Oyster Pie

Having buttered the inside of a deep dish, line it with puff-paste rolled out rather thick; and prepare another sheet of paste for the lid. Put a clean towel into the dish (folded so as to support the lid) and then put on the lid; set it into the oven, and bake the paste well. When done, remove the lid, and take out the folded towel. While the paste is baking, prepare the oysters. Having picked off carefully any bits of shell that may be found about them, lay them in a sieve and drain off the liquor into a pan. Put the oysters into a skillet or stew-pan, with barely enough of the liquor to keep them from burning. Season them with whole pepper, blades of mace, some grated nutmeg, and some grated lemon-peel, (the yellow rind only,) and a little finely minced celery. Then add a large portion of fresh butter, divided into bits, and very slightly dredged with flour. Let the oysters simmer over the fire, but do not allow them to come to a boil, as that will shrivel them. Next beat the yolks only, of three, four, or five eggs, (in proportion to the size of the pie,) and stir the beaten egg into the stew a few minutes before you take it from the fire. Keep it warm till the paste is baked. Then carefully remove the lid of the pie; and replace it, after you have filled the dish with the oysters and gravy.

The lid of the pie may be ornamented with a wreath of leaves cut out of paste, and put on before baking. In the centre, place a paste-knot or flower.

Oyster pies are generally eaten warm; but they are very good cold.

Clam Pie

Take a sufficient number of clams to fill a large pie-dish when opened. Make a nice paste in the proportion of a pound of fresh butter to two quarts of flour. Paste for shell fish, or meat, or chicken pies, should be rolled out double the thickness of that intended for fruit pies. Line the sides and bottom of your pie-dish with paste. Then cover the bottom with a thin beef steak, divested of bone and fat. Put in the clams, and season them with mace, nutmeg, and a few whole pepper-corns. No salt. Add a spoonful of butter rolled in flour, and some hard-boiled yolks of eggs crumbled fine. Then put in enough of the clam liquor to make sufficient gravy. Put on the lid of the pie, (which, like the bottom crust, should be rolled out thick,) notch it handsomely, and bake it well. It should be eaten warm.

Soft Crabs

These are crabs that, having cast their old shells, have not yet assumed the new ones. In this, the transition state, they are consi-dered delicacies. Put them into fast-boilings water, and boil them for ten minutes. Then take them out, drain them, wipe them very clean, and prepare them for frying by removing the spongy part inside and the sand-bag. Put plenty of fresh lard into a pan; and when it boils fast, lay in the crabs, and fry them well, seasoning them with cayenne. As soon as they are done of a nice golden color, take them out, drain off the lard back into the pan, and lay them on a large hot dish. Cover them to keep warm while you fry, in the same lard, all the best part of a fresh lettuce, chopped small. Let it fry only long enough to become hot throughout. When you serve up the crabs cover them with the fried lettuce. Stir into the gravy some cream, or a piece of nice fresh butter rolled in flour; and send it to table in a sauce-boat, seasoned with a little cayenne.

Soft crabs require no other flavoring. They make a nice breakfast-dish for company. Only the large claws are eaten, therefore break off as useless the small ones.

Instead of lettuce, you may fry the crabs with parsley - removed from the pan before it becomes brown. Pepper-grass is still better.