Put eight or ten large oysters in a little fancy dish or saucer, and place in the steamer. Cook for about five minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and butter, and serve at once with hot toast.
Oyster Roast.
Have a slice of crisp toast in a little dish. Put half a pint of oysters in a saucepan, and set on the fire. When they boil, skim them, and season with salt, pepper, and butter. Pour the oysters and liquor on the toast and serve at once.
Beef Tea.
Put in a large-mouthed bottle one pound of beef, free of fat, and chopped fine. Add to it half a pint of cold water, and let the mixture stand for an hour. At the end of that time place the bottle in a saucepan of cold water. Place the pan on the fire, and heat the water slowly almost to the boiling point, without letting it boil. Cook the beef for two hours; then strain, and season with salt.
The thick sediment which falls to the bottom when the tea has stood awhile is the most nutritious part, yet many people serve only the clear and poorer part to the patient. It is to keep this sediment (the albuminoids) in a soft, digestible condition, that care is taken not to let the water which surrounds the bottle boil. Great heat hardens the albuminoids.
If a patient take a great deal of beef tea, the flavor may be changed occasionally by putting a piece of stick cinnamon about an inch square into the bottle with the meat and water.
Beef Tea, No. 2.
Put into a bowl a pound of beef, free of fat, and chopped fine. Add half a pint of cold water, and stir well. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for four hours. When the tea is to be given to the patient, strain into a saucepan the quantity required. Season it with salt, and place the saucepan on the fire. Stir constantly until the tea becomes hot, but do not let it boil.
This tea has a peculiarly bright flavor, and affords a pleasant change from that made by long steeping in hot water.