Toas-Tite Recipes

This tip is brought to you by OCBD, who commented on our Reuben Toas-Tite post.

In several of our posts and on our Toas-Tite Making Basics page, we’ve mentioned turning one slice of bread for your sandwich horizontally and placing the other on top vertically (with your filling in the middle of course).  The reason is this: the vast majority of store bought sliced bread is not big enough to cover the entire Toas-Tite!

Without a good seal (meaning a sandwich closed all the way around), you can end up with a leaky Toas-Tite as the filling heats up and begins to expand.

Turning your slices of bread in different directions is a quick work around for this.

But!  OCBD wrote in with a brilliant suggestion: use a rolling pin to flatten and stretch out your bread.  Rolling out your slices of bread with a rolling pin and quite a bit of pressure can get you just a little bit more width out of your bread to more effectively cover your Toas-Tite sandwich maker.  And a nice bonus is that you get a little more room for filling too!

Check out the difference a rolling pin and some brute strength makes:

Thanks, OCBD!

Well, buying a Toas-Tite isn’t really a science.  You just have to know where to look.

Boy and I have had a lot of luck on eBay.  We’ve added 11 Toas-Tites purchased on eBay to our collection and Boy’s aunt found one for us at a garage sale.  There have been a few deluxe versions (Toas-Tites with a slightly longer handle with pointed wood ends and a fancier hook), a branded Boy Scout version, and even one in an original box!

We keep meaning to post a little bit about each one (so we don’t forget where they all came from) and the price we paid but on average, we’ve gotten them for $20-$65 (although the $65 was for the Toas-Tite in the original box with the original instruction booklet in almost mint condition).

In any case, for your reading and Toas-Tite-buying pleasure…we’ve added a whole page on How To Buy A Toas-Tite.

Enjoy!

By Girl

So of course…advertisements and literature and a part of history.  And of course, Toas-Tite advertisements and literature are a part of Toas-Tite history!  We were lucky enough to get our very first ToasTiteRecipes.com comment from Larry Morris.  He came across an ad a while back and emailed us a picture.  Without further ado….here is a fantastic vintage Toas-Tite ad:

The text is a little on the small side but Boy and I did our best trying to decipher it.  Here’s what we think it (more or less) says:

Toas-Tite Pudgy Pies – Toast in a jiffy

Another thing you’ll like about pudgy pies is that they’re so easy to make, and there are no pots, pans and dishes to clean up afterwards. Make them anywhere, over any kind of fire. Dad can show off his skill on his out door fireplace. The youngsters will go for pudgies made over the picnic fire.

For the real cook of the family, pudgie pies are first aid in stretching the food budget. They make appetizing use of leftovers that might otherwise be wasted. A spoonful of cold stew, or a dab of creamed chicken or fish is transformed into savory “chef’s specials” for the children’s lunch. If there isn’t enough of one kind to go around, serve everyone a different pudgy pie surprise!

Directions

• Open your Toas Tite and cover one side with a slice of bread, well exposed and slightly over the edge, all around.
• [something something] with a bit of the surplus edge, so the filling won’t leak through and [something something]
• [another something something]
• Toast each side about half a minute over the fire.  Toasting time depends on how….

The directions are where things get a little fuzzy.  Can anyone else make out what they say?  They definitely don’t say “something something.”

by Boy and Girl

Today, if you google “Toas Tite” (or toastite, or toas-tite), you’ll get a random smattering of blog posts reminiscing about the grilled cheese flying saucer of yesteryear.  It becomes pretty clear all at once that the Toas-Tite is no longer being produced.  But where did it come from?  Who made them?

Researching something made in the 1940s or 1950s has its challenges.  But with a little digging, we found out that the Toas-Tite was produced by a company called Bar-B-Buns based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Now, there are some Toas-Tites you’ll find that say on the front “Patent Pending.”  Luckily, there are others that were made after the patent was granted.  And luckily…Boy and I have one of those (actually, we have a few others that were made pre-patent as well).  On the front of our black handled Toas-Tite, it says “Reg. U.S.  Pat. Off.  Pat. No. 2463439.”

Patent 2463439 for a “Sandwich Grill” was filed on October 12, 1945 and granted on March 1, 1949.  The inventor was John E. Strietelmeier of Cincinnati, Ohio (deceased, according to the patent) – his administrator, Lucille Strietelmeier was executing his estate.

