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

1888

Page 17 · 4 recipe records on this page

Presented as published in 1888. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
Cover a deep dish with puff paste, lay an extra layer around the edge of the plate, and bake nicely. When done fill the pie with oysters (cut off the beards), season with pepper and salt and butter, dust over a little flour, and cover with thin puff paste. Bake quickly ; when the top crust is done the oysters should be. Serve as soon as baked, as the crust absorbs the gravy. This pie is quite as good cold as hot. Oysters Pickled. Put the oysters which are to be pickled in a saucepan with their own liquor, and let them boil gently for twelve minutes. Lift them out, put them into small jars and cover them. Let the liquid settle, then pour off the clear part, measure it and put it on to boil with the same quantity of good vinegar, two blades of mace, a teaspoonful of peppercorns, and the thin rind of half a small lemonOysters Pickled with each pint of vinegar. Boil this pickle for ten minutes, then take it off, and when cold pour it over the oysters and tie them down carefully, or they will spoil. They will not keep more than a few weeks, there- fore they should be put into small jars, so that the contents of one may be finished at once after being exposed to the air. They should be served in a 32 OYSTERS A LA MODE. small dish with a little of the pickle strained over them, and a little finely-minced parsley sprinkled on the top. Brown bread and butter may be eaten with them. Pillau of Oysters. Wash six ounces of Patna or Java rice thoroughly and pick out the unhusked grains. Drain it and put it into- a saucepan, with a pint of boiling and highly-seasoned gravyPillau of Oysters. Keep the pan uncovered ; stir a little at first to prevent the rice from getting into lumps, and let it boil very gently till soft. Then put it into a sieve, and let the cold water run over it for a few moments ; then place it before the fire to dry. Keep stirring now and again with a fork to prevent its sticking. Pile it lightly round a dish, and fill the hollow in the middle with a pint of rich oyster sauce, according to recipe for oyster sauce. Oyster Powder. Open three dozen oysters and pound them thoroughly in the mortar with six drachms of salt ; then press them through a hair sieve. Mix with them as much dried flour as will make them into a smooth paste ; this will be a little more than six ounces. Roll the mixture out three or four times, and the last time leave it the eighth of an inch thick. Stamp it into small cakes, dredge these with flour, dry them gradually in a cool oven, and be very careful they do not burn. To prevent this, turn them every twenty minutes. When the cakes are quite dry crush them to powder, and put ,them OYSTERS A LA MODE. 33 into bottles, cork and seal them securely, and they will be ready for use when oysters are out of season, when sauces flavoured with oysters are re- quired. For use for sauce, mix three drachms of the powder smoothly with an ounce of butter and six tablespoonfuls of milkOyster Powder ; stir smoothly over a gentle fire till it boils, season with cayenne and lemon-juice. Oyster Pudding (in Scallop Shells). Oyster Pudding (in Scallop Shells)