Slices of stale baker’s bread, from which the crust has been pared.
1 quart of milk.
3 table-spoonfuls of butter.
Whites of 3 eggs, beaten stiff.
Salt, and 2 table-spoonfuls best flour or corn-starch.
Boiling water.
Toast the bread to a golden brown. Burnt toast is detestable. Have on the range, or hearth, a shallow bowl or pudding-dish, more than half full of boiling water, in which a table-spoonful of butter has been melted. As each slice is toasted dip in this for a second, sprinkle lightly with salt, and lay in the deep heated dish in which it is to be served. Have ready, by the time all the bread is toasted, the milk scalding hot—but not boiled. Thicken this with the flour; let it simmer until cooked; put in the remaining butter, and when this is melted, the beaten whites of the eggs. Boil up once, and pour over the toast, lifting the lower slices one by one, that the creamy mixture may run in between them. Cover closely, and set in the oven two or three minutes before sending to table.
If you can get real cream, add only a teaspoonful of flour and the whites of two eggs, but the same quantity of butter used in this receipt.