Should toast be eaten butter-side up, or down?

[Qwerty]

On one hand, eating toast buttered-side-up is customary and reduces the risk of butter falling off, but eating it buttered-side-down helps the flavor of the toast.

[Fringe Pioneer]

Er, are you indeed serious about this, because this is the Serious Debate board, not just the Debate board...

[Qwerty]

Indeed I am. Naturally the reference is to a satire, but it is still a good way to debate what it is really about without discussing it directly.

[ganondorfchampin]

This is really to controversial to discuss. A flame war might brake out.

[Qwerty]

Or a weapon race resulting in the creation of a very small red dot.

[Draxorion]

Hm... I think that it should be eaten with the butter on the top side, for it is likely that parts of the butter may fall to the floor/ground/whatever you're standing on/etc. and make the floor "buttery". Also, if you dropped the bread on accident, or purposefully for a test, the buttered bottom would become even dirtier. This is not the case if you dropped it with the buttered side up. Hm. Others may have their opinions. This is why Dr.Seuss wrote a book about something like it, if I'm not mistaken. Anyhow, I don't get what you two are talking about.

[Qwerty]

Dr. Seuss's book was written in the cold war. It's about mutual assured destruction.

[Rock]

I believe it should be eaten butter side up. I mean really, the risks outweigh the supposedly better flavor. If you were to eat it butter side down, it would get all over your hands, getting them all greasy. The butter also has a large chance of falling off and getting all over everything, leaving you with butter-less toast and a giant mess. Also, as above stated by Dracario, if that toast falls, all the dirt will stick to it, and butter'll get all over the floor.

[Qwerty]

Ah, but that deemed on how you Goldie. What if you hold it. From the sides?

[sandmaster]

Goddamn it guys, you tape the butter side down side of the toast to a cat's back and drop it in a frictionless vacuum.

[~Memzak~]

It makes so much sense now!

No but seriously. I say butter side up. It all ends up in your mouth anyways, and it tastes just as good. (without the risk of falling off)

And if you drop it, it still tastes good. and the dirt doesn't stick to it.

[Elmach]

Oct 28, 2010 5:24:12 GMT sandmaster said:

Goddamn it guys, you tape the butter side down side of the toast to a cat's back and drop it in a frictionless vacuum.

Uncyclopedia reference?

Anyways, does it even matter?

Properly buttered toast won't fall off.

Eating it butter-up will cause much of it to stick to the roof of your mouth, making you have to waste time to remove it and get the buttery taste.

[Qwerty]

No, XKCD reference, I think.

If you drop the toast somewhere where there is dirt, you shouldn't eat it regardless of which side touched the ground. Besides, how you are holding it doesn't matter: If flips randomly in midair.

[sandmaster]

This is a reference of something Older than the Internet, from what I know.

[Qwerty]

We meant that one phrase, not the concept itself. But yes, I think the Butter Battle was published before the internet was made. I didn't check that last one, so I might be wrong.

[ganondorfchampin]

I have never had my butter fall off when butter side down.

[~Memzak~]

Today I did an experiment. I had two pieces of toast with butter.

I ate one with side up.
I ate one with side down.

There is a slight taste difference, but it is not big.
The buttered side down butter gets all over your lower lip.

Those were the results from my test AKA part of my breakfast.

[Qwerty]

Hmm, tests. We are making progress. Was the butter melted on the toast?

[disabled]

I think there is probably a placebo effect in place here. Because you know you eat it upside down and you think it maybe perhaps should taste better, your brain makes it actually taste better.
You have to blindfold yourself and let another one feed you the toast both ways without you knowing which way it was. You do that say for at least 20 bites and always judge how it tasted.
Also you have to tape all that and how the toast looked before the experiment so you can draw proper conclusions from it. And because you can't analyze all that data on your own you have to upload the videos so we can help you analyze it.

[Qwerty]

Plus we would need to consider different toast-buttering methods.

[Elmach]

Oct 29, 2010 4:58:16 GMT Qwerty said:

No, XKCD reference, I think.

Uncyclopedia reference.
Uncyclopedia Cat Toast Device.

[Rock]

I did the same thing as Memzak, and yes, the butter was melted. As above stated, there was a slight taste difference but, of course, it fell face down and got dirt all over my butter. So I'll stick with my above statement, butter side up.

[Fringe Pioneer]

So, you would need to have a test for every combination of each butter application (a), each face of a slice of bread (f), possibly different types of butter (b), and however many trials you want to do to minimize random error ( t).

That would mean afbt individual tests, where t^-1 of them are unique and (t - 1)t^-1 of them are second, third, etc. repetitions to identify and reduce error.

Assuming you can apply butter by melting it on, placing a cold slab of it on, and spreading it on (a = 3), assuming you can either put it on the obverse or the reverse of the slice of bread (f = 2), assuming you can use three different brands of butter (b = 3), and assuming three trials (t = 3), you would have to complete 3 * 2 * 3 * 3 = 54 tests per tester (who will each have individual opinions about how to rate each combination of butter application, side of bread, and butter brand).

For those of you with a large appetite and enough time, I say good luck...

[sandmaster]

It's not Uncyclopedia. It was actually a subset of Murphy's law from what I recall in the early days of my exploration of the net [citation needed]

[Rock]

There it is. And wouldn't the type of butter used also have an effect?

[Fringe Pioneer]

Yes, but in that case, you would also have to take into account that some application methods would be impossible for the butter type, and ergo can't just multiply by a. You would multiply by type, and depending on the type, either multiply by a or multiply by 1.

[~Memzak~]

I have only one butter type.

Hehe I'll do 6 tests. (each on half a side of toast) when I get home. One with melted butter on, one with a cold slab and one spread on. I'll then do it on both the flip and reverse side.

I'll then repeat the whole test later in the day. So I'll eat a total of 6 buttered toasts. (Half a toast for each test)

Of course you could then argue that eating only half a toast will make a difference to eating the whole thing.

[Qwerty]

Well, a few bites will likely be enough to determine results, unless you feel it will interfere with the experiment.

[~Memzak~]

I'll try and further divide each piece of toast into 4 pieces.

Although I still only have one type of butter. XD

[Elmach]

Result

(# with good taste / total)

Eaten...
Butter-side up (bsu): (1/1)
Butter-side down (bsd): (1/1)
Half of it bsu, other half, bsd: (0/1)

Conclustion: Need to eat more buttered toast.