Burbanks

SELECT twelve smooth potatoes of medium uniform size and bake. When cooked, make a horizontal incision on the flat side of each potato so as to make a cover and dig out the inside. To the dug out potato add cream, butter, salt, pepper and a few drops of onion juice and beat till light and creamy. Scald five dozen oysters in their own liquor; lift them out and strain the juice. To the juice add an equal quantity of cream; thicken with flour worked into butter, cook until smooth and season with salt and pepper. Remove to the back of the stove and add the yolks of four eggs beaten up with a tablespoonful of good sherry; stir until smooth and thick, then allow to cool. Into the potato shells put a layer of the prepared potato, then a layer of the sauce and over that a layer of oysters. Put on the potato cover and heat in the oven. Serve on a folded napkin.

Cachee

SEASON mashed potatoes with butter, white pepper, salt and a very little cream, not enough to soften it. Strain the liquor from the oysters and pick them over carefully. Make a thick cream sauce; add the strained oyster liquor and when boiling put in the oysters and cook till the edges curl; remove immediately and add beaten egg, enough to thicken it and stir till smooth. Rinse a tin mould with cold water and line it an inch thick with the hot mashed potato and fill with the oysters to within an inch of the top. Cover with potato pressed down evenly, then turn it from the mould into a wire frying-basket; cover with beaten yolk, then with fine bread-crumbs and plunge in deep boiling fat till nicely browned.

En Barriere

TAKE a pint and a half of well-seasoned mashed potatoes and make a miniature, smooth wall around the inside rim of a flat baking-dish; brush over with beaten egg and brown in the oven. Make a sauce of the strained liquor from a quart of oysters, a tablespoonful of butter, a half-pint of cream, two tablespoonfuls of flour, salt, cayenne and a half-tea spoonful of mace. As it boils add the oysters and cook till the edges crinkle. Turn into the potato barrier and serve.

Scones

PEEL and boil five medium sized potatoes; drain and mash; seasoning with salt, pepper and two tablespoonfuls of butter; whip up with a wire egg-beater until light and creamy. Mix in a pint of small oysters or large ones cut small and turn out on a floured moulding-board; roll out a half-inch thick and cut with a biscuit-cutter. Brush over with melted butter and dip in beaten egg seasoned with pepper and salt. Fry in a little hot olive-oil or melted butter on a griddle. Have both sides a rich brown.

Surprise

SEASON two cupfuls of mashed potato with two tablespoonfuls of rich cream, two of butter, a half-teaspoonful of salt, dash of celery salt and a little paprika; whip with a wire egg whip until light and fluffy. Form into little round pats with two oysters hidden in each. Dip in beaten egg, seasoned, roll in fine bread-crumbs and bake in a hot oven; baste occasionally with melted butter. In serving place a sprig of parsley on each one.