KEEBOBBED OYSTERS
Drain fifty oysters. Boil the liquor, skim and strain, and stand aside until wanted. Take the white part from one root of celery, and slice it very fine. Chop sufficient parsley to make two tablespoonfuls. Put out on the board about a pint of stale bread crumbs; beat four eggs; add to them about four tablespoonfuls of oyster liquor. Now dip each oyster first in the egg and then into the crumbs. Arrange them neatly over the bottom of a baking dish, crowding them just a little; sprinkle over them salt, pepper, celery and parsley; then dip again and put over another layer of oysters; season, add celery and parsley, and so continue until the baking dish is full; having the last layer oysters. Cut a tablespoonful of butter into pieces, and put them over the top; pour a gill of the oyster liquor over the whole. Bake in quick oven twenty minutes. Serve smoking hot.
PAN BAKED
Drain twenty-five oysters free from all liquor. The oysters should be good-sized and fat. In the bottom of an individual baking dish put one square of nicely toasted bread. On top of this arrange about six oysters; sprinkle over them a quarter teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper, and then pour over four tablespoonfuls of cream. Stand these dishes in a baking pan, then run into a hot oven for about ten minutes. Serve at once in the dishes in which they were cooked.
OYSTER TARTS
Have ready about half-pound of French puff paste. Drain fifty oysters. Put ten into individual baking dishes. Dust over about a quarter teaspoonful of salt, a grain of red pepper, and place in the center a bit of butter the size of a hickory nut. Roll the paste into a thin sheet; with a round cutter stamp out a top. Place this top over the oysters, brush it lightly with the yolk of an egg, and bake in a quick oven twenty minutes. Serve in the dishes in which they were baked. These, if carefully made, are sightly and are certainly very good.
CREAMED OYSTERS
Drain fifty oysters; pour over them a pitcher of cold water. Then turn them into a saucepan; bring them to a boiling point, drain again, this time saving the liquor. Measure it, and add to it sufficient milk to make one pint. Put two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour into a saucepan; mix over the fire without browning; then add the oyster liquor and milk; stir constantly until boiling; add the oysters, and bring just to boiling point. Take from the fire, add a teaspoonful of salt, a quarter of a teaspoonful of pepper, and if you use wine, two tablespoonfuls of sherry. Serve at once.
SPINDLED OYSTERS
Drain twenty-five large oysters. Cut breakfast bacon into very thin slices, and then cut each slice into three pieces. Take an ordinary broiling skewer; run it through the hard part of an oyster and then back so as to pin each oyster between two pieces of bacon; that is, run the skewer through a piece of bacon as though you were sticking it with a pin, then through an oyster, and then through another piece of bacon, and so on until the skewer is filled. Arrange all the skewers neatly on a double broiler; broil quickly over a clear fire, first on one side then on the other. Serve at once on the skewers.