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Minute Recipe: Melba Toast

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Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way
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I like my toast very thin and crunchy. If you put a very thin slice of bread in the toaster, however, it tends to burn and curl up. The solution is to use the technique Escoffier used when he created the ultrathin toast that he named Melba toast in tribute to the Australian opera singer Nellie Melba. —Jacques Pépin

Cut crunchy white bread into 1/2-inch slices and toast. You can toast the bread twice to get it really crunchy on the outside. When the bread is toasted, trim off the crust from around it. With the bread slices arranged flat on the table, use a sharp knife held with the blade parallel to the table to cut through the soft center of each slice, giving you 2 wafer-thin slices with one toasted side and one slightly softer side. Top the soft side with butter or another spread.

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