You Probably Didn't Realize You Were Supposed To Be Pre-Heating This Kitchen Appliance

If you cook even a few times a week, you've likely learned how important it is to preheat certain appliances. Preheating your oven can mean the difference between a perfectly roasted chicken and a dried-out bird that lost its moisture during the warming process. It's also fairly well-known that skipping the preheat cycle is one of the biggest mistakes you can make with your air fryer. But, did you know that you can (and probably should) preheat your toaster?

Yes, your toaster — not the toaster oven with a tiny cavern for heating up a batch of bite-size tuna melts, but the ordinary version with two to four slots for toasting sliced bread. This may at first seem like a silly suggestion, especially since many modern toasters offer precision control over temperature toasting time. Plus, slot toasters' heating coils provide direct heat to your bread or bagel in a very small space, which is why they work so quickly.

However, if you've ever made several slices of toast back to back, you may notice that every slice after the first is just a little crisper and more uniformly toasted. This is likely due to the residual heat in the slot keeping the temperature stable for each subsequent piece. If you love a crisp piece of toast or an extra-crusty bagel, try preheating your toaster by pushing down the lever while the slot is still empty. This ensures the coils will be hot and ready when you load up your favorite carb to get nice and toasty.

Since toasters are so small and heat up so quickly, it's important to follow proper safety procedures if you decide to try preheating yours. Forcing the heating coils to heat too often or for too long with nothing in the slot can wear them out prematurely, which can make the appliance less effective at toasting (the opposite of what we want), or even cause sparking that could become dangerous. Keeping this in mind, it's best to preheat your toaster on the lowest possible time and temperature setting.

This should warm the coils enough that it shaves those valuable seconds from your toasting time, producing beautifully golden, sturdy slices perfect for making your favorite kind of cottage cheese breakfast toast. It's also worth noting that you may not have to preheat your toaster for everything you intend to toast, which should also help preserve the heating coils, ensuring they can retain heat when you need them most. Thin slices of toast, mini bagels, and other delicate carbs will benefit less from preheating, as too much heat all at once may dry them out.

In terms of safety precautions, preheating also becomes a whole lot safer if your toaster is properly cleaned and maintained. Emptying the crumb tray every few days and cleaning the whole toaster every few weeks removes potential fuel for toaster fires, and helps the coils work more efficiently by eradicating residue that may cause them to overheat.