Nowadays, the toaster belongs to the standard of Swedish cuisine. Most homes have a toaster.
In fact, toast is one of the most common breakfast choices in Swedish homes.
But how does it actually work on the inside? How to use a toaster and how it toast the bread so that it becomes golden brown, crispy, and delicious?
We’ve figured it out.
How does a toaster work
Toasters are not really very complex. Even though we now have toasters that can both heat up frozen bread, raise the bread, and toast baguettes – the technology is still the same.
On the inside of it are infrared elements that heat up the bread.
These elements are in the form of nichrome wires that have been pulled around the inside of the toaster.
The wires can be quite hard to see when you turn it off. But when you warm up the machine and look down between the cracks, you can see the red lights. It is the threads that produce infrared radiation to heat the bread.
When you turn on the toaster, electricity travels through the elements. When the threads get hot enough, they turn red and the heat begins to spread to the bread.
Both sides of the toaster have been designed so that the distribution of heat should be as even as possible on both sides of the bread. As you can see in this year’s best toaster test, some toasters do better than others.
Why is nichrome wire used?
Nichrome wire is an alloy of nickel and chromium. This has mainly brought two advantages:
- It has a relatively high electrical resistance
- It does not oxidize when heated
The high electrical resistance means that the nichrome wire can get very hot without being damaged. While, for example, copper wire is not as resistant.
As for oxidation, you don’t want to use other materials in a toaster. Steel wire, for example, would have rusted very quickly if exposed to the high temperatures of the toaster.
How to use a toaster?
Modern toasters are largely automatic, which they haven’t always been.
All you have to do is put down your bread slices, turn the timer, and then start the machine. When it is ready, the bread slices are pushed up and the toaster switches off automatically.
Many people wonder what the numbers on a toaster mean. Most people think the numbers show the number of minutes. But the truth is that the numbers, on most toasters, show the degree of toasting.
Higher numbers mean more toasted bread (and therefore toasted longer), while a lower number gives the opposite result.
The crux is that there is no universal degree of roasting. Number 4 on Smeg toasters does not necessarily have to give the same result as number 4 on an Electrolux toaster.
Another smart feature that modern toasters have is the crumb tray.
When you toast bread, it is inevitable that crumbs fall into the toaster. Previously, we had to turn the toaster upside down and shake it to get all the crumbs out.
If you didn’t get all the crumbs out, they could stay and get burned and collect bacteria. Which affects the bread negatively in all possible ways.
Nowadays, most crumbs end up in the crumb tray on the bottom, which you can easily remove and empty from the outside.