Baked Oysters

STIR over a moderate fire half a cup of butter and a cup of cream. Add a dash of cayenne, the grated yellow of a lemonpeel, and a few drops of Tabasco or oldfashioned pepper sauce. When the mixture simmers to the bubbling point pour a third of it in the bottom of a baking dish, lay oysters in thickly, and sprinkle them with breadcrumbs and salt Next pour in another third of the cream, and put in another thick layer of oysters with breadcrumbs and a little salt on top, and finally pour over your last third of the cream. Bake in a quick oven till thoroughly hot through and through. The cream on top will brown.

Creamed Oysters

Heat two dozen oysters in their own liquor, seasoning with salt, cayenne, and also with white pepper, if liked. When the oysters fill out, strain. To this liquor add a cup of cream, and boil up and skim. Then stir in two tablespoons of butter creamed with two tablespoons of flour. As the cream thickens add a teaspoon of lemonjuice and the same quantity of celery salt. Lastly, put in the oysters which you have chopped. Let all boil up two minutes and serve.

Curried Oysters

Cook in their own juice a quart of oysters till their edges begin to curl. Then put in a tablespoon of butter blended with a tablespoon of flour, a teaspoon of curry powder, salt to taste, and a dash of cayenne. Stir all together and serve at once when the flour has cooked and thickened.

Deviled Oysters

Drain off their juice and chop coarse a pint of oysters. Take a heaping tablespoon of butter, a heaping tablespoon of flour, the yolk of an egg, mix and add salt and cayenne pepper to taste, and threefourths of a cup of milk. Stir in the pint of oysters and a tablespoon of lemonjuice. Drop upon little individual dishes or shells, sprinkle with cracker or breadcrumbs which have been seasoned with melted butter, and bake fifteen minutes in a hot oven. For ease and expedition set your small dishes or shells in a large pan when ready to go to the oven.

Small Dish and Shell.

Oyster Fricassee

Put a quart of oysters in their own liquor over the fire and let come to boil. Tip in a strainer and drain off the juice. Put butter the size of an egg in a saucepan, add two tablespoons of flour, mix well, and then add the oysterjuice and a cup of cream; also salt and cayenne to taste. Beat the yolks of two eggs and add a full teaspoon of lemonjuice. Stir this into the cream, set again on the fire, add the oysters, heat, but do not boil, and serve hot.

Oyster Jambolaya

Proceed as for "Jambolaya," page 120, adding oysters in place of sausage or chicken. Use a little of the oysterjuice, but very little. The oysters must be drained very dry before adding.

Oyster Pie

Select good oysters. Put them in a colander to drain. Make a pie crust the same as for a fruit pie. Line a pie plate with a crust the same as for an ordinary sweet fruit pie. Season the oysters with salt and pepper before putting them on the pie plate. Mix through them, after they are on the pie plate (according to the size of the pie), eight or ten strips or more of the pastry, one inch long and a quarter of an inch wide, rolled thin. Cut in bits two teaspoons of butter and lay over the oysters. Cover with enough of the oyster liquor to moisten the oysters. Sprinkle flour over the top; this, with the pastry pieces, will thicken the liquor. Roll a thick upper crust Lay it double on the pie; turn the upper half over, and dip the knife in flour before trimming the edge of the pie. Cut open the centre with four strokes. Bake the pie until a light brown, and serve hot [See illustration, Plate I.]

Scalloped Oysters

In a baking dish put a layer of oysters, either mediumsized or large. Over them drop a few small pieces of butter, and also sprinkle pepper and salt. Lay on fine breadcrumbs, and on them pour a little of the oyster liquor. Next put in oysters as above directed and then breadcrumbs as above directed. So fill the dish, covering the upper layer of the bread with pieces of butter. Bake twenty minutes in a hot oven, and serve hot

Oysters On Toast Or Canapes

Chop two dozen large oysters and mix with a heaping tablespoon of fine breadcrumbs. Melt a heaping tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, add a cup of cream, half a teaspoon of salt and a dash of cayenne, and when all is hot tip in the oysters and breadcrumbs. Have ready four or five slices of bread cut in circles, fingers, or triangles, and fried a golden brown. The bread must not be too thin, say quarter of an inch thick. Put the bread in a hot dish and pour over it the oyster mixture.

Oysters In White Blankets

Use soft, finelymashed potato and make thin cakes. Cover a cake with an oyster, or if one oyster is not large enough use more than one. Put over the oyster another cake of the same size, pinch together the edges of the cakes, lay in a hot pan well oiled with oil, butter, or sweet drippings, and bake till the potato is a light brown.

Pigs In Blankets

Drain some large plump oysters, and salt and pepper them. Round each oyster wrap a thin slice of fat bacon, pinning the bacon with a wooden toothpick. Lay in a hot fryingpan and cook until the bacon is a crisp light brown. Lay upon small pieces of toasted white or graham bread and serve hot