Fried Oysters

Drain the oysters from the liquor. Have ready some finely rolled crackers or corn-meal into which sprinkle some pepper and salt. Have ready in the frying-pan equal quantities of butter and lard; dip the oysters into the fine crackers or corn-meal, and fry a light brown. Another way: Make a batter in the proportion of two eggs to a cup of cream, dip the oysters into the batter, then into the crumbs, seasoned with pepper and salt. Or, you may make the batter a little thicker and omit the cracker crumbs. Fry in hot lard and butter mixed - a light brown.

Stewed Oysters

Drain the oysters from their liquor. Put them on the fire without any water or liquor and cook them till nearly done. Then drain them from the liquor that has been drawn. To one quart of oysters, add one-half pint of sweet cream or new milk, a lump of butter the size of an egg, and yolk of one egg. Season with pepper and salt to suit your taste, and thicken with a spoonful of flour. Stew all together until the egg and flour are cooked. The butter, yolk, and flour should be beaten together and made smooth before stirring into the oysters.

Escalloped Oysters

Drain the oysters from the liquor; butter the bottom and sides of a deep dish. Use bread crumbs instead of crackers; they are better. Place in the bottom a layer of oysters, bits of butter strewn over them, a little salt and pepper, just a shade of nutmeg, and so make each layer till the dish is full, having bread crumbs and butter on the top. Bake half an hour.

Fricasseed Oysters

Take a quart of large, fine oysters, pick them from the liquor. Heat in the skillet a large piece of butter almost to boiling, turn into it the oysters without the juice. When they are heated through and have begun to swell, and the ruffles stand out, stir into them a paste made of a piece of butter the size of an egg and a large tablespoonful of flour. Let it cook a minute or two longer, then serve.

Fulton Market Stew

Butter a baking-dish; take a quart of the largest saddle rock oysters, take them from the liquor and lay them in the dish with bits of butter, salt and pepper, to your taste. Bake them ten minutes in a hot oven.

Oyster Pie

Stew the oysters in their own liquor, and thicken with a small lump of butter pressed in a tablespoonful of flour. Line the sides and bottom of a deep dish with paste; turn a small teacup bottom upwards in the center of the dish. It will hold the juice, and prevent the paste from becoming heavy. Pour in the oysters with the liquor, put on the top crust, and bake twenty minutes.

Broiled Oysters

Dry large, selected oysters in a napkin, pepper and salt, and broil on a fine folding wire broiler, turning frequently to keep the juice from wasting. Serve immediately, in a hot dish, with little pieces of butter on them; or, pepper a cup of dry bread crumbs; dry one quart of oysters in a napkin, dip each in butter previously peppered, roll well in the crumbs, and broil over a good fire from five to seven minutes. Serve immediately in a hot dish with butter, pepper and salt.

Steamed Oysters

Wash and drain one quart of select oysters, put in pan and place in steamer over boiling water, cover and steam until oysters are plump with edges ruffled; place in a heated dish with butter, pepper and salt, and serve.

Oyster Patties

Put oysters in a sauce-pan, add a little milk and part of the liquor from the oysters; season with pepper and salt, a bit of lemon rind, and a piece of butter rolled in flour; stir together, and let simmer for a few minutes, and put in shells which have been previously made of puff-paste baked in patty pans. They may be served hot or cold. If hot, the shells should be warmed before adding the oysters.

Pickled Oysters

Turn them into a colander to drain; pick them out one by one with a fork and put them in a spider - as many as will lay on the bottom - to cook. Season with salt and pepper; when the edges are curled take them out, put on a platter; be very careful not to burn them. The juice that is in the spider turn into a bowl and save; continue the same till all are cooked. Strain and measure the juice and add as much cider vinegar, a few pieces of mace, a tablespoonful of whole pepper, a piece of butter the size of an egg, and let it boil five minutes; then can them up in glass jars.

Cream Oysters On The Half-Shell

Put into your inner sauce-pan a cup of hot water, another of milk, and one of cream, with a little salt. Set into a kettle of hot water until it boils, when stir in two tablespoonfuls of butter and a little salt, with white pepper. Take from the fire and add two heaping tablespoonfuls of arrowroot or cornstarch, wet with cold milk. By this time your shells should be washed and buttered, and a fine oyster laid within each. Use clamshells; you will find them more roomy and more manageable, because more regular in shape. Range these closely in a large baking-pan, propping them with clean pebbles or fragments of shell, if they do not seem inclined to retain their contents. Stir the cream very hard and fill up each shell with a spoon, taking care not to spill any in the pan. Bake five or six minutes in a hot oven after the shells become warm. Serve on the shell. Some substitute oyster liquor for the water in the mixture, and use all milk instead of cream.