The following text comes from the Toas-Tite instruction booklet (transcribed from cover onward). The booklet is a two sided with four folds. Click to view the full size images below.
Toas-Tite
Reg. U.S. pat. Off. Patent Pending
FOR DRIP-PROOF SANDWICHES SEALED IN GOLDEN HOT TOAST
Shades of Dagwood! Now you can make a luscious, juicy, savory sandwich with never a drip on your fingers or the front of your Sunday suit.
TOAS-TITE DOES IT
In your Toas-Tite you have th newest cookery creation: a sandwich toaster that SEALS the filling inside hot golden toast!
USE TOAS-TITE ON ANY KIND OF FIRE
On your kitchen stove, over a gas or electric hot plate, outdoor grill, the livingroom fireplace or picnic bonfire, Toas-Tite quickly turns two ordinary slices of bread and your favorite sandwich filling into a hot, sealed toasted sandwich that is a new taste delight. These new sandwiches are so good they deserve a name of their own: TOAS-TITES.
HOW TO MAKE TOAS-TITES
Important: Before using your Toas-Tite Sandwich Maker for the first time, the aluminum grids should be “cured” by melting lard, fat or other oil over the inside surface of each grid. PREHEAT the Toas-TIte with moderate heat being careful not to permit the toast to remain in the fire while empty after it is thoroughly warmed. Extreme heat while empty may cause warpage of the toaster as would be the effect on any aluminum cooking utensil.
Open your Toas-Tite, and place a full-size slice of bread on it, to extend slightly over the edge, all around.
CENTER your filling on this slice, leaving a half-inch margin of uncovered bread inside the edge of the grill. This is necessary for a perfect seal. Cover with a second matching slice of bread.
Close the Toas-Tite with a quick snapping action and latch the handles. This operation also trims off the surplus bread.
Place the Toas-Tite on the fire to seal and toast sandwich. After half a minute, turn Toas-Tite over for another half-minute.
HOW LONG TO TOAST
You soon will be able to produce the exact results you desire, both outside and inside your Toas-Tites, depending on the heat of your fire and the iron itself.
If your Toas-Tite is already hot from having just completed a sandwich, one minute per side should seal and toast the sandwich. If the iron is extremely hot, better turn every 1/2 minute. A cold iron naturally takes longer.
When the filling is very cold from refrigeration, turn fire lower and toast longer so filling heats through. You can open the Toas-Tite during the process and see how the sandwich is doing, until you are familiar with the way Toas-Tite works on your stove.
A bit of butter or margarine spread on the outside of the bread adds to the toothsome taste of your Toast-Tites and helps them to slide easily off the grill after toasting.
SERVE TOAS-TITES FOR LUNCH, MIDNIGHT SNACKS, PICNICS AND PARTIES
Toas-Tites come off the grill so fast that with one iron you can keep a number of people happy with piping hot sandwiches.
Take Toas-Tite along when you picnic outdoors. Notice the long handles for comfortable use over an open fire.
It’s fun to make Toas-Tites for two on the coals in the livingroom fireplace. And when the crowd migrates to the kitchen – where some of the best parties occur – let everyone concoct his own Toas-Tite from whatever the icebox affords.
MAKES A LUSCIOUS SEALED-IN DRIP PROOF HOT TOASTED SANDWICH
QUICK RAREBIT TOAS-TITES
Any kind of yellow cheese may be used, but remember that “store” cheese will melt better if you cut it into small pieces. For a real gooey rarbit prefer one of the spready cheeses like Old English in jars. Add a dash of mustard, cayenne, paprika, mayonnaise, relish or catsup to suit your taste. Put the Toas-Tite on the fire and in a jiffy you have a Cheese Rarebit Toas-Tite that will melt in your mouth but won’t drip!
HOT DOGS WITH A FUTURE
Thin slices of frankfurter, spread with mustard, catsup or barbecue sauce, Toas-Tited on bread or sliced buns over a picnic fire! Use cooked sausages, bits of roast meat, diced or chopped ham, or any pre-cooked meat in the same way.
