Put slices of stale bread in a slow oven till they are perfectly dried up. Break them in pieces and reduce them to coarse powder with a rolling pin; sift them, and they are ready for use.
Bread-crumbs are better than cracker-crumbs; the latter, when reduced to powder, are too floury, and besides, there is always stale bread enough in a kitchen to make crumbs.
The above crumbs are rather brown.
White crumbs.—Cut in rather large dice the soft part of stale bread, put the pieces in a new and coarse towel, rub between the hands so as to reduce the pieces of bread to crumbs; pass through a colander or through a sieve, according to need, coarse or fine, and use.
BURNT SUGAR.
Take an old tin ladle and place it over a sharp fire, with two ounces of loaf sugar in it; stir with a stick or skewer till it is thoroughly black and burnt. Then add, little by little, about one gill of water; stir a little, boil about four minutes, but not fast, lest it should boil over the ladle; strain, and it is made.
As soon as cold, bottle it and use when wanted.
It keeps any length of time.
It is used to color broth, sauces, gravies, etc.
It is called caramel in French.