Or you may add to the juice crackers pounded fine and rolled in butter, and some celery chopped fine, or a little cheese and Worcestershire or Harvey sauce; or you may put a table-spoonful of flour and as much butter in a cup, and having rubbed them together and added a little of the warm juice, may mix this slowly with the rest. This must all be done before the oysters are added; and where flour is used, care must be taken to mix it first with a small quantity of fluid, or it will lump. A dry stew, which is preferred by many, is made by cooking the oysters, from which the liquor has been carefully strained, in butter, salt, pepper, and sauce.
Fried Oysters.
Dry each oyster separately on a towel; dip them in the yolk of eggs beaten up, and then in pounded crackers that have been seasoned with salt and pepper; heat butter or pork drippings in the frying-pan, and cook the oysters over a slow fire, turning them frequently. Do not use too much butter or drippings, but add fresh as required, so as to leave the oysters dry when done. A clean tin pan is the best, and red pepper preferable to black. Lard is detestable for frying anything, and salad oil is perfection. If black pepper is ever used, it should be purchased whole and ground by hand, as the fine pepper is generally adulterated and flavorless.
Roasted Oysters.
To roast an oyster, it is simply put on the fire till it opens, when the shell is forced off, and it is eaten from a hot, concave shell, in which butter has been melted with vinegar, salt, and pepper; or it may be taken out when half done, and cooked in a pan with its own liquor, salt, pepper, and a little butter.
Broiled Oysters.
Are prepared as for frying, then dipped in melted butter, placed in a double gridiron, and cooked over live coals.
Scolloped Oysters.
Are placed in a deep dish with butter and bread-crumbs, or pounded crackers well seasoned and baked.