I have remarked before that not one person in a thousand knows how to
make good toast. The simplest dishes seem to be the ones oftenest
spoiled. If the cook sends to the table a properly made piece of toast,
one may judge that she is a _scientific_ cook, and may entertain, at the
same time, exalted hopes of her.
The bread should not be too fresh. It should be cut _thin_, evenly, and
in good shape. The crust edges should be cut off. The pieces shaved off
can be dried and put in the bread-crumb can. The object of toasting
bread is to extract all its moisture--to convert the dough into pure
farina of wheat, which is very digestible. Present each side of the
bread to the fire for a few moments to _warm_, without attempting to
toast it; then turn about the first side at some distance from the fire,
so that it may slowly and evenly receive a _golden_ color all over the
surface. Now turn it to the other side, moving it in the same way, until
it is perfectly toasted. The coals should be clear and hot. Serve it the
moment it is done, on a warm plate, or, what is better, a toast-rack;
consequently, do not have a piece of bread toasted until the one for
whom it is intended is ready to eat it.
“If, as is generally done, a thick slice of bread is hurriedly exposed
to a hot fire, and the exterior of the bread is toasted nearly black,
the intention of extracting the moisture is defeated, as the heat will
then produce no effect on the interior of the slice, which remains as
moist as ever. Charcoal is a bad conductor of heat. The overtoasted
surface is nothing more or less than a thin layer of charcoal, which
prevents the heat from penetrating through the bread. Neither will
butter pass through the hard surface: it will remain on it, and if
exposed to heat, to melt it in, it will dissolve, and run over it in the
form of rancid oil. _This_ is why buttered toast is so often
unwholesome.”
DIXIE BISCUIT (_Mrs. Blair_).
Mix one tea-spoonful of salt into three pints of flour; put one
tea-cupful of milk, with two table-spoonfuls of lard, on the fire to
warm. Pour this on two eggs, well beaten; add the flour, with one
tea-cupful of home-made yeast. When well mixed, set it in a warm place
for about five hours to rise; then form into biscuit; let them rise
again. Bake.