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

Cut a small slice from each end of four hardboiled eggs, and cut them into halves the round way. Take out the yolks and pound them in a mortar, and pound in with them a mixture made of one dozen bearded oysters, a little lemon-juice, a dust of cayenne, and half an ounce of butter ; be sure to mix and pound thoroughly. Fill the whites of eggs with this mixture, dish them up, garnished with cut lemon and rolled brown bread and butter. Oyster Tartlets. Make some light pastry tartlets, then take some oysters boiled in their own liquor and bearded, one grated spoonful of horse-radish, one gill of stock, some lemon-juice, one tablespoonful of vinegar, one gill of white sauce, one teaspoonful of capers, half a gill of the oyster liquor, and a very little salt ; let all these boil a few minutes. Then add, off the fire, the yolk of an egg whisked up ; now add the oysters, then put prawns and pieces of cooked mushroom in, and then fill up with the oysters and sauce. Sprinkle over each lobster coral and parsley rubbed through a sieve. Make hot in the oven for ten minutes and serve. Oysters a la Tartare. Open two dozen native oysters, and scald them in their own liquor, and then leave them to cool. Keep one dozen of the lower shells, and select those which are even at the bottom and will stand steady, unless silver shells are available. Mix some Mayonnaise sauce made with lemon instead of vinegar, and add some chopped gherkin and capers. Put on the bottom of each shell a little mustard and cress. Remove the beards from the oysters, cut them in half, and place four half oysters in a pyramid shape on the top of the mustard and cress in each shell. Just before serving pour some of the Mayonnaise sauce over each shell of oysters, and sprinkle a very tiny dust of cayenne on each. Serve on a flat dish with a napkin garnished with parsley. Timbale of Oysters a la Princesse Victoria. Line a bomb mould very thinly with aspic jelly, cover some large oysters, some in white sauce flavoured with their own liquor and lemon-juice, and some in brown sauce similarly flavoured. Line the mould with these, alternating the colours, and mask all over inside with aspic jelly. Prepare a curiy mixture similar to ' Oysters curried,' and pour it into the mould, then put it on ice to get firm ; when ready turn it out on to a border of iced rice, and garnish round with sippets of aspic jelly, curled and boned anchovies, and lemon cut in fanciful shapes. Oyster Toast. Pour some well thickened and flavoured oyster sauce upon a buttered toast, give one squeeze of lemon and serve very hot. Oyster Toast a la Gourmet. Beard and pound a few oysters in a mortar till they become paste, then add a tablespoonful of cream, and season with a dust of cayenne. Have ready some small square pieces of buttered toast, spread the oyster paste on them, and put them in an oven for a few moments to warm. Just squeeze a few drops of lemon through a strainer over them before serving. Oyster Trifles.