Part 6

Two hundred large fresh oysters. Four table-spoonfuls of strong vinegar. A nutmeg, grated. Three dozen of cloves, whole. Eight blades of mace, whole. Two tea-spoonfuls of salt if the oysters are fresh. Two tea-spoonfuls of whole allspice. As much cayenne pepper as will lie on the point of a knife.

Put the oysters, with their liquor, into a large earthen pitcher. Add to them the vinegar and all the other ingredients. Stir all well together. Set them in the stove, or over a slow fire, keeping them covered. Take them off the fire several times, and stir them to the bottom. As soon as they boil completely they are sufficiently done; if they boil too long they will be hard.

Pour them directly out of the pitcher into a pan, and set them away to cool. They must not be eaten till quite cold, or indeed till next day.

If you wish to keep them a week, put a smaller quantity of spice, or they will taste too much of it by setting so long. Let them be well covered.

Oysters in the shell may be kept all winter by laying them in a heap in the cellar, with the concave side upwards to hold in the liquor. Sprinkle them every day with strong salt and water, and then with Indian meal. Cover them with matting or an old carpet.

STEWED OYSTERS.

Open the oysters and strain the liquor. Put to the liquor some grated stale bread, and a little pepper and nutmeg, adding a glass of white wine. Boil the liquor with these ingredients, and then pour it scalding hot over the dish of raw oysters. This will cook them sufficiently.

Have ready some slices of buttered toast with the crust cut off. When the oysters are done, dip the toast in the liquor, and lay the pieces round the sides and in the bottom of a deep dish. Pour the oysters and liquor upon the toast, and send them to table hot.

OYSTER SOUP

Three pints of large fresh oysters. Two table-spoonfuls of butter, rolled in flour. A bunch of sweet herbs. A saucer full of chopped celery. A quart of rich milk. Pepper to your taste.

Take the liquor of three pints of oysters. Strain it, and set it on the fire. Put into it, pepper to your taste, two table-spoonfuls of butter rolled in flour, and a bunch of sweet marjoram and other pot-herbs, with a saucer full of chopped celery. When it boils, add a quart of rich milk-and as soon as it boils again, take out the herbs, and put in the oysters just before you send it to table. Boiling them in the soup will shrivel them and destroy their taste.

FRIED OYSTERS

For frying, choose the largest and finest oysters. Beat some yolks of eggs and mix with them grated bread, and a small quantity of beaten nutmeg and mace and a little salt. Having stirred this batter well, dip your oysters into it, and fry them in lard, till they are of a light brown colour. Take care not to do them too much. Serve them up hot.

For grated bread, some substitute crackers pounded to a powder, and mixed with yolk of egg and spice.

BAKED OR SCOLLOPED OYSTERS.

Grate a small loaf of stale-bread. Butter a deep dish well, and cover the sides and bottom with bread crumbs. Put in half the oysters with a little mace and pepper. Cover them with crumbs and small bits of butter strewed over them. Then put in the remainder of the oysters. Season them. Cover them as before with crumbs and butter. If the oysters are fresh, pour in a little of the liquor. If they are salt, substitute a little water. Bake them a very short time. You may cook them in the small scolloped dishes made for the purpose.

OYSTER PATTIES.

Make some rich puff-paste, and bake it in very small tin patty pans. When cool, turn them out upon a large dish.

Stew some large fresh oysters with a few cloves, a little mace and nutmeg, some yolk of egg boiled hard and grated, a little butter, and as much of the oyster liquor as will cover them. When they have stewed a little while, take them out of the pan, and set them away to cool. When quite cold, lay two or three oysters in each shell of puff-paste.

OYSTER-SAUCE.

When your oysters are opened, take care of all the liquor, and give them one boil in it. Then take the oysters out, and put to the liquor three or four blades of mace. Add to it some melted butter, and some thick cream or rich milk. Put in your oysters and give them a boil. As soon as they come to a boil, take them of the fire.

PICKLED OYSTERS.

Four hundred large fresh oysters. A pint of vinegar. Eight spoonfuls of salt. A pint of white wine. Six table-spoonfuls of whole black pepper. Eight blades of mace.

