How to find a cooker with a good grill for making toast

benawhile · 4 Oct 2018 at 16:54

Hello
I'm choosing a new cooker and trying to find one with a grill that is properly controllable.
The best cooker I ever had had an eye level gas grill and was excellent for making toast.

I realise I will not find a modern good quality cooker with an eye level grill but the last two electric ovens with electric grills I owned were very bad at doing toast, or any grilling, yet I can't find any information on the internet about why that should be or how to be sure of a grill that works properly.

The single important factor seems to be that electric grill elements, although they claim to be controllable, actually only have two settings, on or off, and the thermostat switches on or off, which is supposed to regulate the heat, but all it does in practice is alternate between too hot and too cold with varying time differences in between.

How can I find out whether a cooker has a grill that is controllable between low, medium and hot, or better still, gradually controllable like my last gas grill? Can modern electric grills do this, or gas grills?

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Transam · 4 Oct 2018 at 22:33

Bu a £20 toaster, and a cooker that you like?

benawhile · 4 Oct 2018 at 23:11

The whole point is that toasters don't make the best toast!

Housey · 7 Oct 2018 at 19:15

benawhile said:
The whole point is that toasters don't make the best toast!

Well £20 quid ones don't but there are some epic toasters out there.

Also,

Crosta & Mollica Pane Pugliese

THE finest toasting bread I have eaten in my 51 years.

And I have eaten a **** tonne of toast in 51 years

TripleT · 8 Oct 2018 at 08:19

Yes you need to buy a decent toaster.

Making toast under the grill is just wrong. It takes twice as long and the fact that one side is going cold whilst you cook the other is sacrilege.

benawhile · 8 Oct 2018 at 10:34

Sorry Housey, has to be wholemeal for me, but might be interested in a link to a good toaster. I was raised on toast from a grill...

aceface57 · 8 Oct 2018 at 21:52

I can't help you find the right cooker for this, just wanted to say that I have never had toast as good as when it's been done on a gas grill. No idea why, but it's miles better than a toaster.

benawhile · 8 Oct 2018 at 22:59

Absolutely, aceface

bjorkiii · 9 Oct 2018 at 04:35

Try second hand oven shops.They are bound to have what your looking for.

Martynt74 · 12 Oct 2018 at 09:00

Housey said:
Well £20 quid ones don't but there are some epic toasters out there.

Also,

Crosta & Mollica Pane Pugliese

THE finest toasting bread I have eaten in my 51 years.

And I have eaten a **** tonne of toast in 51 years

Gonna stick that on this weeks shopping. It looks amazing!

Their flatbreads are great too.

Housey · 12 Oct 2018 at 09:25

You MUST ensure you ONLY put salted butter on too but when you do I promise you toast perfection. It toasts quickly too so keep a watching eye on it!

Enjoy.

Martynt74 · 12 Oct 2018 at 09:27

Is there any other kind of butter?

Although if i only have "slightly salted" i am partial to adding a bit of this

https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Cornish-Sea-Salt/410352011?from=search&param=salt

I shall report back in the morning

One More Solo · 12 Oct 2018 at 13:27

I can't contribute other than to say grill toast is good toast.

SoliD · 12 Oct 2018 at 13:44

I still remember having Toast at my nans as a kid with what was probably an illegal grill. It tasted of 90% gas, but my god it was lovely covered in her homemade Loganberry Jam.

UnworthyBean · 12 Oct 2018 at 14:21

benawhile said:
I realise I will not find a modern good quality cooker with an eye level

Surely this is more due to the positioning of the cooker in your kitchen? If you're 1 foot 7 then any grill is eye level.

However, decent toaster > grill any day. If you're serious about decent toast then surely this is the best option? Does both sides perfectly in a minute or so.

Martynt74 · 14 Oct 2018 at 10:38

Housey said:
Well £20 quid ones don't but there are some epic toasters out there.

Also,

Crosta & Mollica Pane Pugliese

THE finest toasting bread I have eaten in my 51 years.

And I have eaten a **** tonne of toast in 51 years

Is it possible to fall in love with someone over their bread recommendations?

Although I’ve just eaten almost a full pack and feel stuffed!

Skorpion · 14 Oct 2018 at 11:35

A bog standard 4 slice toaster grills toast and crumpets very nicely.

HazardO · 14 Oct 2018 at 12:07

You could get a worktop oven/grill, they're suppose to make very good toast. Something like a Sage-BOV820BSS-Smart-Oven can do 6 slices of toast at once. The bonus is having a second oven to compliment your main oven if you're cooking for a lot of people.

Housey · 14 Oct 2018 at 12:35

Marvt74 said:
Is it possible to fall in love with someone over their bread recommendations?

Although I’ve just eaten almost a full pack and feel stuffed!

Told ya

Punt · 2 Dec 2018 at 18:44

Housey said:
Well £20 quid ones don't but there are some epic toasters out there.

Also,

Crosta & Mollica Pane Pugliese

THE finest toasting bread I have eaten in my 51 years.

And I have eaten a **** tonne of toast in 51 years

Marvt74 said:
Is it possible to fall in love with someone over their bread recommendations?

Although I’ve just eaten almost a full pack and feel stuffed!

Housey said:
Told ya

I tried this for the first time this morning, after reading this thread a while back.

Wow! Never had toast like it. The crunch is increduble but it's not dry. It toasts to a lovely golden colour too!

Quite substantial. One of the larger slices in the pack was plenty for me. I will be having this again