[ Oysters in Stoffado.]
Parboil a pottle or three quarts of great Oysters, save the liquor and wash the oysters in warm water, then after steep them in white-wine, wine-vinegar, slic’t nutmeg, large mace, whole pepper, salt, and cloves; give them a warm on the fire, set them off and let them steep two or three hours; then take them out, wipe them dry, dip them in batter made of fine flour, yolks of eggs, some cream and salt, fry them, and being fryed keep them warm, then take some of the spices liquor, some of the oysters-liquor, and some butter, beat these things up thick with the slices of an orange or two, and two or three yolks of eggs; then dish the fryed oysters in a fine clean dish on a chafing-dish of coals, run on the sauce over them with the spices, slic’t orange, and barberries, and garnish the dish with searsed manchet.
[ To Jelly Oysters.]
Take ten flounders, two small pikes or plaice, and 4 ounces of ising glass; being finely cleansed, boil them in a pipkin in a pottle of fair spring-water, and a pottle of white-wine, with some large mace, and slic’t ginger; boil them to a jelly, and strain it through a strainer into a bason or deep dish; being cold pare off the top and bottom and put it in a pipkin, with the juyce of six or seven great lemons to a pottle of this broth, three pound of fine sugar beaten in a dish with the whites of twelve eggs rubbed all together with a rouling-pin, and put amongst the jelly, being melted, but not too hot, set the pipkin on a soft fire to stew, put in it a grain of musk, and as much ambergriece well rubbed, let it stew half an hour on the embers, then broil it up, and let it run through your jelly-bag; then stew the oysters in white wine, oyster-liquor, juyce of orange, mace, slic’t nutmeg, whole pepper, some salt, and sugar; dish them in a fine clean dish with some preserved barberries, large mace, or pomegranat kernels, and run the jelly over them in the dish, garnish the dish with carved lemons, large mace, and preserved barberries.
[ To pickle Oysters.]
Take eight quarts of oysters, and parboil them in their own liquor, then take them out, wash them in warm water and wipe them dry, then take the liquor they were parboil’d in, and clear it from the grounds into a large pipkin or skillet, put to it a pottle of good white-wine, a quart of wine vinegar, some large mace, whole pepper, and a good quantity of salt, set it over the fire, boil it leisurely, scum it clean, and being well boil’d put the liquor into eight
barrels of a quart a piece, being cold, put in the oyster, and close up the head.
[ Otherways.]
Take eight quarts of the fairest oysters that can be gotten, fresh and new, at the full of the Moon, parboil them in their own liquor, then wipe them dry with a clean cloth, clear the liquor from the dregs, and put the oysters in a well season’d barrel that will but just hold them, then boil the oyster liquor with a quart of white-wine, a pint of wine-vinegar, eight or ten blades of large mace, an ounce of whole pepper, four ounces of white salt, four races of slic’t ginger, and twenty cloves, boil these ingredients four or five warms, and being cold, put them to the oysters, close up the barrel, and keep it for your use.
When you serve them, serve them in a fine clean dish with bay-leaves round about them, barberries, slic’t lemon, and slic’t orange.