Common Sense in the Household 12

Common Sense in the Household 12

OYSTER OMELET. ✠

 

12 oysters, if large; double the number of small ones.

6 eggs.

1 cup milk.

1 tablespoonful butter.

Chopped parsley, salt, and pepper.

 

Chop the oysters very fine. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs

separately as for nice cake—the white until it stands in a heap. Put

three tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan, and heat while you are

mixing the omelet. Stir the milk into a deep dish with the yolk, and

season. Next put in the chopped oysters, beating vigorously as you add

them gradually. When they are thoroughly incorporated, pour in the

spoonful of melted butter; finally, whip in the whites lightly and with

as few strokes as possible. If the butter is hot, and it ought to be,

that the omelet may not stand uncooked, put the mixture into the pan.

_Do not stir it_, but when it begins to stiffen—“to set,” in culinary

phrase, slip a broad-bladed, round-pointed dinner-knife around the

sides, and cautiously under the omelet, that the butter may reach every

part. As soon as the centre is fairly “set,” turn out into a hot dish.

Lay the latter bottom upward over the frying-pan, which must be turned

upside-down dexterously. This brings the browned side of the omelet

uppermost. This omelet is delicious and easily made.

 

 

OYSTER PIE. ✠

 

Make a rich puff-paste; roll out twice as thick as for a fruit-pie

for the top crust—about the ordinary thickness for the lower. Line a

pudding-dish with the thinner, and fill with crusts of dry bread or

light crackers. Some use a folded towel to fill the interior of the

pie, but the above expedient is preferable. Butter the edges of the

dish, that you may be able to lift the upper crust without breaking.

Cover the mock-pie with the thick crust, ornamented heavily at the

edge, that it may lie the more quietly, and bake. Cook the oysters as

for a stew, only beating into them at the last two eggs, and thickening

with a spoonful of fine cracker-crumbs or rice-flour. They should stew

but five minutes, and time them so that the paste will be baked just

in season to receive them. Lift the top crust, pour in the smoking hot

oysters, and send up hot.

 

I know that many consider it unnecessary to prepare the oysters and

crust separately; but my experience and observation go to prove that,

if this precaution be omitted, the oysters are apt to be wofully

overdone. The reader can try both methods and take her choice.

 

 

PICKLED OYSTERS. ✠

 

100 large oysters.

1 pt. white wine vinegar.

1 doz. blades of mace.

2 doz. whole cloves.

2 doz. whole black peppers.

1 large red pepper broken into bits.

 

Put oysters, liquor and all, into a porcelain or bell-metal kettle.

Salt to taste. Heat slowly until the oysters are very hot, but not to

boiling. Take them out with a perforated skimmer, and set aside to

cool. To the liquor which remains in the kettle add the vinegar and

spices. Boil up fairly, and when the oysters are almost cold, pour over

them scalding hot. Cover the jar in which they are, and put away in a

cool place. Next day put the pickled oysters into glass cans with tight

tops. Keep in the dark, and where they are not liable to become heated.

 

I have kept oysters thus prepared for three weeks in the winter. If you

open a can, use the contents up as soon as practicable. The air, like

the light, will turn them dark.

 

It is little trouble for every housekeeper to put up the pickled

oysters needed in her family; and besides the satisfaction she will

feel in the consciousness that the materials used are harmless, and

the oysters sound, she will save at least one-third of the price

of those she would buy ready pickled. The colorless vinegar used by

“professionals” for such purposes is usually sulphuric or pyroligneous

acid. If you doubt this, pour a little of the liquor from the pickled

oysters put up by your obliging oyster-dealer into a bell-metal kettle.

I tried it once, and the result was a liquid that matched the clear

green of Niagara in hue.

 

 

ROAST OYSTERS.

 

There is no pleasanter frolic for an Autumn evening, in the regions

where oysters are plentiful, than an impromptu “roast” in the kitchen.

There the oysters are hastily thrown into the fire by the peck. You may

consider that your fastidious taste is marvellously respected if they

are washed first. A bushel basket is set to receive the empty shells,

and the click of the oyster-knives forms a constant accompaniment to

the music of laughing voices. Nor are roast oysters amiss upon your

own quiet supper-table, when the “good man” comes in on a wet night,

tired and hungry, and wants “something heartening.” Wash and wipe the

shell-oysters, and lay them in the oven, if it is quick; upon the top

of the stove, if it is not. When they open, they are done. Pile in a

large dish and send to table. Remove the upper shell by a dexterous

wrench of the knife, season the oyster on the lower, with pepper-sauce

and butter, or pepper, salt, and vinegar in lieu of the sauce, and you

have the very aroma of this pearl of bivalves, pure and undefiled.

