Fill the pot with clams (which have been washed in a number of waters to remove all the sand); add hot water enough to get up a good steam, and boil until the shells begin to open; then serve.
Clam Fritters.
One egg, one pint of prepared flour, three-fourths of a pint of milk. Beat egg light. Stir milk into flour, then egg. Cut black heads from clams, mix with both, and fry in hot fat.
Scalloped Oysters.
Put a layer of oysters in an oval dish, and dredge in a little salt, pepper, and butter; then a layer of rolled cracker, and another of oysters; dredge the oysters as before, and cover with cracker; over the cracker grate a little nutmeg, and lay on small pieces of butter. Bake twenty minutes in a quick oven; add a glass of Madeira wine if you choose. Allow four crackers, two spoonfuls of butter, and one teaspoonful of pepper to one quart of oysters. Fill the dish to within an inch of the top.
Fried Oysters.
Drain the oysters on a sieve; roll them in cracker crumbs, and fry in boiling lard a light brown. Serve on brown-bread toast. When you desire them fried in batter, make one as for apple fritters, and fry in boiling lard. Have the dishes very hot.
Broiled Oysters.
Prepare in crumbs as for frying, and broil a light brown. Examine oysters carefully to see that there are not pieces of shell among them. Some oysters need more salt than others.