GLAMOUR FOR LEFTOVERS
Bits of cold chicken, meat loaf or roast, or a shredded left-over chop, moistened with a spoonful of cold gravy, catsup or relish, are transformed into hot, savory Chef’s Specials for next day’s lunch. If there’s not enough of one thing to go around, give each youngster a different kind of Toas-Tite! Leftover creamed fish, chicken a la king, or meaty stew make tempting Toas-Tites.
MAKE TOAS-TITES WITH IMAGINATION
It’s fun to think up new Toas-Tite combinations. Egg salad; cooked sausages; ham and cheese; baked beans seasoned with plenty of catsup or chili suace; Crab Newburg or Shrimp Creole; peanut butter and jelly; chopped ham and pickle; hard boiled eggs with bits of bacon and olives; deviled sardines; chili; creamed mushrooms; preserves; sliced tomato and bacon…almost anything that’s good is even better in a Toas-Tite!
Just remember that meat, fish and vegetables must be pre-cooked. Toas-Tite works too fast to cook raw meat properly.
EGG SURPRISE
Try pressing bottom piece of buttered bread or half a sliced bun well into the Toas-Tite mold, then breaking a raw egg into the depression. Add salt and pepper – maybe shredded ham or bacon. Cover; close Toas-Tite and put it on a slow fire, cooking slower or faster depending on how hard or soft you want your egg to be when the outside of the bread is toasted.
CHICKEN PIE
A chicken wing and a spoonful of cold gravy may not look very appealing in your icebox, but pick off the meat, make it into a Toas-Tite with the gravy, and you’ve made yourself a tasty lunch from practically nothing at all!
FRUIT TOAS-TITES
If you like sweet,s make a quick fruit tart with sliced canned peaches or pineapple, thick preserves, marmalade, or cherries or berries, well drained. Butter both sides of the bread lightly, and dust with sugar inside; sugar outside after baking. Fruit Toas-Tites are a find for a new quick dessert.
MAKE DISCOVERIES WITH YOUR TOAS-TITE
Vary your Toas-Tites with white bread, whole wheat, raisin or rye; use sliced donuts and buns. Try out new fillings and combinations. Toas-Tite will add to your reputation for serving delicious, unusual food!
Copies of Supplementary Recipe Folder available from Bar-B-Buns, Inc., To12, Ohio, or your nearest dealer.
BAR-B-BUNS, INC. CINCINNATI 12, OHIO
Savory Toas-Tite Recipes
Toas-Tite Recipes 
In the late 50’s while dating my wife, we used to go for a late nite snack at a drive thru food service that went by the name “Flying Saucer”, in Rochester, Mn. They had about 6 drive up speakers for placing orders and a small lot to park in while you had your snack. They servered flying saucers sandwiches made up of pre-cooked hamburger, with cooked onions if you wanted. They were served in a paper sleeve so you wouldn’t get oily from eating them. Once you had a bite there was an opening to squirt mustard or ketchup into. They were fast clean efficient and delicious. The flying saucers were cooked in stand up electric fryers the approx size and the same round shape. In about 1960 the owner bought a Kentucky Fried franchise, probably a good move on his part, and the flying saucers of my teen aged years were gone forever. About 1 1/2 years ago for our 50th anniversary I started looking for one of the stand up fryers to no avail, this year I stumbled onto the Toas Tite name and decided to buy something. I just recieved my 2 Diablo sandwich makers, purchased from Amazon, and they appear to be good quality. They are teflon coated cast aluminum with a double hinge. I am going to try them out this weekend. Thanks for the informative site.
I have an original Toas-Tite that was my mother’s. I remember most fondly buttered white bread, filled with Velveeta Cheese and cherry jam with whole cherries in it. Just recently, I re-discovered the Toas-Tite, and it’s going camping in a couple of weeks. Utter joy!
