I was recently told Americans do not really distinguish between bread and toast?

26 comments

1. A critical component of toast is that it’s *toasted*.

   Untoasted bread is bread regardless of what specific kind of bread it is.

2. Bread is bread and toast is toasted bread

3. My lord what’s up with the weird questions from the Europeans today?

4. You were told wrong.

5. That “toast” is literally just bread. The *toasting* is what makes it toast. That particular bread might be intended specifically for toasting, but until you actually put it in a toaster it is just bread.

6. Toast is bread that has been toasted. If it hasn’t been toasted, it isn’t toast.

7. For us, toast is bread that has been toasted. It doesn’t matter what bread you start with. If you put it in a toaster it becomes toast. The reverse of that is that no bread is toast until it has been toasted. So, even bread designed to become toast is not toast until it has been toasted.

   On the point of your last sentence, Americans will happily warm up or toast any kind of bread, regardless of the style of bread. So there really isn’t a distinction to be made.

8. Yes, we don’t have a special kind of bread for toasting called “toast.” We toast any bread and call it toast.

9. It looks like you call bread that is not necessarily meant to be toasted “bread” and bread that is meant to be toasted “toast.”

   We call any bread that hasn’t been toasted “bread” and any bread that has been toasted “toast.” So a slice of your first or second pictures would be called “bread.” Put it in the toaster for a while and it would become “toast.”

   I would have no problem toasting bread like from your first picture. I don’t really like the bread/ toast from your second picture so I would be more likely to make what I call “toast” out of what you call “bread.”

   Edit: What you call “round toast” looks a lot like what we would call an “English muffin” which I believe is originally a variant on the crumpet but with slightly different ingredients causing a slightly different shape and consistency.

10. Toast is toasted bread. In other words, after baking, it’s toasted. Bread is baked, but it isn’t toasted.

11. Bread becomes toast when toasted. If it is not yet toasted, then it is not yet toast.

12. The definition of toast: sliced bread browned on both sides by exposure to radiant heat.

    You put bread into the toaster to become toast. Before you put it in it’s just bread. In either example if you heat it until brown it would be toast, or toasted bread. The square example looks more like typical sandwich bread, while the other could be a sourdough bread

    Edit: your example of Golden toast looks like a brand name, and not a label of what it actually is.

13. Bread that has been toasted is toast. If it has not been toasted, it is not toast.

14. Bread is what turns into toast. Wheat, rye, black, brown &c.

    Why do so many Europeans gatekeep bread, or at least persist in insisting that American bread isn’t “real” bread?

15. Not true.

16. This is a funny question to me since when I was in Taiwan, the loanword of toast, 土司 (tusi) referred to slices of bread. So there, slices of bread commonly used as toast would be referred to as toast.

    Everywhere I’ve been in the US, however, considers toast as oven-heated or toaster-heated bread.

17. You’re asking if we have English muffins and the like? We do.

18. Going by one of the linked pictures, if someone were to try to market a product like that it’d probably be called “bread *for* toast” or “toasting bread” or something. The product as shown would be complete nonsense to us and label change or no we’d probably be highly suspicious that the company felt the need to make a distinction.

19. The “round toast” we call “English muffins.”

    The”square toast” is just bread. The only thing that makes it different from the other bread is that it has a soft crust instead of a hard crust.

    Which makes it much better for sandwiches. I hate hard crust on sandwiches.

20. Toast is toasted bread and that’s all there is to it for us

21. This dude is going to get roasted.

22. All bread is bread until toasted. Then it’s toast.

    I would argue this is an English-speaking thing and not strictly an American thing. Check with your English friends.

23. Here, toast is just any bread that has been *toasted*. We don’t gatekeep which bread gets to be toasted.

24. Alright I’ll do you one better. When is bread toast?

    Hm, figure me that, European friendo. Is it at 20% toastiness? what about 21%? Is it toast on one second inside a toster? 1.5 seconds? what about 1.49 seconds? Or is it when you take it out?

25. I think I remember hearing this somewhere, actually, years ago. Such an odd distinction to make between toast and toasted bread.

26. What the heck did I just read?

    Look, it’s simple: toast is toasted bread.

    And you can toast any kind of bread you like; even bread that isn’t intended to be toasted can be sliced thin and put in a toaster and made toasty-brown.

    Ever take a slice of dark sweet rye bread and toast it, and put butter on it? That shit is fantastic, even if the dark sweet rye bread was never intended to be toasted. Heck, I’ll toast a baguette; heck, I love toasted bagels. I’d toast *cake* if I could figure out how.

    We live in a free country! Toast whatever the hell you want to toast!!!