How to buy Toaster and Sandwich Maker?

Overview

Who doesn’t love sandwiches and some piping hot toast with some tea in the mornings? Many families invest in toasters and sandwich makers to hasten the process while making it fuss-free.

To help you buy the perfect toaster and sandwich maker for your family, we bring you some guidelines.

How do they work?

Toasters and Sandwich makers, both, are equipped with metal coils in them that produce infrared radiation on heating, to toast a slice of bread. The radiation then dries the surface of the bread and burns till adequately brown, which results in a toast. These kitchen mates come with different heat settings that allow you to customize the browning of bread according to your liking.

Types of Toasters

1. Pop-up Toasters – In pop-up toasters, the bread is inserted vertically in the slots and is surrounded by coils on both sides. The tray is installed with a spring that pops up when the browning cycle ends or when roasted. Pop-up toasters are available with innovative designs and styles, given that their prominent place is on countertops.
2. Toaster Ovens – Toaster ovens are of two types: countertop models that occupy counter space but with good capacity, and models that are installed underneath cabinets. They can reheat, toast, grill, barbeque, and most importantly, bake food items. These toasters have a heating element on the ceiling and sides of the oven. This heating element uses electric energy to get heated and creates high temperatures. You can always open the grill to see how much browning is done, without interrupting the cycle. If speed is what you are looking for, then consider a toaster oven that uses infrared heating, it increases the speed of toasting.

Choose according to your need:

Pop-up toaster and Toaster oven, both brown the bread. If that’s all you are looking for, then we suggest that you invest in pop-up toasters. Most toaster ovens are suitable for melting cheese on a sandwich, baking, and roasting. They cannot toast bread as well as toasters do. They will leave brown stripes on one side and that too takes more time than a regular toaster on a medium setting.

Other Related Buying Guides

10 Best Sandwich Maker Brands in India

10 Best Pop-up Toaster Brands in India

Types of Sandwich Makers

1. Panini Press – A Panini Press sandwich maker enables you to make a variety of scrumptious sandwiches. The Panini Press has functionalities like a grill but it can be substituted for a toaster and griddle too. It has hot plates on top and bottom, which when closed cook the food. It helps you prepare your favorite burger patty, kebabs, pancakes, etc.
2. Four-triangle Sandwich Maker – The Four-triangle sandwich maker is the most common appliance found in many households. It generally consists of four square plates that are in triangular shape from the interior. It has the same features on the close-down lid or handle, this provides excellent grilled cheese sandwiches and other such variants.

Features of a Toaster

1. Size – Toasters are mostly small and compact, and can be easily stored in your kitchen. A 2 or 4-slicer are the most widely found toaster sizes. If you have a 4-member family, then look for pop-up toaster two, three, four, and six-size versions.

TIP*– While using the toaster, see that there is nothing above it that causes accumulation of heat produced, so make sure that your toaster is placed where there are no cupboards or curtains.

2. Wattage – The higher the wattage, the faster it toasts. If a toaster has low wattage, then it will toast slowly but also make the bread chewy rather than crisp outside and fluffy on the insides. However, toasting mostly depends on what type of bread you need to toast, as different variants have different speeds and even the outcome is different.
3. Browning Control – The heating elements fitted inside the toaster heat and brown the bread. These elements are covered by wire that heats up to give a toast. Before buying, have a look inside the slots and check the elements – if more spaced and less wrapped, then chances of more uneven browning. Fewer gaps between the wires will produce more hotspots and result in proper browning.
4. Energy Efficiency – Look for a toaster that helps you choose how many slots to heat up while toasting only one slice of bread. It will make toasting even.
5. Defrost – Most of us prefer storing our bread in refrigerators and this feature is ideal for that condition. With this option, the toaster warms the bread and toasts in one cycle.
6. Reheat – Before you get to your bread and it cools down, this reheat function will warm the toast without making it chewy or burning the bread.
7. Peep & Pop – This additional feature enables you to lift the slot to check without interfering with the browning
8. Easy Cleaning – To stop the build-up of crumbs, see that the crumbs tray should be easy to remove and clean. Stray crumbs can be a safety hazard.
9. Toaster Body – During toasting, some devices tend to heat up due to coils. Look for a toaster made up of material that remains. Some of them have metal rims around the slots.