OYSTERS
Fricasseed oysters
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters and bring to the boiling point. Stir into it two tablespoonfuls of cracker crumbs rolled very fine. Set at the side of the range while you scald a half pint of cream in which you have dissolved a tiny pinch of soda. Meanwhile melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan and cook the oysters in this until their edges “ruffle,” when they must be removed and laid on tiny slices of toast on a hot water dish. Turn the melted butter remaining in the saucepan into the oyster liquor and pour this slowly, stirring all the time, on the hot cream, season with salt and paprika, and pour immediately over the oysters and toast.
Deviled oyster pâtés
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters. Chop the oysters and mix with them a cup of cracker crumbs, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and enough oyster liquor to soften the whole. Season with salt, paprika and a few drops of Tabasco sauce, with a teaspoonful of tomato catsup. Butter small pâté-pans, fill these with the mixture, sprinkle cracker crumbs on top, and bake.
Creamed oysters
Drain the liquor from a quart of oysters.
Cook together three tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and when they bubble pour upon them a cupful of oyster liquor and a cupful of rich milk (cream is better), in which you have dropped a bit of soda the size of a pea. Stir until the sauce thickens, then turn into it the oysters. Cook until the oysters are heated through; add, a few drops at a time, the beaten yolks of two eggs, keeping your spoon moving all the time. Do not allow it to cook a minute after the last drop of egg is added.
Broiled oysters (No. 1)
There are several methods of broiling oysters. For all of them a good large oyster is needed. I give the simplest method first.
Dry your oysters on a towel; sprinkle them with salt and a little red pepper and lay them within an oyster-broiler. Turn them so that they may brown on both sides, put them on a hot dish, dress at once with butter, and serve as soon as this has melted.
Broiled oysters (No. 2)
Drain and dry your oysters, sprinkle them with salt and pepper and roll them in bread-crumbs. Broil them over a clear fire, turning them until they are brown. Serve on buttered toast. Put a bit of butter on each oyster and squeeze on it a few drops of lemon juice.
Broiled oysters with brown sauce
Sprinkle large drained oysters with salt and pepper, dip in beaten egg, then roll in cracker-dust, and lay on the ice for an hour before cooking upon an oyster-broiler over a clear fire to a delicate brown. Put on a hot platter and cover with a brown sauce.
Brown sauce for broiled oysters
Cook together a scant tablespoonful, each, of butter and browned flour; pour upon a half pint of cleared consommé; season with salt, pepper, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a little mushroom catsup and a few drops of kitchen bouquet. Add a dash of lemon juice and serve.
Scalloped oysters
Drain the oysters and dispose in a buttered bake-dish in the following order:
In the bottom have a light layer of crushed cracker crumbs; season with paprika and salt, drop bits of butter upon them and wet with oyster liquor and milk mixed in equal quantities. Now comes a layer of oysters, similarly seasoned, next a layer of crumbs. Go on thus until the dish is full or the materials are used up. The top layer should be crumbs with a double allowance of butter. Cover closely and bake half an hour, then uncover and brown lightly.
Oyster scallops
Prepare as above, but bake in pâté-pans or in shells, covering each with fine crumbs. In tide-water Virginia, notably near Williamsburg, the first capital of the state, large, fluted shells are dug up many feet below the surface, which, when cleaned, make the best possible receptacle for scalloped oysters. All who have eaten fresh oysters, just from York river, cooked in these fossil remains, will agree with me that they are incomparably savory.
Send sliced lemon around with them.
Fried oysters
They must be large, plump and fresh. Drain well; spread upon a clean, soft towel, and cover with another, patting them gently to dry them on both sides. Roll each over and over in salted cracker-crumbs; set on the ice for an hour; dust more crumbs over them, and fry, a few at a time, in boiling hot butter, cottolene or other fats.
Drain, garnish with parsley and serve.
Oysters creamed and baked
Heat a large spoonful of butter in a clean frying-pan, rub in a tablespoonful of flour, and stir to a white roux. Remove to the table. Season with salt and white pepper. Have ready pâté-pans or scallop-shells arranged in a baking-pan; put three or four fine oysters in each, cover with the white sauce and cook in a quick oven about eight minutes, or until the oysters “ruffle.” Serve in the shells. The white sauce should be thick, as the liquor from the oysters will thin it.
