Pie iron

An opened Bifinett sandwich toaster

The same toaster when closed

A pie iron, pudgy pie iron, sandwich toaster or jaffle iron, is a cooking appliance that consists of two hinged concave, round or square, metal plates on long handles. The appliance is used to heat, toast and seal a sandwich of two slices of bread and a filling.

Name

The most common type in most countries are electrically heated counter-top models, and names vary from place to place: in the United Kingdom, the pie iron is referred to as a "sandwich maker"; in South Africa and Australia it is called a "jaffle maker" (Sometimes also referred to as a snackwich maker in South Africa), whilst the British and New Zealanders refer to them as a "toasties".

Origins

In the United States, the Tostwich is possibly the earliest toasted sandwich maker, dating back to before 1920. However, it was not patented until 3 March 1925 (applied for on 26 May 1924). It was invented by Charles Champion, whose other inventions include a corn-popping machine for the mass-production of popcorn.^[1]

Pie irons were popular with campers in the 60's and 70's in the US. Called "tonka toasters," recipes called for cutting the crusts from white bread and placing the long-handled iron in the coals of a camp fire for the time estimated to form a golden-brown crust. Canned pie filling was the most popular filling, though other combinations of meat/egg and vegetable filling recipes were circulated as ideas for camp food.

Operation

Toasted sandwiches made from a pie iron

Modern versions of the pie-iron are commonly more domestic, if not necessarily more refined, with subdivisions allowing pairs of bread slices to be clamped together around fillings to form pockets or stuffed sandwiches. A combination of heat and pressure seals the bread at the outer edges.

Campfire versions are still made of cast iron and can be cooked over coals, open flames, or over a stove but lightweight aluminium stove-top versions are made, generally being coated with a non-stick surface both as a cleaning aid and to allay fears regarding aluminium in the diet.

Rights acquired by John O'Brien for Australian cookware company Breville in the 1970s^[2] mean the name Breville is sometimes used eponymously to describe both the device and a toasted, sealed sandwich.^[3] Regardless of brand counter-top sandwich toasters are notorious for being little-used. A British survey in 2005 suggested that 45% of British adults own but do not use sandwich toasters.^[4]

An alternative counter-top preparation method—one more common in the US—employs a toaster oven where the sandwich (toastie) is arranged open face and then toasted (grilled), which not only toasts the bread but warms the meat and melts the cheese that is the traditional content of the classic Dutch toasted sandwich. While most informal eateries in Europe offer some form of toasted sandwich very few use clamshell-makers, preferring the grill or toaster-oven methods already mentioned, however American restaurants with a high customer turnover sometimes invest in large conveyor belt toaster ovens, such as can be found at Quizno's, Subway and Boston Market.

See also

References