Cut bread that is at least two days old into slices a quarter of an inch thick. If you are going to make only a slice or two, take the toasting-fork, but if you want a plateful, take the wire broiler. Be sure the fire is red, without any flames. Move the slices of bread back and forth across the coals, but do not let them brown; do both sides this way, and then brown first one and then the other afterward. Trim off the edges, butter a little quickly, and send to the table hot. Baker's bread makes the best toast.
Milk Toast
Put one pint of milk on in a double boiler and let it heat. Melt one tablespoonful of butter, and when it bubbles stir in one small tablespoonful of corn-starch, and when these are rubbed smooth, put in one-third of the milk. Cook and stir till even, without lumps, and then put in the rest of the milk and stir well; add half a teaspoonful of salt, and put on the back of the stove. Make six slices of toast; put one slice in the dish and put a spoonful of the white sauce over it, then put in another and another spoonful, and so on till all are in, and pour the sauce that is left over all. If you want this extra nice, do not take quite so much butter, and use a pint of cream instead of the milk.
Baking-powder Biscuit
Margaret's Other Aunt said little girls could never, never make biscuit, but this little girl really did, by this rule:
1 pint sifted flour. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt. 4 teaspoonfuls of baking-powder. 3/4 cup of milk. 1 tablespoonful of butter.
Put the salt and baking-powder in the flour and sift well, and then rub the butter in with a spoon. Little by little put in the milk, mixing all the time, and then lift out the dough on a floured board and roll it out lightly, just once, till it is one inch thick. Flour your hands and mould the little balls as quickly as you can, and put them close together in a shallow pan that has had a little flour shaken over the bottom, and bake in a hot oven about twenty minutes, or till the biscuits are brown. If you handle the dough much, the biscuits will be tough, so you must work fast.
Grandmother's Corn Bread
1 1/2 cups of milk. 1 cup sifted yellow corn-meal. 1 tablespoonful melted butter. 1 teaspoonful sugar. 1 teaspoonful baking-powder. 2 eggs. 1/2 teaspoonful of salt.
Scald the milk—that is, let it boil up just once—and pour it over the corn-meal. Let this cool while you are separating and beating the eggs; let these wait while you mix the corn-meal, the butter, salt, baking-powder, and sugar, and then the yolks; add the whites last, very lightly. Bake in a buttered biscuit-tin in a hot oven for about half an hour.