Stewed oysters
Drain in a colander one quart of oysters. Put the liquor over the fire in a saucepan, with a good tablespoonful of butter. Add half as much boiling water as you have liquor, pepper and salt to taste, and bring to a boil. As soon as this is reached, put in the drained oysters and cook quickly. When they “ruffle”—in five minutes or thereabouts—add half a cupful of milk heated in another vessel with a tiny bit of soda to prevent curdling, and half a teaspoonful of corn-starch wet with cold milk, stirred in. Pour upon the oysters, cook for one minute and dish.
Most stewed oysters are cooked into insipid toughness.
Oyster stew
Heat the liquor from a quart of oysters to boiling. While it is growing hot put over the fire in another vessel a pint of milk. When this is heated stir into it a tablespoonful of butter rolled in as much flour. Drop the oysters into the hot liquid and let them cook until they ruffle. Pour the milk into the saucepan with the oysters, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.
This is the old-fashioned stew and is better than many more modern inventions.
Oysters fried in batter
Make a rather thick batter of one egg, a cupful of milk and about half a cupful of flour, sifted twice, with a scant half teaspoonful of baking-powder and half as much salt. Drain fine oysters, roll each in flour, let them stand half an hour, then dip in the batter and fry in boiling butter, cottolene or other fat. Drain off every drop of grease in a hot colander and serve.
Steamed oysters
Wash shell oysters and arrange, flat side up, in the steamer. Cover closely, and set over water at a hard boil. In twenty-five minutes lift the steamer from the fire. If the shells gape, the oysters are done. Pry off the lower shell, put a bit of butter on each, and send at once to table. Pass salt and pepper and sliced lemon with them. They are delicious if eaten piping hot, preserving the flavor far better than stewed or panned oysters can hold it.
Panned oysters
Fit rounds of buttered toast into the bottom of pâté pans; lay on these as many oysters as the pans will hold, season with salt and pepper, lay a dot of butter upon each panful and set in your covered roaster to cook in a quick oven about ten minutes, or until the oysters “ruffle.” Serve in the pans.
An appetizing luncheon or supper dish.
Creamed panned oysters
Cook as in last recipe, and when the oysters are done add to each pan a large teaspoonful of cream heated to scalding, putting in a tiny pinch of soda to prevent curdling.
Instead of the cream you may make a dish of
Deviled panned oysters
When ready for the table add to each pan a dozen drops of Tabasco sauce, stirred into a saltspoonful of French mustard and the same quantity of lemon juice. Beat together, stir lightly into the oysters with a fork, heat one minute and serve.
Curried oysters
Into two tablespoonfuls of white roux stir a few drops of onion juice and a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add a cupful of scalding oyster liquor, and, when well incorporated, pour over broiled or fried oysters laid upon toast in a chafing-dish. Rice croquettes are nice served with this dish.
Oyster pie or pâtés
Make pastry shells or a pie shell of puff paste, bake, and when cold, fill with a filling made thus: Cook together a tablespoonful, each, of butter and flour; pour on them a cup of cream and a gill of oyster liquor and stir to a smooth sauce. Drop in the oysters and cook, stirring steadily until the edges begin to curl; remove from the fire and beat in gradually the yolk of an egg. Pour into the pastry shells and set in the oven until the pastry and contents are very hot.
Oyster cocktails (No. 1)
Into a tablespoonful of tomato catsup stir a half tablespoonful of grated horseradish, a half tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoonful of lemon juice, a quarter teaspoonful of Tabasco sauce, half a tablespoonful of vinegar and a saltspoonful of salt. Set in the ice for an hour. Into very cold little glasses put five small oysters that have been chilled, and fill the glasses with the cold sauce.
Oyster cocktails (No. 2)
For six of these provide thirty small oysters. Make a sauce by mixing together a tablespoonful, each, of lemon juice and tomato catsup, a teaspoonful of grated horseradish, a pinch, each, of salt and cayenne pepper and six drops of Tabasco sauce. Have all very cold, and the cocktail or claret glasses thoroughly chilled before you put five oysters in each and divide the sauce equally between them. Lay a slice of lemon on top of each cocktail.
Oysters with mushrooms
(Contributed)
Drain about twenty-five oysters, put them into a hot pan with a teaspoonful of butter and toss them until they are plumped and ruffled on both sides. Then place them in a hot dish. To the oyster liquor add the juice of half a pint of chopped mushrooms and enough milk to make a pint. Thicken this with a tablespoonful of flour moistened with a little milk and cook three minutes; stir in the mushrooms and cook two minutes longer; add a half teaspoonful of salt, a half teaspoonful of lemon juice, a teaspoonful of onion juice, the beaten yolks of two eggs and a heaping tablespoonful of butter. Put in the oysters and as soon as the preparation reaches the boiling point turn into a hot dish.