Strain the liquor of the oysters and boil it. Then pour it hot over the oysters, and let them lie in it about ten minutes. Then take them out, and cover them. Boil the liquor with the salt, pepper, mace, vinegar and wine. When cold, put the oysters in a close jar, and pour the liquor over them. Cover the jar very tight, and the oysters will keep a long time.

If the oysters are salt, put no salt to the liquor.

CHICKEN SALAD.

Two large cold fowls, either boiled or roasted. The yolks of nine hard-boiled eggs. Half a pint of sweet oil. Half a pint of vinegar. A gill of mixed mustard. A small tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper. A small tea-spoonful of salt. Two large heads, or four small ones, of fine celery.

Cut the meat of the fowls from the bones, in pieces not exceeding an inch in size.

Cut the white part of the celery into pieces about an inch long. Mix the chicken and celery well together. Cover them and set them away.

With the back of a wooden spoon, mash the yolks of eggs till they are a perfectly smooth paste. Mix them with the oil, vinegar, mustard, cayenne, and salt. Stir them for a long time, till they are thoroughly mixed and quite smooth. The longer they are stirred the better. When this dressing is sufficiently mixed, cover it, and set it away.

Five minutes before the salad is to be eaten pour the dressing over the chicken and celery, and mix all well together. If the dressing is put on long before it is wanted, the salad will be tough and hard.

This salad is very excellent made of cold turkey instead of chicken.

LOBSTER SALAD.

Take two large boiled lobsters. Extract all the meat from the shell, and cut it up into very small pieces.

For lobster salad, you must have lettuce instead of celery. Cut up the lettuce as small as possible.

Make a dressing as for a chicken-salad, with the yolks of nine hard-boiled eggs, half a pint of sweet oil, half a pint of vinegar, a gill of mustard, a tea-spoonful of cayenne, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Mix all well together with a wooden spoon.

A few minutes before it is to be eaten, pour the dressing over the lobster and lettuce and mix it very well.

STEWED MUSHROOMS.

Take a quart of fresh mushrooms. Peel them and cut off the stems. Season them with pepper and salt. Put them in a sauce-pan or skillet, with a lump of fresh butter the size of an egg, and sufficient cream or rich milk to cover them. Put on the lid of the pan, and stew the mushrooms about a quarter of an hour, keeping them well covered or the flavour will evaporate.

When you take them off the fire, have ready one or two beaten eggs. Stir the eggs gradually into the stew, and send it to table in a covered dish.

PEACH CORDIAL.

Take a peck of cling-stone peaches; such as come late in the season, and are very juicy. Pare them, and cut them from the stones. Crack about half the stones and save the kernels. Leave the remainder of the stones whole, and mix them with the cut peaches; add also the kernels. Put the whole into a wide-mouthed demi-john, and pour on them two gallons of double-rectified whiskey. Add three pounds of rock-sugar candy. Cork it tightly, and set It away for three months: then bottle it, and it will be fit for use. This cordial is as clear as water, and nearly equal to noyau.

CHERRY BOUNCE.

Take a peck of morella cherries, and a peck of black hearts. Stone the morellas and crack the stones. Put all the cherries and the cracked stones into a demi-john, with three pounds of loaf-sugar slightly pounded or beaten. Pour in two gallons of double-rectified whiskey. Cork the demi-john, and in six months the cherry-bounce will be fit to pour off and bottle for use; but the older it is, the better.

RASPBERRY CORDIAL.

To each quart of raspberries allow a pound of loaf-sugar. Mash the raspberries and strew the sugar over them, having first pounded it slightly, or cracked it with the rolling-pin. Let the raspberries and sugar set till next day, keeping them well covered, then put them in a thin linen bag and squeeze out the juice with your hands. To every pint of juice allow a quart of double-rectified whiskey. Cork it well, and set it away for use. It will be ready in a few days.

Raspberry Vinegar (which, mixed with water, is a pleasant and cooling beverage in warm weather) is made exactly in the same manner as the cordial, only substituting the best white vinegar for the whiskey.

BLACKBERRY CORDIAL.

Take the ripest blackberries. Mash them, put them in a linen bag and squeeze out the juice. To every quart of juice allow a pound of beaten loaf-sugar. Put the sugar into a large preserving kettle, and pour the juice on it. When it is all melted, set it on the fire, and boil it to a thin jelly. When cold, to every quart of juice allow a quart of brandy. Stir them well together, and bottle it for use. It will be ready at once.

