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Monte Carlo Bread
2 cups scalded milk
2 yeast cakes softened in ½ teaspoons salt cup lukewarm water
1 cup sugar
9 cups flour (enough to make
1 cup shortening soft dough)
6 eggs
1½ cups currants
Add scalded milk to salt, sugar and fat. When lukewarm, add the yeast. Add one-half the flour and beat well. Let rise until very light. Add slightly beaten eggs, currants and remaining flour. Knead lightly, let rise and when light place in well-oiled bread-pans. Let rise and when light bake in moderate oven (350°-400° F.). When the bread is a few days old, cut in thick slices and toast.
A heavily enriched yeast loaf — six eggs, a cup of sugar and a cup of fat to nine cups of flour — closer to brioche than to sandwich bread. It needs three rises and rewards patience over speed.
- Yeast cakesTwo cakes means two cakes of compressed fresh yeast, commonly sold at about 0.6 oz each though sizes varied; substitute two packets (about 4½ teaspoons) of active dry yeast, softened in warm water rather than proofed dry. The water quantity has dropped out of the ingredient list — a scant half cup is enough. The dough is rich enough that it will rise slowly whatever you use.
- Salt is unclearThe salt quantity has lost its whole number and reads only as a fraction of a teaspoon, which is far too little for nine cups of flour. Judge by the flour: roughly 1 tablespoon of fine salt is standard for that weight of dough.
- Scalding the milkScalding was generally held to deactivate something in raw milk that weakened gluten. With pasteurised milk many bakers skip it, and heating still speeds the dissolving of the sugar and fat. Either way, cool to about 110°F before the yeast goes in.
- ShorteningIn this period shortening usually means lard or a solid vegetable fat, though the word was used loosely. Butter gives a better flavour here and suits the egg-and-sugar richness; use it softened, not melted.
- CurrantsDried Zante currants, not fresh redcurrants. Plump them in warm water or a little brandy for ten minutes and dry them before folding in, or they will draw moisture from the crumb.
- OvenThe stated 350–400°F is a wide range for a rich dough. Bake at 350°F; the sugar and eggs brown fast, and a hotter oven will set the crust before the centre cooks. Tent with foil if the top colours early, and pull the loaves at an internal temperature of about 190°F.
- Yield and pansNine cups of flour plus the milk, eggs, sugar, fat and currants makes something like 5½ lb of dough — three to four standard 9x5-inch loaves. The recipe assumes you know this; do not try to force it into two pans.
- The risesThree separate risings are called for, and the sponge stage — half the flour, beaten and left "until very light" — is what gives the loaf its texture. Enriched dough is sluggish, so allow well over an hour for each stage at room temperature.
- The last lineToasting thick slices of days-old loaf is not an afterthought but the intended second life of the bread.
Butterick published its household books alongside its dress patterns, aimed at a middle-class housekeeper running a kitchen without staff, at a moment when commercial bakery bread was rapidly taking over. The name "Monte Carlo" borrows the glamour of the Riviera resort rather than recording any Monégasque origin; the dough itself belongs to the broad family of egg-and-butter breads that runs from French brioche through the German Stollen tradition. The currants and the instruction to toast stale slices place it squarely in the tea-bread role such loaves filled.