Congratulations on re-discovering such a fun camping tool! We have yet to take it camping with us, but we have tried a toas-tite over an open fire, and it was delicious! Hope you have a wonderful time with it, and feel free to tells us about your favorite recipes!
i have a toas-tite patient pending with boy scouts of america on it . does that make it worth more
i just saw an article in our local newspaper that the original Toas-tite is a collector’s item worth over $100. Suddenly I remembered I had one in my pantry hanging there for at least 40 years.
I intend on using it again and can’t wait to try it as I am a much better cook now than I was then.
We’re so glad you found your old Toas-Tite! I’m sure you’ll get a lot of use out of it since the originals are so well made. Unfortunately for who ever was selling that Toas-Tite they’re quite misinformed about the price of the originals. You can find an original Toas-Tite on eBay for around $20-$30 and you shouldn’t pay more than that since there is always a Toas-tite to be found online somewhere.
Some people online will try and sell the originals for up to, and over $130 but they’re way over pricing them and are just swindlers looking to gauge the uninformed. Not to go on a tirade or anything, haha.
Enjoy your new found treasure and let us know how it goes!
My dad was the controller of Bar-B-Buns in the early 1950’s after he became a CPA after graduation from the University of Cincinnati. My mother had one of the electric versions, and sold it in a garage sale after my dad died in 1976. I just found this site. If you look on the patent drawings, it notes the inventor Mitchell Hall. He was quite the inventor…also had the patent on the coin box for laundromat machines through his company Monarch Machine in Covington, Ky. I would love to find one of the old machines…I guess I will have to keep looking on Ebay.
Greg! I’m so sorry for the late reply. That is so neat your dad was the Bar-B-Buns controller! We recently received an email from a woman whose father worked there as well. If you’re ever interested in sharing more about your family Toas-Tite history, please don’t hesitate to email us at boyandgirl@toastiterecipes.com.
I purchased two of your Toas-tite sandwich makers and had one of them break apart after the first use. Your company was nice enough to send a replacement for that which, last night, broke apart the first time I tried to open it out of the box. You really should include in your advertising that it is unrealistic to expect the $30 sandwich makers you sell to be of good enough quality to be used to make actual sandwiches. I can’t tell you how disappointed I am that two of three sandwich makers I got are trash.
Hi Eric!
We don’t actually sell any Toas-Tite products (other than some goofy aprons we have up on Zazzle) and we’re not affiliated with toastite.biz which is where I’m guessing you purchased your sandwich makers. I’m really sorry you had that experience.
I’d recommend checking out eBay for original Toas-Tite units. We have probably a good 20 of them and we’ve never had any issues even though those Toas-Tites were made in the ’40s! You could also check out our page on How To Buy A Toas-Tite which has some information about buying on eBay as well as a wide variety of currently-produced sandwich makers. We’re especially big fans of the C. Palmer sandwich makers since they’re made in the US, have both round and square sandwich makers, and offer both cast aluminum and cast iron.
If you do decide to invest in another type of sandwich maker, please let us know what you think and how it goes. Thanks for writing!
I just now pulled my vintage Toas-Tite off back of the shelf…Haven’t used it for years and no longer have the instructions. Tried to remember how to use it and made a mess with the first 2, but the third try was magic! Thanks for posting the instructions, I will use it more often!
We’re so happy to hear that you’ve jumped back into the world of toas-tites!
I have my mother’s original Toas-Tite and pull it out every now and then. I think it will be coming out more often now! I coated the Toas-Tite very lightly with coconut oil, used Ezekial bread and filled with a little almond butter and banana!! Oooh! Delish! Not to mention FUN! Memories from my 50’s childhood!
My husband was given one from his mother she actually didn’t remember where it came from but I was wondering what the original ones were made of ? The one we have is alumni m with black handles
Hi Carole! The original ones were made in Cincinnati, Ohio of cast aluminum. Sounds like you probably have one of the originals!
I made four yesterday and I can’t get it clean from the burnt bread.
Help!
I’ve soaked it for one day and it’s still raunchy.
Hey C! Oh no! Did you soak it in just water or also in soap? Have you tried steel wool?
Can you make cornbread in the toas-tite?