Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Oyster Sandwiches. — Boil the oysters in their own liquor until the edges curl. Remove them from the fire, and when cold chop them with an equal quantity of celery or white lettuce leaves. Mix them with mayonnaise dressing (they must have been salted when cooked), and use as a filling for brown bread. Another variety of oyster sandwich is made with fried oysters. Allow a large oyster to each sandwich. Cut thin slices of bread as nearly as possible the shape of the oyster, and when buttered place between them the oysters delicately browned. Mayonnaise dressing, either bought or of home manufacture, is invaluable in the preparation of sandwiches. With its aid almost any scraps of fish or meat can be made edible, and it is a good plan to make it in quantities, as it will keep a long time in a cold place. Oyster Sauce. — Boil two dozen oysters in their own liquor for two or three [See p. 124 SALMON TROUT LARDED AND STUFFED [See p. 113 CODFISH A LA BONNE FEMME FRESH MACKEREL STUFFED AND BAKED [See p. 120 Oyster Sausages Oysters, Spindled minutes, drain, put the liquor with a cupful of fresh milk into a saucepan, and set back on the fire; rub 1 oz. of butter and 2 ozs. of flour together, and stir into the boiling sauce. Chop the oysters, and add with salt and pepper. Take from the fire and serve. Oyster Sausages. — Take x/z lb. of lean mutton, Y\ lb. of beef suet, twoscore of oysters, scalded, and the beards taken off. Chop all together, and add some bread-crumbs and yolks of eggs to bind the materials together. Season well with salt, white pepper, and mace. Make this composition into the form of sausages, and fry them lightly in the usual way. Oysters, Scalloped. — Wash the oysters well, and put them on the grid iron. As soon as they open, take from the fire, and throw away the flat shell, leaving them in the deep one, but detaching them from it. Sprinkle on each oyster some parsley chopped fine, salt, white pepper, and breadcrumbs ; then put on each a little piece of butter ; put them into the oven for seven or eight minutes ; take off, add a few drops of meat gravy to each, put back into the oven for two or three minutes, and serve warm. They may be scalloped in a scallop-shell, putting three or four oysters on each shell, with the same seasonings as above. Another way : — Open them when raw, and then place them on the shells as above. For about a quart of oysters, when opened, melt about 2 ozs. of butter in a pan, and mix a table-spoonful of flour with it, stir until it turns rather brown ; then add a gill of meat gravy and the juice of the oysters, well strained, with pepper and salt, stir now and then, and boil for ten minutes. Put a little of this sauce on each shell, dust them with bread or cracker crumbs, add a piece of butter on each shell also, and put into a warm oven for twelve minutes. Take off and serve warm. The term scalloped is also frequently applied to all baked oysters, and the to