Into the middle of a large steamer with a close-fitting lid set a cup or bowl inverted and around it arrange slices of stale bread you wish to steam. Do not allow them to touch the side of the steamer or they will become water-soaked. Fit the steam er tightly into the mouth of a kettle of boiling water. The bread will be ready in a few minutes. In taking it out, turn the lid over instantly to prevent water dripping on the bread. Butter each slice and arrange on a hot plate with a napkin over them. Stale biscuit or rolls may be steamed in the same fashion, or sprinkled with cold water and set for a few minutes into a hot oven.
Toasted Sandwiches.
Often after a picnic or entertain ment a housewife has a number of bread-and-butter sandwiches left, too stale to serve. They may form the basis of a bread pudding or they make an attractive dish for break fast, luncheon, or supper in the shape of toasted sandwiches. Do not take them apart, lay them between the wires of a toaster, and hold over a clear, red fire. The butter will melt and the inside be left soft, warm, and buttered, with the outside a crisp, golden brown.
Toast.
Trim the crust from stale slices you wish to toast and move it care fully over a clear, red fire for two minutes. Then turn it over and let all the moisture be drawn out of the bread. Butter and serve immediately. Toast may be utilized, especially for breakfast, in all sorts of ways. Plain toast is a favorite in most households; then there are milk toast, cream toast, dropped eggs on toast, water toast, and the excellent dish of bread soaked in egg and milk which has all sorts of names, French, Spanish, Ger man, and Scotch toast, but more properly egged toast. At the lunch eon and dinner table toast appears in all forms—under chicken and vvith such vegetables as asparagus and spinach; under minced meats, fri cassees, and creamed mixtures, or in the delicate canapc.
Spider Browned Toast.
Take several slices of stale bread cut rather thick, cut off the crust and butter them on both sides. Lay them in a dry, hot spider over a rather slow fire and &wer with a tight lid. When one side has browned delicately, turn and brown the other. They will be crisp outside, yet soft inside.
Sandwiches in Cream Sauce.
Sandwiches left over are not usu ally inviting, but they may be made so by this method. Toast them deli cately in the oven, and to every four sandwiches made from chicken, veal, or tongue makes a white sauce with 1 tablespoonful flour, teaspoonful salt, a dash of pepper, and I cupful milk cooked until thick. Then add the
yolk of 1 egg, well beaten. Pour this over the sandwiches and serve at once.
White-Bread Brawls.
Heat a pint of milk in a double boiler. Stir into it enough bits of stale wheat bread to absorb all the milk. Season with a little butter and salt. It should not be pasty or slop py, but should be a light, dry por ridge. It is a favorite with children, especially if served on a small, pretty saucer and dotted with bits of bright jelly. Serve hot.
Bread-Crumb Buckwheat Cakes.
cupful stale bread crumbs, 2 cupfuls milk, teaspoonful salt, cake yeast, cupfuls buckwheat flour, 1 tablespoonful molasses, teaspoonful soda.
Scald the milk and soak the crumbs for half an hour. Add the salt, yeast, and buckwheat flour, and let it stand over night. In the morning 5tir in the molasses and soda melted in a spoonful of warm water. Beat briskly for a few minutes and bake Dn a hot, greased griddle.
Brown-Bread Cream Toast with Cheese.
2 tablespoonfuls butter, 1 tablespoopful flour, 1 cupful milk, cupful grated cheese, I egg, 1 cupful cheese.
Make a white sauce from the milk, butter, and flour; when it boils, add the grated cheese and well-beaten egg. Cook slowly until mixed, then add a cupful of cheese, cut into small cubes. Season with salt and cayenne, and pour over slices of toasted brown bread.
Fried Bread.
3 slices stale bread, 1 egg, 6 tablespoonfuls milk, 2 tablespoonfuls oil (olive).
Cut the bread into fingers three inches wide and the length of the slice. Beat the egg slightly, add the milk. Dip the bread in the mixture. Put the oil in a spider and allow it to grow hot. Drop the bread in and saute till brown. Drain on soft pa per. Arrange log-cabin fashion, and serve with a sweet liquid sauce or maple sirup.
Milk Toast.
6 slices stale bread, 2 cupfuls milk, 2 teaspoonfuls cornstarch, 2 tablespoonfuls butter.
Dry the bread thoroughly in the oven, then toast over a clear fire to a golden brown. Heat the milk in the double boiler, add the butter, and when scalding hot, the cornstarch moistened in cold milk. It ought to be like a milk sauce. Lay the toast on a hot platter and baste each slice with the sauce. Serve very hot.