The Pattern cook-book

Use only large oysters for this purpose. Wash the shells and scrub them with a brush ; then place them in a baking pan, with the round sides down to hold the juice, and bake in a hot oven until the shells open. Remove the upper shells, season each oyster (which should be slightly loosened from the lower shell) with butter, salt and pepper, and serve at once in the shells. Oysters baked in this way are sometimes removed from the shells and served in a hot dish. There is no way of cooking the oyster in which the natural flavor is so fully developed. Another method of baking oysters in the shell is as follows : Open the oysters, and season them highly with butter, salt and pepper and a drop of Worcestershire sauce or a little catsup, and bake a few minutes in a very hot oven. Gentlemen who are fond of condiments generally prefer oysters roasted in this way. OYSTERS, BROILED. Use the oyster-broiler for this work. (See " Kitchen Utensils.") Only the largest oysters are suitable for broiling. Drain the oysters, season with salt and pepper, dip them one by one in melted butter, and roll them in flour. Then lay them on the broiler, and cook over clear coals until they turn a delicate brown. These are served on slices of thin toast. Fine cracker-crumbs may be used instead of flour, if preferred. OYSTERS, SCALLOPED. Drain the oysters, and place a generous layer of them in a baking dish, seasoning with salt and pepper and dots of butter, half a table-spoonful of butter being none too much. Spread a thick layer of- cracker-crumbs over the oysters, and repeat the layers of oysters, seasoning and crumbs until all the oysters have been used, placing a layer of cracker-crumbs at the top and sprinkling them lightly with salt, pepper and dots of butter. Add an equal quantity of milk to the oyster liquor — that is, as much milk as liquor — mix well together, and pour the liquid over the oysters, etc., helping it through to the. bottom of the dish at the sides, but disturbing the oysters as little as possible. Bake twenty minutes, not too rapidly, and serve in the baking-dish. There should be at least a tea-cupful of the liquid to a quart baking-dishful of oysters ; and if there is not half a tea-cupful of the liquor, add enough more milk to make up the difference. Oysters are often scalloped in their shells, using three oysters to each shell ; or individual silver scallop dishes are used, which is the daintiest way of serving. FISH. 1 2 I OYSTER CHOWDER. One quart of oysters. Six potatoes. • One and a-half pint of milk. Three pilot or sea biscuits. One table-spoonful of flour. One table-spoonful of butter. One onion. Salt and pepper to taste.