Toaster oven

A toaster, or a toast maker, is an electric small appliance designed to brown sliced bread by exposing it to radiant heat, thus converting it into toast. Toasters can toast multiple types of sliced bread products. Invented in Scotland in 1893, it was developed over the years, with the introduction of an automatic mechanism to stop the toasting and pop the slices up.

The most common household toasting appliances are the pop-up toaster and the toaster oven. Bread slices are inserted into slots in the top of a pop-up toaster, which make toast from bread in one to three minutes by using electric heating elements. Toasters have a control to adjust how much the appliance toasts the bread. Toaster ovens have a hinged door in the front that opens to allow food items to be placed on a rack, which has heat elements above and below the grilling area. Toaster ovens function the same as a small-scale conventional oven. Toaster ovens typically have settings to toast bread and a temperature control for use of the appliance as an oven.

Modern toasters are typically one of three varieties: pop-up toasters, toaster ovens, and conveyor belt toasters. For home use, consumers typically choose a toaster type based on their intended use. Pop-up toasters are better than toaster ovens for making evenly toasted toast, but toaster ovens can bake and broil while pop-up toasters cannot.

Conveyor belt toasters are mostly used in restaurants or other industrial catering environments where toast needs to be made quickly and in larger quantities.

Toasters are designed to look in place in any kitchen. Designers presented more aesthetic variations to pop-up toasters than other toasters. Consumers may choose a toaster by its appearance.

Features which distinguish various types of toasters include the following:

In pop-up or automatic toasters, bread slices are inserted vertically into the slots (generally only large enough to admit a single slice of bread each) on the top of the toaster. A lever on the side of the toaster is pressed, activating the toaster. When an internal device determines that the toasting cycle is complete, the toaster turns off and the toast pops up out of the slots. The heating elements of a pop-up toaster are usually oriented vertically, parallel to the bread slice – although there are some variations. In earlier days, the completion of the toasting operation was determined by a mechanical clockwork timer; the user could adjust the running time of the timer to determine the degree of "doneness" of the toast, but the first cycle produced less toasted toast than subsequent cycles because the toaster was not yet warmed up. Toasters made since the 1930s frequently use a thermal sensor, such as a bimetallic strip, located close to the toast. This allows the first cycle to run longer than subsequent cycles. The thermal device is also slightly responsive to the actual temperature of the toast itself. Like the timer, it can be adjusted by the user to determine the "doneness" of the toast.

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Wikipedia