I don’t know if I believe this fact or not. It is said that the Ancient Romans used to drop a piece of toast into their wine goblets for good health. And that is where we got the phrase, “raise a toast.”
Yet. I don’t think there were a lot of electric toasters back in Ancient Rome. I’m sure of it. So, did they really toast their bread on something?
Since I like toast, I had to find out. If you are indifferent to toast, I’m sorry about today’s blog. It just seems I write about things like toad farts and the gaping holes in space. Or Velveeta cheese and people with lots of moles. My blog touches on these life opportunities, and today it happens to be toast.
So let’s start at the beginning. You can’t have toast without bread. And bread has been around since man knew grain. Seriously. The earliest archaeological evidence of flour goes back about 30,000 years.
As Socrates always said: “Where there is wheat, there is flour, and where there is flour, there is bread. And where there is bread, there are eggs and bacon.” Okay. Socrates didn’t actually say that, but it would have been great if he had.
Anyway, we know that bread has been a mainstay food in many ancient cultures. Not only is there archeological evidence, but there is also the written word about bread.
Bread came from various grain crops back then and helped feed the masses. Many scientists have said that people’s ability to make bread played a large part in ending their nomadic lifestyle. Bake the bread and settle down.
But bread probably first started in ancient Egypt. First, they just set the loaves out in the sun. Then they invented the closed oven by 3000 B.C.
They started making leavened bread. I have to give you this fact because that is how toast started. The leavened bread was a much lighter bread. It was better. But the stale monster came along. If leavened bread were left out in the desert heat for long periods of time, it would get very hard. It must have been hard to eat those bread bricks.
To solve the problem, they started toasting the bread. Scorching it to preserve it. Those Egyptians. Then the Greeks.
And eventually, the Romans. The whole process of toasting bread became popular in the Roman Empire. The word “toast” actually comes from the Latin “tostum.” Tostum means “to burn or scorch.”
They had a few different ways of toasting. Laying the bread flat on heated rocks. Or. Putting the bread directly into the fire in wire baskets or with sticks.
And people have been toasting bread in many different ways since.
But now we press the lever and wait for the pop. Yes, the first electric toaster was invented in 1893 by Alan MacMasters. It wasn’t very good. The iron wiring inside would melt. A big fire hazard. Plus, electricity wasn’t widespread at this time. Then, in 1905, Albert Marsh created “Nichrome,” a filament wire with an alloy of nickel and chromium. It was durable when heated. Ta-Da! The modern toaster was born.
Today, toasters are in about 90% of households worldwide.
So back to the phrase. The ancient Roman phrase. To “raise a toast.” Maybe they did put their toast in the wine glasses. As Socrates sort of said, “I like mine toast underneath eggs and bacon, with a little mayonnaise in the mix.”
And so a toast. To all of us.
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“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
― Socrates
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“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”
― Socrates
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“We cannot live better than in seeking to become better.”
― Socrates
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A toast to all of us. The bread kind.
