The Exact Number Of Seconds It Takes To Perfectly Toast A Piece Of Bread

You may not need a science degree to appreciate food, but it certainly helps. After all, science can help us make the perfect sandwiches by telling us what the meltiest cheeses are and how to make absolutely perfect toast — down to the number of seconds it takes to cook. According to a 2011 study by food researcher Dr. Dom Lane, you need to heat bread for 216 seconds to make the perfect piece of toast. This, he said, creates the most-preferred color and ideal texture on the bread. These "optimal" characteristics were based on a survey of 1,913 people, and the method to achieve them was determined after toasting 2,000 individual slices of bread — which is probably the optimal amount of obsession it takes to figure out scientifically perfect toast.

This wasn't the only highly specific number Lane recommended. He also mentioned that the slice of bread needs to be 14 millimeters thick, taken fresh from the fridge at a temperature of 37.4 degrees Fahrenheit, toasted at a temperature of 309.2 degrees Fahrenheit, and then buttered immediately after it pops out of the toaster at a ratio of 0.44 grams per square inch of toast. If you're putting all that work into making a perfect slice, you may as well get even more extra and use a whipped garlic confit spread instead of regular butter. At the very least, you could use it to settle the debate on whether BLTs are better toasted or untoasted.

While many sources on "the perfect toast" cite Dr. Dom Lane's study, Chowhound's own research found that the study itself is never directly referenced by them. Most articles refer to a Daily Mail story from 2011 that doesn't include any information on the study outside the fact it was conducted by Lane and commissioned by U.K. breadmaker Vogel's. An article published later that year in Chemical & Engineering News mentioned Lane posting about the study on Love Toast Community, a now-defunct Facebook group that was also created by Vogel's.

It's possible this started out as a PR stunt by the bread brand. Lane's name doesn't seem to appear in studies about toast outside of his Vogel's work, which includes a 2011 video on "The Science of Toast" and a video on tea-and-toast pairings. The latter of these two was a campaign by U.K. PR firm Bray Leino, for whom Lane was also working on his toast study. Without a verifiable primary academic source to support the original Daily Mail story, it's probably worth taking Lane's extremely specific findings with a grain of salt.

Regardless of whether or not the study is scientifically legitimate, it seems the 216-second timing works. In 2013, three students at Johns Hopkins University came across Lane's findings and decided to try it out themselves. They rigged an ordinary toaster oven to heat at a constant 309.2 degrees Fahrenheit and toasted slices of bread for exactly 216 seconds. The end result was an absolutely perfect slice of toast, every time.