two table-spoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, and a bunch of sweet marjoram and other pot-herbs, with a saucer full of chopped celery. When it boils, add a quart of rich milk-and as soon as it boils again, take out the herbs, and put in the oysters just before you send it to table. Boiling them in the soup will shrivel them and destroy their taste.
FRIED OYSTERS
For frying, choose the largest and finest oysters. Beat some yolks of eggs and mix with them grated bread, and a small quantity of beaten nutmeg and mace and a little salt. Having stirred this batter well, dip your oysters into it, and fry them in lard, till they are of a light brown colour. Take care not to do them too much. Serve them up hot.
For grated bread, some substitute crackers pounded to a powder, and mixed with yolk of egg and spice.
BAKED OR SCOLLOPED OYSTERS.
Grate a small loaf of stale-bread. Butter a deep dish well, and cover the sides and bottom with bread crumbs. Put in half the oysters with a little mace and pepper. Cover them with crumbs and small bits of butter strewed over them. Then put in the remainder of the oysters. Season them. Cover them as before with crumbs and butter. If the oysters are fresh, pour in a little of the liquor. If they are salt, substitute a little water. Bake them a very short time. You may cook them in the small scolloped dishes made for the purpose.
OYSTER PATTIES.
Make some rich puff-paste, and bake it in very small tin patty pans. When cool, turn them out upon a large dish.
Stew some large fresh oysters with a few cloves, a little mace and nutmeg, some yolk of egg boiled hard and grated, a little butter, and as much of the oyster liquor as will cover them. When they have stewed a little while, take them out of the pan, and set them away to cool. When quite cold, lay two or three oysters in each shell of puff-paste.
OYSTER-SAUCE.
When your oysters are opened, take care of all the liquor, and give them one boil in it. Then take the oysters out, and put to the liquor three or four blades of mace. Add to it some melted butter, and some thick cream or rich milk. Put in your oysters and give them a boil. As soon as they come to a boil, take them of the fire.
PICKLED OYSTERS.
Four hundred large fresh oysters. A pint of vinegar. Eight spoonfuls of salt. A pint of white wine. Six table-spoonfuls of whole black pepper. Eight blades of mace.
Strain the liquor of the oysters and boil it. Then pour it hot over the oysters, and let them lie in it about ten minutes. Then take them out, and cover them. Boil the liquor with the salt, pepper, mace, vinegar and wine. When cold, put the oysters in a close jar, and pour the liquor over them. Cover the jar very tight, and the oysters will keep a long time.
If the oysters are salt, put no salt to the liquor.
CHICKEN SALAD.
Two large cold fowls, either boiled or roasted. The yolks of nine hard-boiled eggs. Half a pint of sweet oil. Half a pint of vinegar. A gill of mixed mustard. A small tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper. A small tea-spoonful of salt. Two large heads, or four small ones, of fine celery.
Cut the meat of the fowls from the bones, in pieces not exceeding an inch in size.
Cut the white part of the celery into pieces about an inch long. Mix the chicken and celery well together. Cover them and set them away.
With the back of a wooden spoon, mash the yolks of eggs till they are a perfectly smooth paste. Mix them with the oil, vinegar, mustard, cayenne, and salt. Stir them for a long time, till they are thoroughly mixed and quite smooth. The longer they are stirred the better. When this dressing is sufficiently mixed, cover it, and set it away.
Five minutes before the salad is to be eaten pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, and mix all well together. If the dressing is put on long before it is wanted, the salad will be tough and hard.
This salad is very excellent made of cold turkey instead of chicken.
LOBSTER SALAD.