The home cook book

' In a wineglass put six small oysters and add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, a dessertspoon of catsup, two drops of Tabasco sauce, and three or four drops of lemon-juice or vinegar. This is one portion, or cocktail. OYSTER COCKTAIL WITH SHERRY Be sure the glass is cold before beginning. Put in the glass six oysters, and over them a dash of salt, then pour one tablespoon of sherry over the oysters, measuring the wine carefully. Serve with two small, plain crackers. HOT OYSTER COCKTAIL Open a dozen medium-sized Blue Point oysters, and catch their liquor in an earthen saucepan or chafing-dish. Set the dish to heat, and as soon as the liquor begins to bubble take off the scum and mix in two tablespoons of minced celery, and add a little salt, a dash of red pepper, and two tablespoons of butter. When these ingredients are all hot and well blended slip in the oysters. Watch closely until their edges begin to curl, and then add a sherry glass of sherry. Stir well together and serve in hot soup plates. OYSTERS IN GRAPEFRUIT BASKETS Cut grapefruit so as to form a one-side handle basket. Scoop out the pulp and clip edge into points with scissors. Place eight small oysters in each basket and cover them with a sauce made of equal portions of lemon- juice, grated horseradish, tomato catsup, and speck mustard. Place on shaved ice on plate and serve. [See illustration, Plate I.] CROUTONS AND SOUP-BALLS A Soup Bouquet— Bread Fingers— Bread-and-Cheese Balls— Croutons— Curry Balls— Egg- Balls— Egg-and-Cheese Balls— Meat Balls— Winter Suet Balls A SOUP BOUQUET TO season soup with a soup bouquet, as it is called, which is another way of naming a bunch of sweet herbs, tie together with a white thread a small sprig of sage, a sprig of summer savory and thyme and parsley and a bay leaf. Drop the bunch into the soup you want flavored and let it cook in the soup for half an hour, if you have a moderate quantity of soup, and less time if you have less soup. The delicacy of the herbs is destroyed by long cooking, and by following that method you lose what you sought in making the bouquet. BREAD FINGERS FOR SOUP Cut off the crusts of stale slices of bread, cut the bread in fingers about four inches long and three-quarters of an inch wide, lay in a dripping-pan and toast a golden brown in a moderate oven. BREAD-AND-CHEESE BALLS FOR SOUP Mix half a cup of fine soft breadcrumbs with half a cup of soft American cheese and half a teaspoon of salt and a dash of cayenne. When thoroughly blended stir to a paste with an uncooked egg. Form into small balls, not larger than a hickory-nut, drop into boiling water and cook two minutes and then transfer to the soup. Or if you don't mind the balls coloring a clear soup, drop direct into the soup two minutes before serving. CROUTONS AND SOUP-BALLS 17 CROUTONS FOR SOUP Take slices a third of an inch thick of stale bread, cut off the crusts, butter, and then cut in half-inch squares, or in pieces the size of a cent, or in triangles, diamonds, or other fancy shapes. Put in a dripping-pan in a moderate upper oven and toast a light brown. Put four or five in a plate of soup when serving. Another way to make them is to cut and then to fry a light brown in hot fat, or to put them in a frying-pan with a little butter and brown.