Harper's cook book encyclopædia

one table-spoonful of wine vinegar. Stir well and remove from the fire. Butter well a silver baking-dish and put in it one thin layer of the sauce just described, and dress the mussels over. Put the balance of the same over the mussels, and cover them with one thin coat of freshly made bread-crumbs. Divide in small pieces one table-spoonful of fresh butter and distribute over the crumbs. Place quickly in warm oven and cook for seven minutes. Serve the mussels in the dish in which they have been cooked, as to transfer them would spoil their appearance. Oysters may be cooked in practically the same way. After opening, place them in a saucepan in their own liquor, remove at the first boiling, and then proceed as described above. Mussels a la Marinifere. — Scrape with a knife and wash four or five times in cold water the shells of a quart of very fresh mussels of medium size. Wipe dry, and put them into the chafing-dish with two table-spoonfuls of cold water, a teaspoonful each of onions and parsley chopped very fine, two table-spoonfuls of soft bread-crumbs (crumbled, not grated), one heaping table-spoonful of butter, half a teaspoonful of salt, and two pinches of pepper. Cover and cook six minutes, turning the mussels twice, in order that each shell shall open. At the end of this time add a teaspoonful of good vinegar and mix the mussels well together. When all are open they are sufficiently cooked. Take out the empty shells, pour over the sauce, and serve. This dish needs a good flame, and should be cooked without the use of the hotwater pan. A second caution is that good mussels are found only in the very best markets. Oysters, Baltimore (in chafingdish.) — Drain two dozen or one quart of large oysters. Put one pint of ordinary white wine in the chafingdish. When boiling, put in the oysters, cook two minutes, strain them Oysters, Broiled Oysters, Creamed well, and keep the wine for further use. Remove the tendons of the oysters, clean the chafing-dish, and put in half a table-spoonful of butter and half a table-spoonful of flour ; stir constantly for two minutes. Pour over it slowly half of the wine, and then half a pint of good, rich cream, always stirring. Season with one salt-spoonful of salt, half a one of black pepper, quarter of a one of red pepper. Cook for eight minutes, add the oysters, and cook two minutes more. Beat the yolks of two raw eggs with a little of the gravy, add half a table-spoonful of butter, and put out the flame. Pour in the eggs and stir gently; serve at once very hot. The chafing-dish bowl must be directly in contact with the flame. Oysters, Broiled. — The largest size must be selected for broiling. Drain them, and lay for a few minutes in a folded napkin, to absorb all moisture. Rub a little butter over the gridiron, and place the oysters on it before placing over the fire. Sprinkle salt over them, and broil first on one side and then on the other. Serve on a hot platter with drawn butter, or arrange small pieces of toasted bread on the platter, turn the oysters on the toast, and pour over all a sauce made by simmering together the liquor, a bit of butter, and enough flour to thicken to a consistency of cream. A finemeshed wire gridiron is the best for the purpose. It should be kept exclusively for oysters. If meat is broiled on it, it will impart an unpleasant taste.