 

Or, you may open while raw, leaving the oysters upon the lower shells;

lay in a large baking-pan, and roast in their own liquor, adding

pepper, salt, and butter before serving.

 

 

RAW OYSTERS.

 

It is fashionable to serve these as one of the preliminaries to a

dinner-party; sometimes in small plates, sometimes on the half-shell.

They are seasoned by each guest according to his own taste.

 

 

STEAMED OYSTERS.

 

If you have no steamer, improvise one by the help of a cullender and

a pot-lid fitting closely into it, at a little distance from the top.

Wash some shell oysters and lay them in such a position in the bottom

of the cullender that the liquor will not escape from them when the

shell opens, that is, with the upper shell down. Cover with a cloth

thrown over the top of the cullender, and press the lid hard down upon

this to exclude the air. Set over a pot of boiling water so deep that

the cullender, which should fit into the mouth, does not touch the

water. Boil hard for twenty minutes, then make a hasty examination of

the oysters. If they are open, you are safe in removing the cover.

Serve on the half-shell, or upon a hot chafing dish. Sprinkle a little

salt over them and a few bits of butter; but be quick in whatever you

do, for the glory of the steamed oyster is to be eaten hot.

 

 

OYSTER PÂTÉS. ✠

 

1 qt. oysters.

2 tablespoonfuls of butter.

Pepper, and a pinch of salt.

 

Set the oysters, with enough liquor to cover them, in a saucepan upon

the range or stove; let them come to a boil; skim well, and stir in

the butter and seasoning. Two or three spoonsful of cream will improve

them. Have ready small tins lined with puff paste. Put three or four

oysters in each, according to the size of the _pâté_; cover with paste

and bake in a quick oven twenty minutes. For open _pâtés_, cut the

paste into round cakes: those intended for the bottom crust less than

an eighth of an inch thick; for the upper, a little thicker. With a

smaller cutter, remove a round of paste from the middle of the latter,

leaving a neat ring. Lay this carefully upon the bottom crust; place a

second ring upon this, that the cavity may be deep enough to hold the

oysters; lay the pieces you have extracted also in the pan with the

rest, and bake to a fine brown in a _quick_ oven. When done, wash over

with beaten egg, around top and all, and set in the oven three minutes

to glaze. Fill the cavity with a mixture prepared as below, fit on the

top lightly, and serve.

 

 

_Mixture._

 

Boil half the liquor from a quart of oysters. Put in all the oysters,

leaving out the uncooked liquor; heat to boiling, and stir in—

 

½ cup of hot milk.

1 tablespoonful butter.

2 tablespoonfuls corn starch, wet with a little milk.

A little salt.

 

Boil four minutes, stirring all the time until it thickens, and fill

the cavity in the paste shells. These _pâtés_ are very nice.

 

 

SCALLOPS.

 

The heart is the only part used. If you buy them in the shell, boil and

take out the hearts. Those sold in our markets are generally ready for

frying or stewing.

 

Dip them in beaten egg, then in cracker-crumbs and fry in hot lard.

 

 

_Or,_

 

You may stew like oysters. The fried scallops are generally preferred.

 

 

SCALLOPED CLAMS.

 

Chop the clams fine, and season with pepper and salt. Cayenne pepper

is thought to give a finer flavor than black or white; but to some

palates it is insufferable. Mix in another dish some powdered cracker,

moistened first with warm milk, then with the clam liquor, a beaten

egg or two, and some melted butter. Stir in with this the chopped

clams. Wash as many clam-shells as the mixture will fill; wipe and

butter them; fill, heaping up and smoothing over with a silver knife

or teaspoon. Range in rows in your baking-pan, and cook until nicely

browned. Or, if you do not care to be troubled with the shells, bake

in patty-pans, sending to table hot in the tins, as you would in the

scallop-shells.

 

 

CLAM FRITTERS. ✠

 

12 clams, minced fine.

1 pint of milk.

3 eggs.

 

Add the liquor from the clams to the milk; beat up the eggs and put to

this, with salt and pepper, and flour enough for thin batter; lastly,

the chopped clams. Fry in hot lard, trying a little first to see that

fat and batter are right. A tablespoonful will make a fritter of moderate size. Or, you can dip the whole clams in batter and cook in like manner. Fry quickly, or they are apt to be too greasy.