Modern cookery for private families

bread, pare the crust entirely from them, and dry them gradually in a cool oven until they are crisp quite through; let them become cold, then roll or beat them into fine crumbs, and keep them in a dry place for use. To strew over hams or cheeks of bacon, the bread should be left all night in the oven, which should be sufficiently heated to brown, as well as to harden it: it ought indeed to be entirely converted into equally-coloured crust. It may be sifted through a dredging-box on to the hams after it has been reduced almost to powder. BROWNED FLOUR FOR THICKENING SOUPS AND GRAVIES. Spread it on a tin or dish and colour it, without burning, in a gentle oven or before the fire in a Dutch or American oven: turn it often, or the edges will be too much browned before the middle is enough so. This, blended with butter, makes a convenient thickening for soups or gravies of which it is desirable to deepen the colour; and it requires less time and attention than the French _roux_ of page 10. FRIED BREAD-CRUMBS. Grate lightly into very fine crumbs four ounces of stale bread, and _shake_ them through a cullender;[59] without rubbing or touching them with the hands. Dissolve two ounces of fresh butter in a frying-pan, throw in the crumbs, and stir them constantly over a moderate fire, until they are all of a clear golden colour; lift them out with a skimmer, spread them on a soft cloth, or upon white blotting paper, laid upon a sieve reversed, and dry them before the fire. They may be more delicately prepared by browning them in a gentle oven without the addition of butter. Footnote 59: This is not necessary when they are lightly and finely grated of uniform size. Bread, 4 oz.; butter, 2 oz. FRIED BREAD FOR GARNISHING. Cut the crumb of a stale loaf in slices a quarter of an inch thick; form them into diamonds or half diamonds, or shape them with a paste-cutter in any another way; fry them