Put the oysters, with their liquor, into a large earthen pitcher. Add to them the vinegar and all the other ingredients. Stir all well together. Set them in the stove, or over a slow fire, keeping them covered. Take them off the fire several times, and stir them to the bottom. As soon as they boil completely they are sufficiently done; if they boil too long they will be hard.
Pour them directly out of the pitcher into a pan, and set them away to cool. They must not be eaten till quite cold, or indeed till next day.
If you wish to keep them a week, put a smaller quantity of spice, or they will taste too much of it by setting so long. Let them be well covered.
Oysters in the shell may be kept all winter by laying them in a heap in the cellar, with the concave side upwards to hold in the liquor. Sprinkle them every day with strong salt and water, and then with Indian meal. Cover them with matting or an old carpet.
STEWED OYSTERS.
Open the oysters and strain the liquor. Put to the liquor some grated stale bread, and a little pepper and nutmeg, adding a glass of white wine. Boil the liquor with these ingredients, and then pour it scalding hot over the dish of raw oysters. This will cook them sufficiently.
Have ready some slices of buttered toast with the crust cut off. When the oysters are done, dip the toast in the liquor, and lay the pieces round the sides and in the bottom of a deep dish. Pour the oysters and liquor upon the toast, and send them to table hot.
OYSTER SOUP
Three pints of large fresh oysters.
Two table-spoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour.
A bunch of sweet herbs.
A saucer full of chopped celery.
A quart of rich milk.
Pepper to your taste.
Take the liquor of three pints of oysters. Strain it, and set it on the fire. Put into it, pepper to your taste, 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.