GINGER BEER.

Put into a kettle, two ounces of powdered ginger,(or more if it is not very strong,) half an ounce of cream of tartar, two large lemons cut in slices, two pounds of broken loaf-sugar, and one gallon of soft water. Simmer them over a slow fire for half an hour. When the liquor is nearly cold, stir into it a large table-spoonful of the best yeast. After it has fermented, bottle for use.

JELLY CAKE.

Stir together till very light, half a pound of fresh butter and half a pound of powdered white sugar. Beat twelve eggs very light, and stir them into the butter and sugar, alternately with a pound of sifted flour. Add a beaten nutmeg, and half a wine-glass of rose-water. Have ready a flat circular plate of tin, which must be laid on your griddle, or in the oven of your stove, and well greased with butter. Pour on it a large ladle-full of the batter, and bake it as you would a buck-wheat cake, taking care to have it of a good shape. It will not require turning. Bake as many of these cakes as you want, laying each on a separate plate. Then spread jelly or marmalade all over the top of each cake, and lay another upon it. Spread that also with jelly, and so on till you have a pile of five or six, looking like one large thick cake. Trim the edge nicely with a penknife, and cover the top with powdered sugar. Or you may ice it; putting on the nonpareils or sugar-sand in such a manner as to mark out the cake in triangular divisions. When it is to be eaten, cut it in three-cornered slices as you would a pie.

COLOURING FOR ICING, &c.

_To make a red colouring for icing_. Take twenty grains of cochineal powder, twenty grains of cream of tartar, and twenty grains of powdered alum. Put them into gill of cold soft water, and boil it very slowly till reduced to one half. Strain it through thin muslin, and cork it up for use. A very small quantity of this mixture will colour icing of a beautiful pink. With pink icing, white nonpareils should be used.

RICE CAKES FOR BREAKFAST.

Put half a pound of rice in soak over night. Early in the morning boil it very soft, drain it from the water, mix with it a quarter of a pound of butter, and set it away to cool. When it is cold, stir it into a quart of milk, and add a very little salt. Beat six eggs, and sift half a pint of flour. Stir the egg and flour alternately into the rice and milk. Having beaten the whole very well, bake it on the griddle in cakes about the size of a small dessert-plate. Butter them, and send them to table hot.

GROUND RICE PUODIJVG.

Take five table-spoonfuls of ground rice and boil it in a quart of new milk, with a grated nutmeg or a tea-spoonful of powdered cinnamon, stirring it all the time. When it has boiled, pour it into a pan and stir in a quarter of a pound of butter, and a quarter of a pound of powdered sugar, a nutmeg and half a pint of cream. Set it away to get cold. Then heat eight eggs, omitting the whites of four. Have ready a pound of dried currants well cleaned, and sprinkled with flour; stir them into the mixture alternately with the beaten egg. Add half a glass of rose-water, or half a glass of mixed wine and brandy. Butter a deep dish, put in the mixture, and hake it of a pale brown. Or you may bake it in saucers.

TOMATA KETCHUP.

Slice the tomatas. Put them in layers into a deep earthen pan, and sprinkle every layer with salt. Let them stand in this state for twelve hours. Then put them over the fire in a preserving kettle, and simmer them till they are quite soft. Pour them into a linen bag, and squeeze the juice from them. Season the liquor to your taste, with grated horse-radish, a little garlic, some mace, and a few cloves. Boil it well with these ingredients--and, when cold, bottle it for use.

YEAST

Have ready two quarts of boiling water; put into it a large handful of hops, and let them boil twenty minutes. Sift into a pan a pound and a half of flour. Strain the liquor from the hops, and pour half of it over the flour. Let the other half of the liquid stand till it is cool, and then pour it gradually into the pan of flour, mixing it well. Stir into it a large tea-cup full of good yeast,(brewer's yeast if you can get it.) Put it immediately into bottles, and cork it tightly. It will be fit for use in an hour. It will be much improved and keep longer, by putting into each bottle a tea-spoonful of pearl-ash.

FINIS