If there are four cooking appliances every kitchen in America has, it's a stove, an oven, a microwave, and a toaster. The first three are very versatile: with a stove and an oven you can cook practically anything, and a microwave is extraordinarily useful as well. A toaster makes toast. That's it. So how did it become such a necessity that I never questioned my need for one (until this morning, anyway) despite the fact that I only use the thing once every few months? Was there some very successful marketing scheme? Was there a time when it was the "must-have gadget" and it just stuck around? Was the ability to toast bread a more important part of food prep once upon a time?
Toast was very popular in the 19th and early 20th century, not just as a simple breakfast food but as an item in fashionable restaurants like how avocado toast was so popular on Instagram two years ago or these $4 or more fancy toast in San Francisco (actually maybe the trend never died). For example there are broiled partrige on toast, grouse on toast (or any bird/game), caviar on toast, etc. Toasting bread prior to the invention of toaster requires holding the bread in a pair of tongs or special holder (example) and grill it over a fire. However since heating elements with electricity is simple to make toaster became one of the first electric home appliance. This is one of the earliest model to be sold (and they were quite expensive). Early advertisements of toasters suggest they were fashionable gifts as you can make toasts anywhere.
If I may followup: toaster ovens have been around for decades, can do much more than toast, are not much more expensive than toasers, and heat much faster than ovens. Why have toasters not been replaced by toaster ovens, but have stayed around to the present ... er, I mean, stayed around until 5 April 1996?