It starts out like this:

“The present invention relates to improvements in sandwich toasting grills and is particularly directed to a hinged, sectional unit for making a toasted sandwich under heat and pressure from two pieces of a baked dough product and a filling material therebetween.  An object of the invention is to provide in a unit for toasting and interiorly heating a filled sandwich made from two baked dough pieces a means for locating said filling in the center of the sandwich and for joining and sealing the marginal edges of the pieces by heat and presusre to preclude the escape of the filling from the finished product.”

Now the curious part.  This patent has been referenced by 13 other patents, ranging from a knock-off Toas-Tite pan patented in the 1990s to a dumpling or ravioli maker.  One of these patents, No. 2582692, is for another sandwich grill invented by Lawrence J. Funke, of Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Bar-B-Buns, Inc., also of Cincinnati, Ohio.  This second patent was filed October 23rd, 1950 and granted January 15th, 1952.  Interestingly enough, Funke’s sandwich grill was designed to improve upon sandwich grills of the past (presumably Strietelmeier’s).  His patent says:

“The present invention is directed to improvements in grills of the type described and particularly to certain structural improvements which increase greatly the efficiency of their operation….A rather annoying characteristic of prior grills of this general type is that the hinge structures employed were such that when the mold plates closed upon two slices of bread, portions of the crust edge were caught between the two parts of the hinge and unless removed by a knife or other instrument, burned during the toasting of the sandwich.”

Funke had a point there.  The desgin of the Toas-Tite does lock in a small piece of bread near the hinge area.

Another interesting thing was that on this same patent, Funke had illustrations and descriptions of a Toas-Tite like device which subdivided the sandwich into four pieces.  And according to Toaster.org, it was indeed produced.  Funke said, “In a modified form of the improved grill, the mold plates are divided into sectors.  An important feature of this modification is that the toasted sandwich may be broken apart very easily into small sections which are themselves sealed marginally in the manner of sandwiches made in the preferred embodiment of the invention.”

So while the Toas-Tite (in its original form, rather than Funke’s sectioned version) was indeed invented by John E. Strietelmeier, it was produced by Bar-B-Buns with his original patent.  So what was the relationship between Strietelmeier and Bar-B-Buns?

A little more digging surfaced two more patents filed by one John E. Strietelmeier and Robert G. Brown.  But these two were filed in 1919 for inventions related to phonograph repeaters; one was filed in Elyria, Ohio and the other was in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A tad more digging, and we found yet another two patents, filed in 1937 and 1938 and granted in 1939.  These two, patent numbers 2168005 and 2168006, are for bun pans.  And at the top of the patents, it says, “John E. Strietelmeier, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to Bar-B-Buns, Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio.”

And now all of this is to say…John E. Strietelmeier perhaps began his career as an inventor with phonograph repeaters.  Later in his life (unless that first one was a different John E. Strietelmeier), he moved on to Bar-B-Buns where he invented two bun pans.  Then, sometime in the 1940s, he invented the Toas-Tite sandwich grill.  Unfortunately, it seems he passed away sometime between when his bun pans were patented in 1939 and when the Toas-Tite was patented in 1949.  But…his legacy is the Toas-Tite.  And for that, we are very, very grateful.

So on that note, happy 60th (patent) anniversary, Toas-Tite!

by Girl

So we’re off and running!!! We’ll be updating this section with new recipes and new recipe ideas as they come to us. And feel free to send us your Toas-Tite recipes as we’d love to have guest recipes!!!

Here are recipes to come…some we’ve tried, some are yet untested, but we’ll write about them all.

• Apple pie
• BLT
• Broccoli and cheese
• Cheese burger (with the optional bacon)
• Corned beef and hash
• Egg and cheese (again, optional bacon)
• Grilled cheese
• Ham and cheese (with optional croissant crust)
• Huevos Rancheros
• Macaroni and cheese
• Mozzarella basil tomato
• Nutella and strawberries
• Pumpkin Pie
• Peach Cobbler
• Reuben
• Tuna melt

We’ll be experimenting with different cheeses, breads, and of course, lots of other stuff.

by Boy and Girl