Oysters à la mode, or, The oyster and over 100 ways of cooking it

with barley or rice to keep their shape, bake them in a brisk oven till cooked. Crush some vermicelli on a board with a rolling-pin, turn out the pastry cases from the moulds, brush them over with white of egg, and roll them in the vermicelli. Take out the rice and fill in an oyster mixture, made of oysters and button mushrooms (two oysters to one small mushroom), all cut into dice. Warm them in a little white sauce, into which a little anchovy sauce and lemon-juice have been added. Make some little paste handles to imitate baskets, and put them across ; cover the top with fried parsley and serve very hot. Allemande sauce may be used instead of the white sauce. Oyster Patties (Old-Fashioned). Petits Pates d'Huitres a I'Ancien Regime. Roll out some light puff pastry half an inch thick, stamp it in rounds with a pastry cutter two inches and a half in diameter, press a small cutter an inch and a half in diameter on the middle of each round to the depth of a quarter of an inch. Place the rounds on a buttered tin, and bake them in a quick oven till they are risen, and lightly browned ; then take them out, remove the smaller centre-piece, scoop out a little of the inside and fill the empty space with the prepared oysters ; put on the lid and serve. Prepare the oysters by bearding them and cutting them into small pieces, with an inch of lemon-rind, a grate of nutmeg, a tiny dust of cayenne and a pinch of pepper, and boil for seven or eight minutes. Strain the liquid, and thicken it with a dessertspoonful of flour and half an ounce of butter. Mix in two tablespoonfuls of good cream and a dessertspoonful of lemon-juice ; then add the oysters, simmer all together gently for three minutes, fill the patties and serve. Oyster Patties a la Francaise. Stew some oysters, and beard them, and cut them into dice. Have some mushrooms also cut into dice, which you fry in a little butter dusted over with flour. Moisten with some of the liquor of the oysters, one or two spoonfuls of consomme, two spoonfuls of cream, and let it reduce. Add a small bit of butter ; season well with salt and cayenne pepper ; throw the oysters into the sauce and fill the patties, which must be in dariole moulds. Oysters and Pheasant. Faisan farci aux Huitres. Stuff a pheasant with three dozen bearded oysters ; put them in as you would stuff a duck, and hang the bird before the fire exactly in the opposite position to the usual way. The oysters give the pheasant a very delicious flavour. Oyster Pie. Pate d'Huitres. Butter the inside of a shallow pie-dish rather thickly, and line the edges with a good puff paste. Open and beard two dozen oysters, lay them on the dish, season with a little salt and cayenne, and a little grated mace, and sprinkle over them three tablespoonfuls of finely-grated bread crumbs. Mix the strained oyster liquor with a gill of. thick cream and a teaspoonful of strained lemon-juice. Pour this sauce over the oysters, put the cover over the pie, and bake in a moderate oven. Oyster Pie a I'Americaine. (American Recipe.)