PLAIN BREAD PUDDING, BAKED.

Break up about a pint of stale bread after cutting off the crust, pour over it a quart of boiling milk; add to this a piece of butter the size of a small egg; cover the dish tight and let it stand until cool; then with a spoon mash it until fine, adding a teaspoonful of cinnamon and one of nutmeg grated, half a cupful of sugar and one-quarter of a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a little hot water.  Beat up four eggs very light and add last.  Turn all into a well-buttered pudding-dish and bake three-quarters of an hour.  Serve it warm with hard sauce.

This recipe may be steamed or boiled; very nice either way.

SUPERIOR BREAD PUDDINGS.

One and one-half cupfuls of white sugar, two cupfuls of fine, dry bread crumbs, five eggs, one tablespoonful of butter, vanilla, rose-water or lemon flavoring, one quart of fresh rich milk and half a cupful of jelly or jam.  Rub the butter into a cupful of sugar; beat the yolks very light, and stir these together to a cream.  The bread crumbs soaked in milk come next, then the flavoring.  Bake in a buttered pudding-dish—­a large one and but two-thirds full—­until the custard is “set.”  Draw to the mouth of the oven, spread over with jam or other nice fruit conserve.  Cover this with a meringue made of the whipped whites and half a cupful of sugar.  Shut the oven and bake until the meringue begins to color.  Eat cold with cream.  In strawberry season, substitute a pint of fresh fruit for preserves.  It is then delicious.  Serve with any warm sauce.

BOILED BREAD PUDDING.

To one quart of bread crumbs soaked soft in a cup of hot milk, add one cupful of molasses, one cupful of fruit or chopped raisins, one teaspoonful each of spices, one tablespoonful of butter, a teaspoonful of salt, one teaspoonful of soda, about a cupful of flour sifted; boil or steam three hours.  Serve with sweet sauce.

ALMOND PUDDING.  No. 1.

Put two quarts of milk into a double boiler; stir into it two heaping tablespoonfuls of sifted flour that has been stirred to a cream, with a little of the milk.  When it boils, care should be taken that it does not burn; when cooked, take from the fire and let it cool.  Take the skins off from two pounds of sweet almonds, pound them fine, stir them into the milk; add a teaspoonful of salt, a cupful of sugar, flavoring and six well-beaten eggs, the yolks and whites beaten separately.  Put bits of butter over the top.  Bake one hour.  A gill of brandy or wine improves it.

ALMOND PUDDING.  No. 2.

Steep four ounces of crumbs of bread, sliced, in one and one-half pints of cream, or grate the bread; then beat half a pound of blanched almonds very fine till they become a paste, with two teaspoonfuls of orange-flower water; beat up the yolks of eight eggs and the whites of four; mix all well together; put in a quarter of a pound of loaf sugar and stir in three or four ounces of melted butter; put it over the fire, stirring it until it is thick; lay a sheet of paper at the bottom of a dish and pour in the ingredients; bake half an hour.  Use the remaining four whites of eggs for a meringue for the top.