Pigs in blankets
(Contributed)
Take large oysters and allow them to remain in the following dressing: The juice of two lemons, half a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of cayenne pepper. Now wrap each oyster in a thin slice of bacon and fasten with a toothpick, fry in a little butter until the bacon is crisp. Have nicely browned slices of toast and lay the oysters on them. Garnish with parsley and serve.
Baked oysters
(Contributed)
Select nice large oysters. Wash and scrub the shells free from sand. Put them into a baking-pan and bake in a hot oven until the shells open. Carefully remove the upper shell; put a bit of butter on each oyster, sprinkle with salt and pepper and serve in the under shells.
Oysters with macaroni
(Contributed)
Put about four ounces of macaroni in plenty of boiling salted water and cook for twenty minutes. Take out and drain well. Into a buttered baking-dish put a layer of the macaroni, then a layer of oysters, dot with bits of butter, season with pepper and salt; follow this with another layer of macaroni, another of oysters and seasoning, and finish with a layer of macaroni sprinkled thickly with grated cheese. Bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.
Oysters sautés
Drain the oysters well, season with pepper and salt, roll in fine bread crumbs, and brown in a little clarified butter in a spider. Serve on a hot platter.
Scalloped clams
Select one dozen large clams in the shell and two dozen soft ones. Use care not to injure the shells which are to be used in cooking. Clean the shells well and put two soft clams into each one. Add to each a touch of white pepper and one and a half teaspoonfuls of minced celery. Cut into small dice a few slices of bacon and add four of these to each shell; sprinkle bread crumbs over the top, put a piece of butter on top of each and bake in the oven till brown.
Roast clams
Wash the clams and lay them unopened in a bake-pan, and set on the top of the very hot range. Cook until the shells open wide, then remove the upper shell and transfer the lower—with the clam and juice still in it—to a hot platter. Squeeze upon each clam a few drops of lemon juice and serve in the shells. Pass tomato catsup or chili sauce with them.
Creamed clams
Drain the liquor from a pint of opened clams, and set the clams and liquor on the range in separate double boilers to heat. Cook together a large tablespoonful of butter and the same of flour until they bubble, then pour upon them the heated liquor and cook until smooth and thick. Have ready in another vessel a pint of hot cream, in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved. Pour this gradually upon a beaten egg, and return to the fire for a minute, stirring constantly. Add the chopped and heated clams to the thickened liquor, season with paprika, stir gradually into the hot eggs and cream, and pour upon squares of lightly buttered toast.
Clam pâtés
Drain the liquor from a quart of clams. Cook together a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour, and pour upon them a cup of hot milk (in which a pinch of soda has been dissolved) and a cup of clam liquor. Stew until you have a smooth, thick sauce, and then add the chopped clams. Add a beaten egg, drop by drop, and when well mixed remove from the fire, season and set aside to cool. Line pâté pans with good puff paste, fill with the clam mixture, put pastry over the tops and bake to a light brown. Serve hot.
Deviled clams (No. 1)
Steam in the shell as you have been told how to steam oysters. When they gape, open, saving all the liquor in a bowl. Cut off the dark end of each clam and set aside while you strain the liquor and bring it quickly to a boil. Season with paprika, butter, lemon juice and a few drops of Tabasco sauce; put in the clams and as soon as they are smoking hot, turn into a heated covered dish. Send around buttered bars of graham bread, or strips of buttered toast, or hot crackers, buttered lightly.
Deviled clams (No. 2)
Take two dozen clams from the shells, drain and chop. Scald a cup of rich milk and thicken it with two tablespoonfuls of flour rubbed into one of butter; remove from the fire, add gradually the beaten yolks of three eggs, paprika and celery salt to taste, a few drops of lemon juice and the chopped clams. Wash the clam shells, fill with this mixture, and set in a pan in the oven for ten minutes. Serve very hot.
Lobster à la Newburg
Stir a pinch of baking soda into a pint of cream; put this, the beaten yolks of three eggs, and a wineglassful of sherry in a double boiler and cook, stirring, until thick. Now add a pint of lobster meat, seasoned with salt and cayenne, and stir until smoking hot; then serve.
Lobster timbales
Mix together a cup of cold boiled lobster, minced very fine, eight blanched and chopped almonds, and season with celery salt and white pepper. Stir in a half pint of whipped cream and the whites of four eggs beaten very stiff and work in an ordinary Hollandaise sauce. Turn into timbale molds and bake.
