To eat them, you remove the upper shell, sprinkle salt, pepper, and lemon-juice on, and eat.
When raw oysters are served on a table, at which there are gentlemen only, some shallots, chopped fine and gently bruised in a coarse towel, are served with them, on a separate dish. The taste of the shallot agrees very well with that of the oyster.
A Tartar sauce may be served instead of shallots.
To blanch.—Set the oysters and a little water on the fire in a saucepan, take them off at the first boil, skim off the scum from the top, strain them, and drop them in cold water.
The skimming, straining, and dropping in cold water must be done quickly—the quicker the better. If allowed to stay in the warm water, or out of water, they get tough.
In dropping them in cold water, see that they are free from pieces of shell; take them with a fork if necessary.
As soon as in cold water they are ready for use, but they must always be drained again before using them.
When the water used to blanch is employed in preparing them, it is explained in the different receipts.
White wine may be used, instead of water, to blanch them, according to taste.