Food study

8. Suggest combinations of vegetables which are good with fish. 9. Suggest ways of serving left-over fish. OYSTER STEW — FISH CHOWDER A. Class Experiment. COOKING OYSTERS. Put an oyster in water and heat slowly to boiling. Observe all the changes which take place, and the temperatures which cause the changes. When are oysters done ? What is the best temperature to use in cooking? B. PREPARE OYSTER STEW. Clean oysters by pouring a little cold water over them in a strainer. Add this water to the oyster liquor and strain through cheesecloth to remove any sand present. Feel each oyster to be sure no bits of shell remain. Season hot milk with salt, pepper, and butter, then add oyster liquor and oysters. How long will you cook it after the oysters are added? Allow about equal amounts of milk and oysters ; and at least half a tablespoon of butter to each cup of milk. If thick stew is preferred, rolled crackers are sometimes cooked in the milk, or the whole thickened with flour. C. PREPARE FISH CHOWDER. 4 Ib. cod or haddock 1 tbsp. salt 6 c. potatoes cut in j inch slices or £ tsp. pepper 4 c. potatoes cut in f inch cubes 3 tbsp. butter 1 sliced onion 4 c. scalded milk 1| inch cube fat salt pork 8 common crackers Order the fish skinned, but head and tail left on. Cut off head and tail and remove fish from backbone. Cut fish in two-inch pieces and set aside. Put head, tail, and backbone broken in pieces, in stewpan; add two cups cold water and bring slowly to boiling point; cook twenty minutes. Cut salt pork in small pieces and try out, add onion, and fry five minutes ; strain into stewpan. Parboil potatoes five minutes in boiling water to cover ; drain, and add potatoes to fat ; then add two cups boiling water and cook five minutes. Add liquor drained from bones, then add the fish; cover, and simmer ten minutes. Add milk, salt, pepper, butter, and crackers split and soaked in enough cold milk to moisten. Pilot bread is sometimes used in place of common crackers. From the " Boston Cooking-School Cook Book." By OYSTERS Oysters, the United States Deputy Commissioner of Fisheries tells us, are not only the most extensively eaten OYSTERS 209 of all shellfish, but are also, with a single exception, the most valuable economically of all aquatic animals. The United States furnishes eighty-eight per cent of the total quantity of oysters produced, and has at least 150,000 men and women engaged in the industry. While all of the coast states but one deal in oysters, in fifteen of them this is the chief fishery product. However, the greatest number of oysters in this country come from Long Island Sound, Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington. France produces the crop next largest to the United States. Japan and China are also oyster producing countries. It is easy to see what a demand there must be for oysters. This is no doubt partly due to the fact that they are easily digested, but it is probably also because they can be used to furnish considerable variety to the diet, since they lend themselves to so many ways of preparation. They are almost universally used, appearing on the menus of the most exclusive as well as the cheapest restaurants. Langworthy gives the following composition for oysters : Water 88.3 per cent Nitrogenous substances 6.1 per cent