Toast is sliced bread which has been browned by exposure to dry heat ("toasted"). This browning reaction is a form of the Maillard reaction. Toasting warms the bread, making it more pleasant to eat for some, and makes it crisp such that it holds toppings more securely.

Toasting is also a common method of making stale bread palatable. Toast is often served with butter, cheese, marmalade, or any number of other toppings, thereby making an open-faced sandwich. Toast is a typical breakfast food, and may be bought as is in supermarkets, or made at the home from regular bread.

The usual method of browning bread is by the use of a toaster, a small appliance made for that purpose, first used in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. For a modern toaster, sliced bread is placed into the narrow slots on the top of the device and the desired toast setting is selected (some toasters have more elaborate settings than others). Then, the lever on the side of the toaster is pushed down, simultaneously turning on the heating elements.

A more modern method of toasting is the use of a toaster oven. This device can be used both as a conventional oven and for toasting. It is usually a scaled down version of a conventional oven.

The use of a toaster oven is more similar to that of a conventional oven: settings such as temperature and cooking time are set with knobs or buttons on the toaster oven. The bread is then placed on the oven rack to cook. Unlike the traditional toaster, the toast does not pop out the top when it is ready.

Instead, the toast is simply removed from the oven by hand using an oven mitt or potholder. Some prefer the toaster oven because it takes up little counter space, toasts the bread more evenly, and can be used to bake small food items without having to use the conventional oven, but it is still debated[who?] whether it gives toast the "crunch" that a traditional toaster does.

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