327 - Oyster Patties - White

The meaning is that the oysters are in a white sauce, for they may be either white, yellow, or brown. The same care that is needed to make a good stew is necessary also to make patties delicious, that is, not to cook the oysters long before they are wanted and not to let them get done too much. If the rich liquor of cream or milk and butter described for the "box stew" were thickened with flour just to the right point, then the oysters lightly cooked in another saucepan, dipped up and put into the sauce the, result would be reached of preparing the oys ters to fill any kind of patty cases with the white preparation, if thickened by adding raw yolks of eggs it makes the yellow sauce, if with butter and flour baked brown together and the oysters lightly cooked, stirred in at last it makes the light brown kind. To begin at the beginning take for 12 patties.

1 cupful of oysters.

1 cup milk.

Butter size of a guinea egg.

1 taplespoon flour.

Cayenne, salt.

1 teaspoon minced parsley.

1 pound of puff paste.

Make the puff paste shells first by rolling out to a quarter inch thickness, cutting out with an oval cutter and marking the inside lid, with a smaller cutter as previously directed for cherry tartlets, bake carefully in a brisk oven and when done lift out the center with a knife point.

Set the oysters over the fire to scald in their own liquor, shake about until they are set, but take off before they boil.

Mix the butter and flour together in a saucepan big enough to hold all the rest, and when it bubbles up on the range begin stirring in the milk, thus making a thick white sauce. Let it boil up, stirring constantly. Season with cayenne and salt. Take the oysters out of their liquor and put them in white sauce, and then stir in a little chopped parsley. Fill the patties, put on the lids and serve.

Cost of material - oysters 10, milk 1, butter 2, seasonings 1, puff paste 10; 24 cents, or 2 cents each.

328 - Oyster Patties - Yellow

Read the foregoing directions. When the thick cream sauce has been made beat up the yolk of an egg with a spoonful of clear oyster liquor and stir it in, and add the juice of a quarter of a lemon.

329 - Oyster Patties - Brown

Put an ounce of butter and an ounce of flour together in a small saucepan or pint cup and stir them over the fire until they are light brown, like the crust of a well baked loaf of bread in color, or else, if time cannot be spared to continue the stirring, set it in the oven, for none of it should be burnt black. When done stir in gradually 1/2 cup oyster liqnor and about half that quantity of milk, and salt and pepper to season, and at last a table-spoonful of essence of anchovies. Pass the sauce through a gravy strainer.

Scald the oysters separately and put them in the brown sauce. Use to fill the vol-au-vent patty cases of the fore going receipts.

Note. - The exercise of judgment is required to have the sauces for such pat-ties as are made by filling pastry shells as above of just the right thickness not to run out and leave the oysters bare and dry inside, and yet not so thick as to make the mixture a lump of paste. The addition of the juicy oysters to the sauce often thins it down to a degree that is a source of disappointment to an inexperienced person. Moreover, the addition of yolks of eggs to the yellow kind will not thicken them unless the boiling be stopped immediately after.

330 - Oyster Patties, Household Style

Provide 12 deep tin patty pans holding each about 1/2 cup;

1 cupful oysters.

1 cup milk.

1 large tablespoon flour.

Butter size of a walnut.

Pepper and salt.

1 pound short pie paste.

Boil the milk, thicken it with the flour mixed up with a little milk cold, add a little salt and the butter and beat until the butter is melted.

Roll out the common pie paste very thin, cut out with a large biscuit cutter and line the patty pans, put a few raw oysters in each, sprinkle with pepper and salt, nearly fill with the thick white sauce previously made, cut out more flats from the sheet of paste and put them on as lids. Brush over with mixed yolk of egg and water and bake. Serve hot with a sprig of parsley on top for ornament.

Cost of material - from 1 1/2 to 2 cents each, according to size and richness.

341 - Clam Patties

The same as oyster patties, or, with the clams prepared as for scalloped or for fricasseed clams on toast put into pastry shells instead.