Toast, it has to be Scottish Plain Loaf bread

Having been brought up and schooled  in Scotland had its pitfalls and also advantages. One of the best advantages had to be the bread, seen above is what looks like a very unprepossessing loaf of bread wrapped in waxed paper but it is the bread of gods when it has been toasted. The shape of the bread is long and thin with a heavy crust at either end, one flat, the bottom crust and one curved,the top. The slicing of the bread, done at the factory is weird as the slices are not uniform but alternately thick and thin. This led to fights when a new loaf was unopened at breakfast time. It was a rule that you could only open it at one end, the end you hoped that would have the thick crust and not the other end that would have the thinner, but if you opened the end with the thinner crust, god forbid that anyone found you re-sealing it and opening the other end. Stupid I know but with two older sisters you generally did what they told you.

But getting back to the toast. The loaf as I said is long and thin which isn' great for the toaster of course you can tear in two, but then you loose the uniqueness of the slice, so the best way to toast it is with an Aga. They provide a toasting cage that you can put the whole piece in,then using the hot plate with the cover down, you can toast it to your own perfection. Just writing this is making me long to go back to the Scotland of my youth to let me try it again. Spread with the great Scottish Pride butter and either marmalade marmite or honey it really is one of the most delicious tastes in the world, the already crisp crust getting crisper with the toasting. This I think is what makes it so special.