When my mom was growing up, her Aunt Doris would often make grilled sandwiches for all the kids (there were eight cousins total in that particular branch of the family) using a Toas-Tite. She would spread margarine on the outsides of the bread and tuck slices of white American cheese in between. The sandwiches would be cut to fit the mold (hers was in the shape of a shell) and laid on top of a flame on the old gas range. Some time ago, I was helping my cousin Angie (daughter of Aunt Doris) organize her tupperware cabinet, when we stumbled across that very same Toas-Tite mold.
The Toas-Tite I have is one that my mom picked up at an antique mall several years ago. It was in a booth where everything was 50% off and she was so excited to have found it and gotten it for a song. I have to admit that I've never used it, I enjoy it mostly as a physical representation of family memory. Corie's recent post about her childhood experiences with Toastie sandwiches and the picture of her own, beloved Toas-Tite has me thinking that I need to fire up the stove and make a sandwich with mine. I think I should start out with the tomato/basil/mozzarella combo she mentions.
I did a little searching and discovered that Toas-Tites trigger childhood memories for many more than just Corie and my mom. Stephen J. Lyons uses it as a way to write about the legacy his grandparents left him. Karen Haram wrote an article in the San Antonio Express-News that spurred lots of folks to write in with their Toas-Tite memories. And here's a series of pictures on exactly how to use this sandwich maker to turn out a tasty sandwich filled with leftovers.
photo by Marisa McClellan
9-01-2007 @5:17PM Jill said... When I was a child, my family would camp all summer. My mother bought a contraption similar to yours from the Sears catalog. They called it a "quickie pie" maker. My mom would line it with buttered bread, add cherry pie filling in the middle and hold it over the campfire for several minutes. My 2 brothers and I would fight over who got the first one...what a treat that was!
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9-01-2007 @9:21PM donna said... We call them pudgie pie makers and took them camping all the time. You don't have to just make desserts. You can make hot ham and cheese, tuna melts, pizza burgers and a multitude of others. The maker comes with a recipe book. It's fun to try new combinations.
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9-01-2007 @11:32PM Melissa said... The Toas-Tite looks like the grandparent of my Diablo, perhaps the cutest kitchen gadget I own. It makes tiny grilled cheeses! It has devil horns! I've only made savory things with it, now I'm going to have to try something sweet like the other commenters have mentioned.
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9-02-2007 @4:23PM debbi said... I was the sister who inherited our family's Toas-Tite. Though I never use it anymore, it evokes wonderful memories of growing up and grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm betting it will make a wicked whole grain bread with low fat fat cheese and sun dried tomato sandwich.
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9-02-2007 @10:06AM Andi said... Ohh, this post brought up so many old memories of using these :) I loved em as a kid
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9-02-2007 @10:40AM donna said... One yummy one is to spread peanut butter on the bread, rather than butter, put a large piece of chocolate next and then a regular size marshmallow. Kind of like a s'more but with peanut butter.
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9-02-2007 @1:20PM Chrysee said... We always took these camping while I was in girl scouts as a kid. Since we always made other food, we didn't really use them for sandwiches. We used crusty thick bread and filled them with canned cherry or apple pie filling. It sounds ridiculous, but it was a nice treat to have in the woods that was (maybe?) slightly better for us than constant S'mores.
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9-02-2007 @3:35PM k said... Great post, and I really liked the picture series We used this in our fireplace, as well as on the range. On TV nights (Wonderful World of Disney, the Waltons, etc) we'd spread out a big blanket on the living room floor, and make sandwiches or desserts in the fireplace. Bread and cheese for sandwiches, or, bread and apple pie filling for dessert. You can also layer pie crust (premade from the market) over these and fill with fruit, for tasty fireplace pies.
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9-03-2007 @6:16AM fiona said... We call them jaffle irons and always use them when camping but usually for savoury food such as baked beans or an evil tinned concoction that used to be called braised steak and onions! (very limited amount steak in that one
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9-03-2007 @11:25AM Ken said... http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=4903&itemType=PRODUCT&iMainCat=950&iSubCat=868&iProductID=4903 Lehman's still an assortment of pie irons.
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9-04-2007 @10:43AM jsmylie said... Wow. What is it about low-tech kitchen tools that I find so fascinating? I was born well after things like the Toas-Tite went extinct, but now I really want one in my kitchen, even though I already have a toaster, a gas range, and even a panini press.
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9-05-2007 @3:53PM alosha7777 said... thank you for this post, marisa - I so want one of these!! mmmm melted cheese.
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9-29-2007 @2:28PM alan bates said... I found one of these things in a pile of scrap that was cleand out of a home in Midway City in California, I almost took it to scrap but I stopped to try to figure out what it was. The only thing I know is what it is used for after reading what people posted about it, but I don't know the age or approximate value.
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