Saturday, October 22, 2011

Misconceptions

There are  a lot of preconceived ideas and misconceptions about the Amish out there. One of the main ones is about rumspringa. But I won't be talking about that today.

Recently I had someone try to tell me a whole row of things that they know to be facts about the Amish and I was left smiling on the inside and wondering where ever they had come up with all that.

Among other things she made the remark that she was reading about someone visiting the Amish and they had toast for breakfast and how she immediately knew that wasn't true because the Amish don't have electricity.

The electricity part she got right. But the toast part. No.

We used to enjoy toast regularly while we were Amish. While growing up and the first few years of our marriage I made toast on a kerosene stove by placing a piece of bread directly on top of the burner. The flame was more than 12" away and the heat toasted the bread nicely. After turning it over and toasting the other side it was ready for butter. A lovely piece of toast made without the aid of electricity.

Another way we made toast, especially during the winter was placing several pieces of bread into the oven for a minute or two and then place it directly on the stove top to be toasted a delightful brown. Putting it into the oven first made that there weren't as many crumbs that would stick to the stove top.

Later when we moved to a community that had gas stoves we still enjoyed toast. There was a rack contraption that could be set over the burner and with the burner on low it worked quite well. And there was always the option to make a fried toast.

I'm sure Amish aren't the only ones that make or have made toast without an electric toaster. What methods have you used already?

30 comments:

  1. Isn't it funny how some people just think they know it all! My mom used to make toast in the oven when our toaster broke. I've even seen her toast it in the skillet and we aren't Amish. Her mom must have never had it a little rough and/or she didn't cook! lol

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  2. I guess that person wasn't able to "think outside the box." There have been times when we haven't had a toaster for some reason or another and we've still made toast somehow.

    People have misconceptions about people often, at least it seems to happen often to us. I've learned to be extra careful about not assuming things about people and have learned to be more compassionate towards people. But it amazes me still sometimes how and where people come up with the things that they do.

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  3. Some people would be completely confounded without the use of electricity. I have never been Amish but,I have had to make do many times without electricity and other modern conveniences. Making toast over an open fire is no problem for me :)
    Blessings

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  4. We don't have a toaster and I make toast all the time! I put an iron skillet on top of a hot gas burner, and jut put the bread in there. Takes minutes.

    When I have a lot of guests, though, we make it in the oven on trays.

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  5. Oh dear! Poor deluded soul! Does this person think that toast is an invention of the twentieth century, or just think that electricity was available from prehistoric times?
    We grew up without electricity or running water in the house. We used that archaic implement - the toasting fork. Bread placed on the two prongs was held by the long handle before the flames of the open solid fuel stove by we kids whilst mother made the cooked breakfast on the top. We carried buckets of water from our well before school for drinking and cooking and used rain water collected in butts for cleaning and washing. We were clean, our house shone and was warm and welcoming and we were happy without an implement I have never yet owned - a toaster! This was not through religious or ecological conviction but because some rural areas of Britain didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing until the late 60s.

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  6. It's so funny that people think you can't make toast without an electric toaster.

    When we were growing up my sisters and I would sometimes make toast by buttering our bread on both sides and sliding it in the oven. We'd flip the bread over midway through so that it was nice and toasty on both sides. We liked that toast so much better than what came out of our electric toaster.

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  7. Why I have to say that I have made toast several times without a toaster. And I am not Amish. Why people would think you could not make it without a toaster is beyond me.

    We have this little wire a frame type toaster that fits right over our burner on our stove and that the way we eat toast when camping. And I too have used a cast iron grill that does toast beautifully.

    I figure where there is a will there is a way in anything you do.

    Karan

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  8. My Grandma didn't have a toaster, and whenever I'd visit, I'd always have toast that she held over the flame on the gas cook stove. It's not so hard...I've done it myself on occaision. :-) We've camped many a time in our lives...outside and in (when storms took out the power.) We cooked hot dogs on sticks over the fireplace, made soups and stew in it too. (Just had to be sure that the logs were evenly set and the flame not too high. The cleaning of the outside of the kettles was the hardest part, but long ago, my Dad showed me that if you coat the outside of a pan with bar soap before you place it on the fire, the soot comes off far more easily.

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  9. it baffles me that anyone could possibly forget that the ingredients of toast are bread... and FIRE! (gently applied)

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  10. As another poster noted, toast isn't some brand-new invention. At least by the Victorian period (and probably earlier) people made toast with a toaster fork.

    Today, I make toast in my gas stove, set to broil. This might not pass muster with the Amish, since it has electric temperature controls - but I grew up in a far-from-Amish family, with a gas stove that had no electric controls, but a true broiler - that's how we made all our toast.

    How the heck do these people think you make cheese toast, or cinnamon toast? Nobody sticks those in a toaster.

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  11. When I was in college, I made toast in my electric frying pan. OK, I guess that's not Amish, but I'm sure there are people out there with the Einstein-like brilliance to translate this ability into making toast in a cast-iron skillet atop a gas stove.

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  12. Just the other day I grilled my bread for toast instead of using a toaster.

