Why do sone toast curve?

[Cikomyr]

Why do some toasted bread curve. And some dont?

Its been bugging me all morning. My SO had funnily extremely curved toasts, and i got wondering why that is.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

Why do some toasted bread curve. And some dont?

Its been bugging me all morning. My SO had funnily extremely curved toasts, and i got wondering why that is.

My hypothesis is uneven heating. I'd test by toasting two slices from the same loaf placed in the toaster/oven turned 90º from each other but otherwise in the same position and see if the bend is along the same axis relative to the loaf or to the toaster/oven.

GW

[Murk]

I support that hypothesis, but I want to add two more. If you're doing a scientific experiment anyway, better go the whole way!

I suspect it might have something to with moist and thickness too, because I know there is a specific type of toast (forgot the name, sadly) that is meant to curl up, and to make it you have to flatten the bread and moisten it. I'm not sure which of those two actions cause the curving (or maybe both?) but it works with regular bread, so I suspect one of them is to blame.

[factotum]

If you're cooking under the grill, rather than in a toaster, then I'd expect the toast to curl as you do one side because the bread that side will shrink as it cooks...it should even out again when you toast the other side, though.

[Ravens_cry]

If you're cooking under the grill, rather than in a toaster, then I'd expect the toast to curl as you do one side because the bread that side will shrink as it cooks...it should even out again when you toast the other side, though.
Would it? Once that one side is toasted, it's pretty rigid. Toast the other side, and I think it's ability to shrink back into a flat shape would be constrained by that.
As Adam Savage would say, "Well, There's only one way to find out!"

[Kato]

I agree with what people said: Heating makes the toast contract. More so on the side that is in direct heat, so it will curve. Whether or not heating the other side evens this out depends on whether or not the toast is alreasy too rigid.

[Murk]

I agree with what people said: Heating makes the toast contract. More so on the side that is in direct heat, so it will curve. Whether or not heating the other side evens this out depends on whether or not the toast is alreasy too rigid.

Ah, but in that case, why would it only happen to some of the toasts and not all? I assumed OP made all his toast the same way, and yet only part of it curves.

[Kato]

Ah, but in that case, why would it only happen to some of the toasts and not all? I assumed OP made all his toast the same way, and yet only part of it curves.

Good point. Most likely: OP doesn't make all toast exactly the same way. Though by just using a toaster it is not likely to be a "faulty" machine, it seems most likely still. The other option would be different kinds of toast which react differently to being heated, some retracting stronger, others weaker.

[Bobb]

The rigidity mostly comes with the cooling to room temperature, yeah?

[Cikomyr]

Hey. Toasty McToaster isnt defective. Take that back.

He is a loyal kitchen appliance and will never defect to the Other side (the Washing Room decadents)

[Peelee]

Why? Because tiny variations, the orientation of grains in your slice, the amount of oxygen bubbles in the loaf, imperfections in the crust - microscopic, microscopic - and never repeat, and vastly affect the outcome. That's what? Unpredictability. Then two doctors suddenly jump out of a moving vehicle, and here I am now, by myself, talking to myself. That's Chaos Theory!

[Murk]

Making a Jurassic Park quote relevant in a discussion about toast is quite the achievement.

[Cikomyr]

Making a Jurassic Park quote relevant in a discussion about toast is quite the achievement.

I dont know. When i saw the guy on the toilet with the approaching TRex, i knew he was toast.

*Ba-dum tish*

Thanks everyone. Tip your waiter!

[Mister Tom]

If you've a mind, an additional hypothesis with an obvious test;

The outer slice gets drier on one side due to exposure to air, and that face becomes concave.

So, two slice of toast, and remember which the dry side was!

[Peelee]

Making a Jurassic Park quote relevant in a discussion about toast is quite the achievement.

I aim to please.

[Dodom]

One thing to check would be wether the end slices curve more, since bread is denser close to the crust.

[The Glyphstone]

Would it? Once that one side is toasted, it's pretty rigid. Toast the other side, and I think it's ability to shrink back into a flat shape would be constrained by that.
As Adam Savage would say, "Well, There's only one way to find out!"

