Oyster Soup

Ingredients

• Two quarts of perfectly fresh oysters
• one pint of water
• one quart of milk
• one tablespoonful of salt
• half a teaspoonful of pepper

Method

1. 1

   Strain off the juice from the oysters and add an equal amount of water, or if they are solid, add one pint of water, then strain and boil.

2. 2

   Skim carefully.

3. 3

   Add the milk, salt, and pepper, and set to boil.

4. 4

   When the milk boils, add the oysters.

5. 5

   They are done when the edges curl, which takes about one minute.

6. 6

   Serve immediately.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The easiest way in housekeeping and cooking (1881) by Helen Stuart Campbell, page 64. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Oyster Soup. Two quarts of perfectly fresh oysters. Strain off the juice, and add an equal amount of water, or, if they are solid, add one pint of water, and then strain and boil. Skim carefully. Add to one quart of milk one table- spoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of pepper, and, if thickening is liked, use same proportions as in hasty to- mato soup, and set to boil. When the milk boils, put in the oysters. The moment the edges curl a little, which will be when they have boiled one minute, they are done, and should be served at once. Longer boiling toughens and spoils them. This rule may be used also for stewed oys- ters, omitting the thickening ; or they may be put simply into the boiling juice, with the same proportions of butter, salt, and pepper, and cooked the same length of time. Clam Soup. Fifty clams (hard or soft) , boiled in a quart of water one hour. Take out, and chop fine. Add one quart of milk, half a teaspoonful of pepper, and one teaspoonful of salt. It will be necessary to taste, however, as some clams are Salter than others. Rub one tablespoonful of butter to a cream with two of flour, and use as thickening. Add the chopped clams, and boil five minutes. If the 128 SOUPS. clams are disliked, simply strain through a sieve, or cut off the hard part and use the soft only. Puree, of Fish, Vegetables, etc. i One pound of fresh boiled salmon, or one small can of the sealed. Pick out all bone and skin, and, if the canned is used, pour off every drop of oil. Shred it as fine as possible. Boil one quart of milk, seasoning with one teaspoonful of salt, and one saltspoonful each of mace and white pepper, increasing the amount slightly if more is liked. Thicken with two tablespoonfuls of flour, and one of butter rubbed to a cream, with a cup of boiling water ; add thickening and salmon, and boil two minutes. Strain into the tureen through a puree sieve, rubbing as much as pos- sible of the salmon through with a potato-masher, and serve very hot. All that will not go through can be mixed with an equal amount of cracker- crumbs or mashed po- tato, made into small cakes or rolls, and fried in a little butter for breakfast, or treated as croquettes, and served at dinner. This thickened milk is the foundation for many forms of fish and vegetable purees. A pint of green pease, boiled, mashed, and added ; or asparagus or spinach in the same proportions can be used. Lobster makes a puree as de- licious as that of salmon. Dry the " coral " in the oven ; pound it fine, and add to the milk before straining, thus giving a clear pink color. Cut all the meat and green fat into dice, and put into the tureen, pouring the hot milk upon it. Boiled cod or halibut can be used ; but nothing is so nice as the salmon, either fresh or canned. For a Puree of Celery boil one pint of cut celery in water till tender ; SOUPS. 129 then add to boiling milk, and rub through the sieve. For Potato Puree use six large or ten medium sized pota- toes, boiled and mashed fine ; then stirred into the milk, and strained ; a large tablespoonful of chopped parsley being put in the tureen. For a Green- Corn Soup use the milk without straining ; adding a can of corn, or the corn cut from six ears of fresh boiled corn, and an even table- spoonful of sugar, and boiling ten minutes. Salsify can also be used, the combinations being numberless, and one's own taste a safe guide in making new ones. Turtle-Bean Soup. Wash and soak over-night, in cold water, one pint of the black or turtle beans. In the morning put on the fire in three quarts of cold water, which, as it boils away, must be added to, to preserve the original quantity. Add quarter of a pound of salt pork and half a pound of lean beef ; one carrot and two onions cut fine ; one tablespoonful of salt

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