    And when I was in girl guides we made toast while camping by using a sort of home made barbeque (a metal grate laid across bricks with a fire made under it)... We cooked everything on that thing while camping; and I can guarantee we had no electricity in the middle of the fields and such we were camping in!

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  13. How funny! I'm not Amish but make toast every morning on top of the stove.

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  14. I have always made toast in a toaster and never seen anyone use anything else. And honestly, I have never thought about toast so much until now. LOL. After all of these comments, now I must try it without a toaster. It sounds easy enough.

    Hi Mary Ann, I just caught up with your blog. I've enjoyed reading about your memories of being Amish and God guiding you and LV to Him.

    Blessings, Jessica

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  15. Butter one side of my bread and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Then place it on the broiler for just a few minutes ... oh, yeah! We even learned how to do this in our Home Ec class in Jr. High School! Power out during a storm? Out came the long fork and a skillet and we would have eggs and toast for supper .. or hot dogs on that long fork. We kids liked it when the power went out and all we had for heat and light was the fireplace and candles. Can't say the same for our parents, though ... :-)

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  16. In the olden days when I was young we had a little wire contraption that we put over the gas burner to make toast.

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  17. People who think you can't make toast without a toaster probably also think you can't make coffee without a coffeepot! I have made coffee many times in a saucepan, and it's delicious!!!

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  18. I enjoyed this post! My husband, myself, our son and "daughter" have 20 acres in the Missouri Ozark area. It is very primitive. We all like to spend a few days at a time at our acreage. We make our toast on an old fashion wire toaster that sits on top of our camping stove. We also use the old coffee pot that has the little bubble on the top. We love spending our time together enjoying "a step back in time"...learning new things. Thank you for sharing! Have a lovely weekend. Hugs ♥ Teri

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  19. For years we didn't have a toaster so we made toast by lightly buttering bread on both sides and cooking it in a cast iron pan on our propane stove.

    Recently, my husband bought a toaster oven so he and the children love to toast things in there. I still like to do it on the stove though. It is a different "toast" though on the top of the stove, its a softer toast..not sure how to explain it.

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  20. Oh well it takes all sorts I guess I much prefer toast at a camp fire getting too old to camp these days though :) but gosh it was fun also mashmallows yummy

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  21. We are just north of Mexico in New Mexico and have always used a comal which is a griddle of sorts that we make and heat up tortillas on.

    A toaster would clutter up the place and aside from crock pots we have few gadgets in the kitchen. Less seems to be best for us.

    Jennifer

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  22. Hello!! Thank you so much for commenting on my blog! Just for that, I am now following you! :) And just for the record, my family never uses a toaster, but rather makes toast only in the oven. :) Thanks again!
    ~Kellee

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  23. I actually feel sorry for people who think the world began when electrical wires reached houses. I prefer toast from stovetops over those dried out in electric toasters. I have one of those, still in use from the time my Mom bought it for my grandmother in the 1950's, complete with braided cloth covering the wiring. My goodness, had that lady never tasted a toasted cheese sandwich! There's much about Amish we know since my husband descends from German immigrants who were Anabaptist.

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  24. We grew up on a small farm, hauled water and often had no electricity. When camping we would toast bread over the camp fire among a lot of other foods. There are a lot of misconceptions about small farms and small towns in America as well. Recently we heard how farmers are all rich and abuse their employees. Well the family had no employees and we were called poor dirt farmers when we went to school. We had clean house and a clean clothes that were often patched to make they last longer, because we just could not afford to go get new ones. People are funny in their assumptions.
    Mrs. J.

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  25. I made toast in the oven occasionally when my toaster was broken. Of course the oven is electric lol! I read a lot of Amish fiction because it interests me and I used to love visiting Lancaster PA. I had a friend who is former Mennonite from PA. It's funny though I am sure not everything I read is accurate. Different faiths interest me. Anyway I am enjoying your blog. Hope to see you stopping by again.

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  26. We also have one of those wire gizmos that sit on top of a gas burner. Mine folds down flat for storage.

    I teach Colonial Lifestyles, and have a replica of a toaster used in the 1700s. Too hard to describe here, but it does work beautifully. One little girl suggested it would also be nice for making waffles. It must have been obvious from the look on my face that I had NO idea how she was going to accomplish this, until one of the teachers remarked that they "probably" didn't have frozen waffles way back then!

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  27. silly question: what is fried toast?

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  28. Too funny!

    We made toast on a jelly roll pan or cookie sheet in the oven (just remember to turn over after a few minutes or one side gets too dark)!

    We've also made toast by laying them on the grill top or the cooking grate over an open fire or on a toasting fork over the fire.

    My grandmother (actually both of them) had the wire holder that fit over the burner that someone mentioned above, as well as one that went in the oven itself (both could be used in either a gas or electric burner or stove or a wood stove, in the case of one of my grandmothers!

    All it takes is heat and bread - not electricity! **SMILE**

    Lea

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  29. Camping this summer I saw someone use a little metal wire contraption to hold a few pieces of bread at an angle surrounding the burner of a little gas camp stove to make toast.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.