Question about toasters

Lighthearted question: have toasters gone out of fashion? :grinning: out of my last 8 sittings, only one house had a toaster. Are they not a common appliance anymore? I’m happy to use the oven grill to toast bread but it has made me think. Am I living in the 20th century by still having a toaster at home :smile:

@SalomeL much will depend on which country you are in, and where you might be doing a sit. In some countries toasters are not common. I’ve just finished a sit in Los Angeles where I asked if they had a toaster as I didn’t see one. The owner unearthed one from the back of a cupboard but said they use their toaster oven. It was a high-end toaster oven and toasted far better than a small toaster and was useful for so many other things.

Oh, and I came home and bought the same toaster oven and put my toaster away on a high-up shelf. :slightly_smiling_face: A result of some sits is buying things you found you enjoyed or found useful. There are posts on that topic, in case you’re interested.

By the way, your link in your forum profile needs fixing. Hopefully a moderator on site today will step in when they read this and help you.

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I was at a house sit no toaster .no kettle either strange I just boiled water in pan.

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I have not noticed the no toaster trend. I can definately recall toasters on sits. I’m in the US, and don’t have a stovetop or electric kettle. When I do make tea – by the cup, I always boil the water in the microwave. It’s water! Microwaving it doesn’t change the taste. This is easy, but I think it freaks tea drinkers out a little. Alternatively, they could boil water in a pan.

Where I am now (at an Australian living in Copenhagen) there is a toaster. And I think in most places where I sat. Same with electric kettles.

(But here is no microwave. And no TV.)

Genevere,
If you could not find a kettle they may have had one of those instant hot water taps, such as quooker, I could not finds one early on when doing sits and boiled in a saucepan. I later discovered they had an instant Quooker tap in the sink. Really hate them as water can come spluttering out, extremely hot and splash you. I now know to look for one if I cannot find a kettle.

The latest sit we did in a 2.2 million dollar home in the Bay area - no toaster, no kettle, no TV. :flushed:

Almost both them a nice glass kettle for $15 but decided not to. Who knows how will they react, maybe they just don’t like electric appliances.

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No didn’t have that they had a fancy coffee maker which I didn’t know how to work.im not good with gadgets ha ha. Feart I break them.

I do have a friend who refuses to have a toaster - because of the crumbs .

All our sits so far (which have all been in the U.K.) have had 4 slice toasters. Some have been hidden away in a kitchen cupboard rather than on the worktop.

@Snowbird what is a toaster oven ?

My sits have had toasters, in the U.S. and UK.

At my home, we have a toaster, but often end up using the toaster oven, so we could get rid of the toaster if we wanted.

Some folks might prefer the counter space if they have another appliance that also toasts.

@Silversitters here’s range of choices in the brand I bought. There are many brands and a wide range of prices too. I’ve only toasted bagels and English muffins so far but they are so much more enjoyable than using my regular toaster. :yum: At the sit I also baked brownies and cooked single meals with it, and I see that it can be used as a slow cooker too. Lots of experimenting for me to do yet.

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Relatively few Americans own an electric kettle, because most don’t drink tea or drink it enough to need one. They might just boil water in a pot, if needed. For coffee, most folks own a coffee maker. Some folks own a pour-over kettle or such for coffee, and in those cases, it might have temperature settings.

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I’m a sitter in Canada and can totally relate! This has become one of my standard questions to ask homeowners now - do you have a toaster? I think the air fryer has taken the place of the toaster as the last five local sits we did only had air fryers. Took me a while to figure out how to use the air fryers and in my opinion, it takes far too long to make toast in them! I see air fryers going the route of breadmakers - I’m already starting to see them for sale in thrift shops :slight_smile:

@Globetrotter I have an air fryer and I had no idea that you could make toast in it !( I also have a toaster )

I learn so much on this forum :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

It’s a very complicated procedure LOL!

We have a microwave and air fryer combo. Love the feature. It crisps up various foods with little effort, which wouldn’t work in say a toaster oven. We use ours about 50 percent of the time for air frying vs. microwaving. I wouldn’t toast bread in it, though.

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@SalomeL and @BunnyCat , I have a glass electric kettle. I’ve used them at homes in the UK and the US and decided to get one after I came to the realization that boiling a tea kettle on the stove used so much gas. My electric kettle is fast and I love it. I use it all the time for tea, my fave instant coffee (Cafe Bustelo Instant Espresso), grain coffee (Caf-Lib or Inka - a Polish grain beverage that tastes like Postum). I opted for glass as the stainless steel kettles I’ve used end up with deposits that sometimes flake and float around in the water.

@Genevere , I have used a sauce pan to boil water for tea or instant coffee in many a home that didn’t have a tea kettle.

@Globetrotter , in my pre-sit video chat I also ask if they have a toaster or a toaster oven. Like you @Silversitters , I have also often found them tucked away in a cabinet or drawer. In a couple of homes, I think they were younger HO, they didn’t have either. They just toasted things in the oven, which seems pretty energy inefficient to me.

At home I have an el cheapo toaster oven that I got on Amazon after my last one bit the dust after many years of service. It seems to take a long time to toast and I keep telling myself to get another one. I use it for all kinds of things – toasting bread, bagels, reheating things, cooking frozen fish filets, etc.

@Snowbird ,I also have a smaller Breville countertop oven that I use so I don’t have to heat up the whole regular oven for smaller quantities. It’s great. I don’t use it for toasting as it doesn’t seem as energy efficient as my small toaster oven.

My daughter got me an air fryer that sits proudly on my countertop and that I rarely use!

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I am a Brit and for me a toaster and a kettle are absolute essentials! I’m always amazed how many people don’t have them- especially outside of UK. Actually many country homes in UK these days seem to only have a boiler tap which I don’t like so much. When travelling in places like Mexico or Bali pretty much every guest house/apartment has a blender and a coffee machine but never a toaster or kettle! I love the blender for making smoothies but we always make coffee in our own stove top Italian style coffee pot. So we usually end up making toast in a frying pan and boiling tea water in a pan… cultural differences eh?!:rofl::joy:

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While in the UK it’s normal to have our toasters on show in the kitchen, here in New Zealand and Australia it seems common to keep them in a kitchen cupboard.

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Here in Canada we keep it out on our kitchen counter as we use every day.