Cassell's dictionary of cookery

inch deep, and an inch from the edge all round, brush it over with yolk of egg, place it on a baking-tin, and bake it in a hot oven until it is well risen, and lightly browned. Draw it out, and lift off the cover with the point of a sharp knife, scoop out the soft paste from the inside, and return the vol-au-vent to the oven for a few minutes to dry. When ready for serving, fiU the centre with oysters prepared as follows : — Beard two dozen oysters, and put the beards and the liquor into a saucepan with an inch of lemon-rind, a small pinch of salt, half an inch of mace, half a grain of cayenne, and the tenth part of a nutmeg, grated. Boil quickly for six or eight minutes, then strain the gravy. Mix a table-spoonful of tioiir smoothly with two ounces of butter. Add a quarter of a pint of cream and the oyster liquor, and simmer gentlj' until the sauce is smooth and thick. Put in the oysters, simmer two or three minutes longer, and serve. Time, about half an hour to bake the vol-au-vent; twenty minutes to prepare the oysters. Probable cost, 5s. Sufficient for four or five persons. Oysters, Wholesomeness of.— "Respecting the wholesomeness of this well-known shell-fish," says Dr. Spencer Thomson, "much difference of opinion exists among medical men; nutritious, especially when uncooked, they certainly are, but their digestibility in aU probability depends greatly upon the person by whom they are eaten. Some, whose stomachs generally require much consideration, can eat oysters, in moderation, with impunity." Dr. Paris, however, condemns them for invalids. Oysters have, though rarely, like other shellfish, caused symptoms of irritant poisoning. Oysters with Leg of Mutton.— Make half a dozen deep incisions in the thick part of a well-kept leg of mutton, and fill them with a forcemeat made as follows : — Boil a dozen fresh oysters in their own liquor for two minutes, beard them, and mince them finely with a shaUot, a table-spoonful of scalded and chopped parsley-leaves, and the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs. Tie the mutton in a cloth, put it into boiling water, let it boU, then draw it to the side of the fire, and simmer very gently until it is done enough. Servewith oyster sauce. Time to simmer, two and a half to three hours, according to size. Sufficient for eight or ten persons. Probable cost of oysters, Is. 6d. to 3s. per dozen. Padeia Cake.— Beat two ounces of fresh butter to a cream, ilix with it four ounces of ground rice, four ounces of flour, two ounces of currants, washed, picked, and dried, two ounces of muscatel raisins, chopped small, a small pinch of salt, two ounces of crushed loaf sugar, and a quarter oi a nutmeg, grated. When the dry ingredients are thoroughly blended, make them into a dough, by stirring into them half a pint of luke-warm milk, in which has been dissolved a salt-spoonful of carbonate of soda, and which has been flavoured by the addition of three or four drops of the essence of almonds. Line a mould with well-oiled paper, three-parts fill it with the dough, and bake in a moderate oven. Time, about one hour to bake the cake. Probable cost, 8d. Sufficient for a small mould. Pain d' Ananas {see Pinc-applo Pudding, or Pain d' Ananas).