In toasting bread, we wish to get out the water that remains, and which makes the bread cold, waxy, and heavy of digestion. Perhaps we shall be best understood if we first explain what makes bad toast of a piece of bread, or rather no toast at all, but merely a piece of bread with two burned surfaces, more wet and waxy in the heart than ever; and which not a particle of butter will enter, and if put by for an hour or two and allowed to cool, will get as tough as possible. If the slice of bread is brought into close contact with a strong fire, the surface becomes covered with, or rather converted into charcoal, before the heat produces any effect on the interior of the slice. This being done, the other side is turned, and has its surface converted into charcoal in the same manner. The consequence of this will be, that not a particle of butter will enter such a piece of toast, but only remain upon the surface, and if vexed with additional fire, turns to a rancid oil of the most unwholesome description. Charcoal, as every one knows, is a very bad conductor of heat, and as such is used between the cylinders and casings of steam engines; it is no consequence whether the said charcoal be formed of wood, of flour, or any other substance, for its qualities are in every case the same. Now, when the surfaces of the slice of bread are over-charred in this manner, there is an end to all toasting, as no heat can be communicated to the interior, and not one drop can be evaporated or drawn away. In this state the slice of bread may be wholly burned to charcoal; but until it is altogether so burned, the unburned part will become more and more wet and unwholesome. Hence, if you would have a slice of bread so toasted as to be pleasant to the palate, and wholesome and easily digested, never let one particle of the surface be charred. Chesnut brown is even far too deep for a good toast; and the colour of a fox is rather too deep. The nearer it can be kept to a straw colour, the more delicious to the taste, and the more wholesome it will be. The method of obtaining this is very obvious. It consists in keeping the bread at the proper distance from the fire, and exposing it to a proper heat, for a due length of time; or it may be done, placed on edge the same way as dry toast is brought to table, in a rack, in an iron or brick oven of a proper heat. For those who “make the toast,” especially if a large quantity be required, it is generally a tedious process, and for this reason it is commonly hurried. But if the toasting fork was discarded, and its place supplied by a small apparatus made of wire, long enough to hold three or four pieces at a time, and so contrived as to slide in or out to any required distance from the fire, the bread might be placed in it, and the process of toasting carried on, while the servant was at liberty to do her other work. Of course, the “Toast Holder” would require to be made differently, to suit particular shaped