandwich after microwaving and combining 6) cut into fours and serve with optional dipping sauce The dry toast and the melted cheese have a very good texture and taste and it takes about 3 minutes to make. I make this for children often and add a bunch more cheese and meat so that four pieces of toast can be the main part of a simple lunch for 8 kids (each cut into quadrants).
- gonzo41 4y agoIf you lie the toaster on it's side it works.
- xanaxagoras 4y ago> then a couple of hours of my time wasted on removing every last piece of burnt greasy cheese from inside the toaster Should have been a couple of hours of his time
- dantyti 4y agoI was that 12-year-old. My brain still works this way when tackling novel problems. If I may suggest, instead of reprimands (I'd imagine your kid knows they'd messed up and won't try this experiment again), use these situations to teach your child about forming hypotheses, questioning assumptions and doing reality checks before starting an experiment.
- queuebert 4y agoDid he learn it from YouTube or some other social media? If so, why is he on there unsupervised?
- sinsterizme 4y agoDo you remember being a kid? It's not feasible nor desirable to monitor your children 24/7
- queuebert 4y agoKids that age shouldn't be on YouTube at all. And there are parental controls.
- InitialLastName 4y ago> a couple of hours of my time wasted on removing every last piece of burnt greasy cheese from inside the toaster I'm not (currently) a parent, so this may be off base, but I am currently in the crunch part of the process so looking to learn: Is there not a better opportunity for this to be a learning experience by making it a couple of hours of your kid's time to do that cleaning? I know my adult life has benefited from my parents' insistence that I clean up my own messes, and 12-year-olds are certainly capable of generating elbow grease.
- growt 4y agoAs cleaning a toaster most likely involves sticking things into it (like a brush, maybe even a knife to scrape off the burnt stuff) and you also don't want your kids to stick stuff (especially metal) into a toaster, I'd say it's safer to skip the "elbow grease" lesson in this special case.
- iSnow 4y agoYes and no. Punishing your kid for some dumb but innocent action has the potential to make them too cautious. Additionally, they might damage the toaster because they have no experience on how to properly open and clean it and that would make things much worse. That's especially true if your kid might be neuro-divergent - e.g. kids with ADHD tend to be clumsy but cannot help it, they might be 30% behind in motor coordination. So your 12yo might have the eye-hand coordination of a 7-8yo, and I would not let a kid that age clean a toaster on their own. IMO, the best course of action would be to not ridicule or reprimand them but explain how this wasn't the best course of action and then clean the toaster together with the kid - that way they learn how to do it and don't feel like an idiot. And you don't have to fume over what your kid did wrong but spend some time together. Obviously, if your kid actually IS dumb and reckless, things would be different.
- InitialLastName 4y agoI certainly agree that modulating the level of supervision of the cleaning to the kid's abilities is warranted, but I still think they should be involved to the end. I don't see it as a punishment to make the kid stick around and help with the cleanup to the extent they can; rather, it's an attempt to practice conscientious habits (if you make a mess, you stick around to see it cleaned up even if you need help to do so), in addition to the specific learning experience that some things are really hard to clean, so we should be careful in our experiments with those things.
- scarecrowbob 4y agoAs annoying as that is, these kinds of events are very helpful for young folks. That's how we learn. I still do dumb stuff all the time, it's just more complicated dumb stuff :D But at least it is complicated and -novel- dumb stuff.
- Wowfunhappy 4y agoA story from an academic summer camp where I used to work: In the dining hall one morning, a teacher sees three kids putting ice cubes into the toaster. The teacher walks up to them. Two of the kids dash away, leaving the third to fend for herself. Teacher: "What are you doing?" Student: "Putting ice cubes into the toaster." Teacher: "Why would you do that?" Student: "To see what would happen." Teacher: "Okay. Let's think about this. What happens to ice when it gets hot?" Student: "It melts?" Teacher: "Yes, it melts into water. And what happens when you put water into an electronic device like a toaster?" Student: "...it goes boom?" Teacher: "So should you put ice into the toaster?" Student: "No." Teacher: "Thank you." This is a camp explicitly for gifted & talented students, by the way. They are exceptionally talented in many ways, but they're still 11 years old.
- logifail 4y ago> This was a camp explicitly for gifted & talented students, I might add Believe me, they're the worst ;) My son recently got on the wrong train to get home from school, it was one that was "fast" that is it doesn't stop in the place where we live, his train sailed straight through our station and the next several stations, before it finally stopped somewhere and he got off. At this point he (rightly) whipped out his phone and called me for help/advice. I checked the train timetables, figured out that although I could have gone and picked him up in the car, it would actually be quicker - and perhaps a learning experience - for him to get the train back. So, I told him "go to platform X and get the train at HH:MM and it will bring you home". He went to platform X, but unwisely got on the first train which arrived, which unfortunately was a delayed - fast(!) - service. So, he ended up going in the other direction on a fast train - and (again) not stopping - straight through our station, until his train eventually reached somewhere it did stop at. At this point he phoned me in tears. I got in the car and drove there to pick him up. We filed that under "learning experience". We seem to be having plenty of them...
- OneLeggedCat 4y agoAbout ten years ago, I bought one of those small countertop toaster ovens that is roughly big enough for four pieces of bread to lie flat in it. It became the best $100 I've ever spent. We cook everything small enough to fit in it, including toast with cheese :) . We've since only used our regular full-size oven maybe half as often, because this small countertop one is so much faster and more convenient No need for an actual toaster, although this one takes a minute or two longer. As an added bonus, my mother-in-law hates waiting that extra minute or two, so that's a big win in my book.
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoYou can buy reusable toaster bags that make this possible. All sorts of crumbly, melty things can go in a standard upright toaster.