NO dish is more thoroughly useful, or more generally popular, than the savoury toast. It is a kind of thing thai can frequently be made at a pinch, when the larder is all but empty, and a hungry friend drops in unexpectedly. A dainty Feeder will sometimes fancy it when he will scarcely look at anything in the way of food. If well made, it serves as a finish to a little home dinner, and it is equally acceptable at breakfast, luncheon, or supper. In its composition tasty scraps of all kinds can be used up successfully, without any great effort on the part of the cook, or loss of time. In common with almost every branch of cookery, this offshoot of the science is susceptible of elaborate, as well as of simple treatment; and may be fashioned to obey the dictates of extravagance as well as those of the strictest economy. Yet, generally speaking, savoury toasts of an ordinary kind ought to be favourably regarded by all thrifty house-keepers, inasmuch as they afford an easy and pleasant way of working up fragments of good food that might otherwise be wasted.

The rules of toast-making are few, and very simple :-

1. - Unless specially stated to the contrary in the recipe, the slice of bread destined to receive any savoury composition should be delicately fried in butter till of a golden colour, rather than toasted in the ordinary manner. If kept waiting at all, ordinarily toasted bread becomes spongy or sodden, and soon loses its crispness. The easy process of toasting too, is frequently slurred over carelessly, and the bread is scorched, not toasted. If you watch a native servant in the act of toasting, you will generally find that he places the slice of bread as close to the glowing embers as possible. Setting aside the risk that the bread thus incurs of catching a taint of gas from the live charcoal, it cannot be evenly and delicately browned, neither can it attain that thorough crispness which is a sine qua non in properly made toast. The slice of bread must be kept some little distance from the clear embers, being gradually heated through, crisped, and lightly and evenly browned by degrees. But, as I said before, bread fried in good butter is better, with a very few exceptions, than toasted bread for the sort of dishes we are going to discuss.

2. - A Savoury toast is not worth serving unless it be piping hot: it may be kept hot in the oven, to be sure, but it is never so good as when set before the hungry guest the moment it has been completed. In order to ensure this 'slickness' (to borrow a trans-Atlantic term) let the cook be warned to have everything ready, but not actually to finish off the making of his toast till it is wanted. It is better to keep the table waiting for three or four minutes for a bonne-bouche, than to serve immediately such a miserable fiasco as a cold toast.

The next thing to consider is the composition of a savoury toast, which I will endeavour 'to describe in a series of recipes. Let us commence with our time-honoured friend :-

Anchovy toast. If you have a tin of anchovies in oil, the process is this :- Take six anchovies, wipe them free from oil, split them open, remove the spines, and pass the fish through your hair sieve : put the pulp in a bowl, and stir into it the yolks of two raw eggs. Cut four nice rounds or slices of bread, and fry them in butter till of a bright golden tint; arrange them on a very hot silver dish, and cover them up. Now, melt a table-spoonful of butter at the bottom of a sauce-pan which should be dipped into a bain-marie or any vessel containing boiling water; stir into the melted butter the anchovy pulp mixture, let it thicken and when quite hot. pour it over the four toasts, and send the dish up immediately.

Or, - (to be made at the table, with anchovy sauce) choose a very hot plate indeed, put a lump of butter upon it, and let the butter melt; add the yolks only of two raw eggs well beaten, and stir into the mixture sufficient anchovy sauce to colour it a pale salmon pink - (if you put in enough to obtain a darker shade, it will be too salt) a dessert-spoonful of sherry and mix it well. Whilst doing this, a servant should, in this instance, be toasting slices of bread in the verandah hard by, and each slice should be brought in hot from the fire, turned over on both sides in the mixture, and passed round at once, one after another. A toast that has been well soaked in a sauce like this, and crisped in the oven afterwards, is far from bad.

Anchovy toasts are sometimes sent up with tasty top-dressings, such as poached eggs, buttered eggs, and this sauce:- Beat up the yolks of four eggs, and pour them by degrees into a small sauce-pan in which two ounces of butter have been melted over a very moderate fire, or in the bain-marie : add two table-spoonfuls of cream and a tea-spoonful of vinegar, continue to stir the sauce gently till it thickens nicely, and pour it over your anchovy toasts. This sauce should be carefully watched, for if permitted to approach boiling, it will curdle and become lumpy; what you want is a very thick, creamy-looking custard.

Purees of certain vegetables are very nice as top-dressings for anchovy toasts; especially those of spinach, beetroot leaves, peas, or any delicate greens.

A number of nice toasts can be made with eggs; from the plainly poached egg served upon a little square of bread fried a golden brown in butter, to the delicate "roties des aeufs brouilles aux truffes."