Oyster Cream Soup

Ingredients

• a solid quart of oysters
• enough water to make a quart of liquid
• two tablespoonfuls of butter
• two tablespoonfuls of flour
• a quart of boiling milk
• season the soup palatably with salt and pepper
• very small crackers or with small fried crusts

Method

1. 1

   Free oysters from shells and strain their liquor.

2. 2

   Boil oysters in their liquor with enough water to make a quart.

3. 3

   Rub oysters through a sieve, keeping warm.

4. 4

   In a saucepan, melt butter and flour until bubbling, then gradually add boiling milk, stirring smooth.

5. 5

   Add oyster pulp and liquor, adjust thickness with more milk if needed, season, boil once, and serve with crackers or fried crusts.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management (1885) by Juliet Corson, page 108. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

OYSTER CREAM SOUP. Carefully free a solid quart of oysters from all particles of shell, and strain their liquor ; put the oysters over the fire in their liquor, with enough water to make a quart of liquid, and let them reach the boiling-point ; then rub the oysters through a fine sieve with a potato-masher, moistening them with the liquor, and keep them warm ; next put over the fire in a saucepan two tablespoonfuls each of butter and flour, and stir them until they bubble ; then add a quart of boiling milk, gradually, stirring it quite smooth, and the oyster pulp and liquor ; when these ingredients are smoothly blended, if they are thicker than thick cream, add a little more boil- ing milk, season the soup palatably with salt and pepper, let it boil once, and then serve it with very small crackers or with small fried crusts prepared as directed in the follow- ing recipe. FRIED CRUSTS FOR SOUP. Cut thin slices of bread in small even dice, rejecting the crust; put over the fire the frying-kettie half full of fat, 9nd when it begins to smoke throw in the crusts, and fry them golden-brown ; take them out of the fat with a skim- 1 88 PRACTICAL AMERICAN- COOKERY. mer, lay them on brown paper for a moment to free them from grease, and then use them for serving with soup. OYSTER SOUP WITH EGGS. Use for two quarts of soup one quart of oysters ; free them from bits of shell, and drain them frofe their liquor ; add to the liquor a pint of milk, and sufficient water to in- crease the quantity to about two quarts ; place the milk and oyster liquor over the fire, seasofi it with salt and white or red pepper, let it boil for a moment, and remove any scum that may rise ; meantime, beat four eggs smoothly with half a pint of milk, and strain them ; after the scum has all been removed from the soup, put into it the oysters and the eggs and milk, and stir it constantly until it begins to thicken ; do not let it boil, lest the eggs curdle ; as soon as it is smooth and scalding hot, serve it. The oysters need so litrie cooking that the heat of the scalding broth is sufficient to do them properly. SOFT CLAM sour WITH TOMATOES. Wash a pint of soft clams in two quarts of cold water until they are perfectly free from sand, and then strain the water through a towel fine enough, to retain the sand; cut the hard part of the clams away from the soft portions, and put the latter in a cool place until the soup is nearly done ; chop the hard parts of the clams medium fine, put them into a saucepan with the water in which they were washed, a pint of canned or sliced tomatoes, an onion peeled and sliced, a small red pepper, and two teaspoonfuls of salt ; cook all these ingredients together very slowly for an hour, and then strain them through a fine colander.- After the soup has been strained, put it again over the fire, add to it half a pint of milk, a tablespoonful of butter, fo

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.