To Pickle Oysters

Ingredients

• Put your oysters in a porcelain kettle
• Sprinkle salt over them
• an equal quantity of vinegar
• as many red pepper-pods
• cloves
• blades of mace
• a lemon cut into thin slices

Method

1. 1

   Cook oysters in their liquor until edges curl.

2. 2

   Cool in cold water, drain, and sprinkle with salt.

3. 3

   Boil half the liquor with vinegar and spices, then cool with lemon slices.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Virginia Cookery-book (1884) by Mary Stuart Smith, page 30. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

To PiCKLK Oysters. (PortemoQth Recipe.) Put your oysters in a porcelain kettle, in their own liq- uor, and cook them until the edges curl up, which shows that they are done, for it is important not to let them get overdone and soft. As soon as they are done take them from their own liquor and drop them into a pan full of cold wcUer, and there let them remain for about ten min- utes; then spread them on a board to drain. Sprinkle salt over them on the board. Then take half their liquor and an equal quantity of vinegar and put them on the fire to boil, together with as many red pepper-pods, cloves, and blades of mace as you think will be enough to flavor them. After these things have all boiled up well once set them away in a china bowl to become cold. Just be- fore removing them from the fire drop in a lemon cut into thin slices

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