Lobster cutlets
Two cupfuls of minced lobster seasoned with a quarter teaspoonful of salt, a dash of paprika, and one teaspoonful, each, of lemon juice and minced parsley. Moisten with one cup of thick drawn butter and the beaten yolk of one egg. When cool, shape into cutlets; egg and crumb them, let them stand for one hour on ice, then fry in deep, hot butter.
Creamed lobster
Two cups of boiled lobster meat, cut into dice. Season with paprika, salt and lemon juice. Heat a great spoonful of butter in a saucepan and turn in the lobster dice. Toss until smoking hot, add half a cup of cream, heated (with a bit of soda), then beat into it the whipped yolks of three eggs. Stir for one minute, and dish.
Send hot, buttered crackers around with it.
Curry of lobster
Heat a tablespoonful of butter in a frying-pan, and cook in it a tablespoonful of sliced onion. Strain out the onion, return the butter to the pan, and stir to a roux with a level tablespoonful of flour and a teaspoonful of curry powder. Add four tablespoonfuls of cream, heated (not forgetting the pinch of soda); lastly two cupfuls of lobster meat, cut into dice. Stir steadily until very hot, and dish.
Note
All of these preparations of lobster may be made with canned lobster, although they must always be inferior in flavor to those made from the fresh fish. If canned lobster be used, drain off every drop of the liquor and have the meat as dry as possible before it goes into the manufacture of the proposed dish.
Scalloped lobsters
(Contributed)
Cover the bottom of a baking-dish with fine bread-crumbs. On this put a layer of lobster and season with pepper and salt; add another layer of crumbs, another of lobster and so on, until the dish is filled. Moisten with milk, strew with bits of butter and bake about twenty minutes.
Deviled lobster
Two cups of lobster meat, cut into dice. Reserve the coral, rubbing it to a paste with butter and lemon juice. Heat two tablespoonfuls of butter in a saucepan, add the lobster meat highly seasoned with paprika, French mustard, ten drops of Tabasco, or double the quantity of Worcestershire sauce and salt. As soon as it bubbles turn in the coral paste and let it just come to a boil before serving.
Deviled crab
Pick the meat from boiled crabs, taking care not to break the shells. Flake the meat and mix with it a tablespoonful of melted butter, cayenne and salt to taste and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Return to the shells, sprinkle with bread crumbs and bits of butter, and bake.
Crabs and champignons
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into dice, and half a can of champignons (mushrooms), cut into dice of the same size. Make a roux in a frying-pan of two tablespoonfuls of butter and one heaping tablespoonful of flour, stirred until smooth. Mix the crab meat and champignons well together, season with paprika, salt and a dash of onion juice; turn into the smoking roux; cook three minutes; remove from the fire; add quickly three tablespoonfuls of cream, heated, with a pinch of soda; set over the fire for one minute, add a glass of sherry, and serve hot.
Lobsters cooked in this way, substituting the fresh mushrooms for the canned, are delicious.
Crabs en coquille (No. 1)
Two cupfuls of crab meat, cut into neat dice, and set on ice until needed. One heaping tablespoonful of flour and an even tablespoonful of butter. Four tablespoonfuls of cream. Salt, cayenne, ten drops of Tabasco sauce or twice as much Worcestershire. A little boiling water. Pinch of soda in the cream.
Make a roux of butter and flour. Season the crab meat and stir into the roux, thinning with just enough boiling water to make the mixture manageable. When smoking-hot, take from the fire, beat in the hot cream and fill crab shells with the paste, rounding to suit the shape of the shell. Sift fine crumbs, salted and peppered, over each, put bits of butter on top, and brown on the upper grating of the oven.
Crabs en coquille (No. 2)
(A Cuban dish.)
Prepare as directed in foregoing recipe, but mix with the crab meat the pulp of three tomatoes, cut into bits and drained dry, a green pepper, seeded and minced, and four tablespoonfuls of the inside of an eggplant (boiled and cold), cut small; also half a cup of fine bread (not cracker) crumbs. Season with paprika, salt, and a teaspoonful of onion juice. Stir into the roux over the fire, adding a little boiling water if too thick, until very hot, when remove to a table and beat in the whipped yolks of two eggs. Fill your crab shells, sift fine crumbs on top, dot with butter and cook, covered, ten minutes before browning upon the upper grating.
SWEETBREAD CUTLETS AND SARATOGA POTATOES, GARNISH OF CELERY TOPS
CRAB SCALLOPED IN SHELL GARNISHED WITH LETTUCE AND LEMON
LOBSTER CUTLETS AND WHIPPED POTATO