FoodNetArchive

Handbook of practical cookery

1886

Page 25 · 2 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
The oysters should first be boiled in their own liquor for five minutes, after which strained, cut into rough pieces, and put upon a plate. Season them then with the pepper, salt, and nutmeg. Melt the butter now in a fresh sauce-pan, adding thereto the flour and the cream, and boil all together for two minutes. Take then the sauce-pan from the fire, put into it the oysters and the parsley and onion, chopped finely, as well. This mixture must now be put nicely into large, deep oyster-shells, the bread crumbs sprinkled over each, and put into a quick oven until browned over the top. NOTE. — As the oysters used do not always furnish the proper shells for this preparation, it is well to select from time to time the shells from oysters used in other ways, and scrubbing them well, make a reserve of deep shells for this purpose. Broiled Oysters. — There will be required for this twenty- five large oysters, two table-spoonfuls of flour, four table- spoonfuls of milk, four table-spoonfuls of cracker-dust, two eggs, four heaped table-spoonfuls of bread crumbs, two ounces of butter, and the juice of half a lemon, one half a salt-spoonful of salt, and an equal amount of pepper. Drain thoroughly the liquor from the oysters, mix upon a plate the flour, milk, pepper, and salt. 28 OYSTERS AND OTHER SHELLFISH. Dip the oysters into this mixture, one by one, and, put- ting the cracker-dust upon a sheet of kitchen-paper, drop the oysters into the dust separately, and roll them from side to side by lifting the paper alternately at opposite corners. Return then to the plate, using a fork in the lifting, and let them stand for thirty minutes, that the dust may harden with the juice. Beat the eggs now until very light, and dip the oysters one by one therein, then into the bread crumbs ; and having lightly greased the broiler, put them into it, and broil for five minutes. In serving, put the butter upon them in small lumps, and squeeze over them the lemon juice. NOTE. — Before beginning the preparing of oysters in this manner, it would be well to read the notes on fried oysters, page 25. Oyster Croquettes. — Materials to be used in the follow- ing proportions : Twenty-five large oystersOyster Preparation, one dessert- spoonful of chopped parsley, three and one half ounces of butter, one and one half ounce of flour, one gill of cream, one tea-spoonful of lemon juice, one egg, three heaped table-spoonfuls of bread crumbs, one half salt-spoonful of pepper, and a piece of salt the size of a pea. The oysters should be boiled in their own liquor for five minutes, then strained, cut into rough pieces, and seasoned with the pepper and salt. The butter must then be melted in a fresh sauce-pan, the flour added, also the cream, and all cooked for two minutes. Remove the sauce-pan now from the fire, and put in the oysters, parsley, and lemon juice ; after which mix all well together and turn out upon a plate, leaving it to cool for one hour. When cool, form the mixture into small balls; beat the egg very light, and roll them in it ; after which put the bread crumbs upon a sheet of kitchen-paper, roll each ball therein from side to side separately, and fry in hot clarified fat or lai-d for two minutes. Put them as taken from the fat upon a piece of the kitchen-paper for a moment, to drain the grease off, and serve on a heated napkin garnished with sprigs of parsley.