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.