When the weather has been as miserable as it has these past few weeks, we often find ourselves reaching for hearty comfort foods. And what better than a toastie to warm yourself up?
You can have it as simple as just cheese, or throw in onions, ham or even tuna into the mix – and if you’re anything like me, that turns into a fixation for at least a week.
There’s just one problem with a toastie, though. It’s not a big deal but, well, in the words of Paul Hollywood, they do sometimes have a “soggy bottom”. It doesn’t entirely put me off but when I’ve whipped up a toastie, I think of myself as Jeremy Allen White’s character in The Bear. I have pizzaz, I have finesse, I have... a slightly soggy toastie.
Thankfully, Sonny Hurrell, professional chef and TikTok creator at @thatdudecancook, has the answer to my soggy toastie woes and it only involves, uh, two forks.
How to stop toasties going soggy
According to Hurrell, when we put our toasties directly onto a plate, steam tries to escape but it can’t, resulting in a wet plate which then leads to the dreaded soggy bottom.
As for the fix? All you’ll need is two forks. Place them down, evenly spaced on your plate, facing opposite directions, or, even simpler, if you have chopsticks, place those down.
Then, place your toastie on top of them which will lead to an airflow on the bottom which will stop it getting soggy and result in the desired crunch that we all love from a good toastie.
As Hurrell says, “keep it crunchy my friends”.
Yum.