Cooking your toast with dynamite is unlikely to produce anything edible, though.

[Peelee]

Cooking your toast with dynamite is unlikely to produce anything edible, though.

Clearly your dynamite is underpowered. Who's your dynamite guy?

[sktarq]

A few major factors that would need to be studied

uneven heating-causes part of the toast to contract more than another part pulling it into a new shape

exaggerating starting conditions - when toast in a toaster it is often not perfectly even - through cutting, position (particularly in a vertical toaster) etc. And the toasting process causes small transitory or unnoticed effects to grow

crust effects - probably related to other issues but I would focus on this area as one that will effect how toast's shape sets more than the rest of the bread. The semi rigid regions has a big part in turning omnidirectional contraction into a changing shape.

heating speeds - not only bringing up heating inconsistencies between the surface and interior of the slice but also issues of how the rate of movement changes the type of movement.

[Caesar]

Since nobody is going to state the obvious:

Hypertoast exists in a minkowski space-time manifold with a degenerate orthoganality to any local reference frame as easily evidenced by the decomposition of the Poincairé conjecture into Reimann metric space through the n-th progression of a Ricci flow. By simple extension (the proof is trivial and left to the reader), the entropic rate equivalency to tachyonic flow operates on this metric and determines a novel eigenspace as evidenced by the altered geodesic; ie heat causes the hypertoast to appear to bend in the local reference frame.

If your toast does not bend, it is not hypertoast. QED.

[-D-]

Since nobody is going to state the obvious:

Hypertoast exists in a minkowski space-time manifold with a degenerate orthoganality to any local reference frame as easily evidenced by the decomposition of the Poincairé conjecture into Reimann metric space through the n-th progression of a Ricci flow. By simple extension (the proof is trivial and left to the reader), the entropic rate equivalency to tachyonic flow operates on this metric and determines a novel eigenspace as evidenced by the altered geodesic; ie heat causes the hypertoast to appear to bend in the local reference frame.

If your toast does not bend, it is not hypertoast. QED.
I knew it. If toast does bend then it means toast has been tampered by The Devil™.

[Flickerdart]

Why do some toasted bread curve. And some dont?

Its been bugging me all morning. My SO had funnily extremely curved toasts, and i got wondering why that is.

It's all in the flick of the wrist. A skilled thrower can consistently curve or straight-throw any toast, from rye to English muffin.

[Ravens_cry]

Cooking your toast with dynamite is unlikely to produce anything edible, though.
"Well, when in doubt, C4.":smallbiggrin:
You actually COULD toast toast with C4. Light it on fire. and it just burns.

[Porthos]

If your toast does not bend, it is not hypertoast. QED.

It is not the toast that bends, it is only yourself.

[Ravens_cry]

It is not the toast that bends, it is only yourself.
There is no toast.

[-D-]

There is no toast.
We're all out :( ?

[Darth V]

I love this forum. :smallbiggrin:

The toast will be with you. Always.

[Swenner]

Hey. Toasty McToaster isnt defective. Take that back.

He is a loyal kitchen appliance and will never defect to the Other side (the Washing Room decadents)

Ha! That's right! You stick up for your toaster!

[Cikomyr]

Ha! That's right! You stick up for your toaster!

Its pretty shocking. Trust me.

[wkwkwkwk1]

It seems I arrived after the end of the party. :smallbiggrin:

Either way, I'd like to contribute with my not-insignificant empirical data on the subject. Okay, maybe not so much not-insignificant, but hey.

Here goes: I've noticed that a slice of uneven bread (that is, traditional-shaped bread, not that square-prism-with-rounded-edges nonsense :smalltongue:) tends to curve outwards on the side of the slice with the most exposed bread, and, conversely, curve inwards on the side with the least exposed bread.

That is: simplifying the transversal section of a bread slice into an isosceles trapezoid (with the smaller base pointing up and the largest base pointing down), it would then curve upwards.

Now, why have I noticed this? Because it makes a challenge out of spreading butter on the side with the largest bread surface, as the butter insists on sliding out of the bread :smalltongue: