Cookbook:Milk Toast I

Milk toast is a breakfast food consisting of toasted bread dipped in milk. Milk toast was a popular food throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century, especially for young children and for the ailing, for whom the food was thought to be soothing and easy to digest. Although not as popular today, milk toast is still considered a comfort food.

This recipe, though of common domain, is provided in the food writer M.F.K. Fisher's book An Alphabet for Gourmets under the title MILK TOAST for the Ill, Weak, Old, Very Young, or Weary.

Ingredients

 * 1 pint (570 ml) milk, part cream if the person is not forbidden that
 * 4 slices good bread, freshly toasted
 * Sweet butter, if allowed
 * Salt
 * Pepper

Procedure

 * 1) Heat the milk to the simmering point.
 * 2) Generously butter the toast slices.
 * 3) Heat a pretty bowl, deeper than it is wide. Break the hot buttered toast into it, pour the steaming but not boiling milk over it, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the top, and serve at once.

Notes, tips, and variations

 * Although the recipe calls for salt, milk toast may also be made sweet by the omission of salt and pepper and the addition, instead, of sugar. Other optional ingredients for sweet versions include cinnamon, honey or a touch of vanilla, but piquant and exotic ingredients should be avoided, as the primary purpose of milk toast is to provide a food soothing to the palate and to the digestion.