Modern cookery for private families

are liked, or served quite plain. ANCHOVIES FRIED IN BATTER. Scrape very clean a dozen or more of fine anchovies, and soak them in plenty of spring water from two to six hours: then wipe them dry, open them, and take out the backbones, without dividing the fish. Season the insides highly with cayenne, close the anchovies, dip them into the French batter of Chapter V., or into a light English batter, and fry them a pale amber-colour: in from four to five minutes they will be quite sufficiently done. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER III. =Dishes of Shell-Fish= [Illustration] OYSTERS. [In season from September to April.] THE old-fashioned plan of _feeding_ oysters with a sprinkling of oatmeal or flour, in addition to the salt and water to which they were committed, has long been rejected by all genuine amateurs of these nutritious and excellent fish, who consider the plumpness which the oysters are supposed to gain from the process, but poor compensation for the flavour which they are sure to lose. To cleanse them when they first come up from the beds, and to keep them in good condition for four or five days, they only require to be covered with cold water, with five ounces of salt to the gallon dissolved in it before it is poured on them; this should be changed with regularity every twenty-four hours. By following this plan with exactness they may be kept alive from a week to ten days, but will remain in perfect condition scarcely more than half that time. Oysters should be eaten always the instant they are opened. Abroad they are served before the soup in the first course of a dinner, arranged usually in as many plates as there are guests at table. In England they are sometimes served _after_ the soup. A sense of _appropriateness_ must determine how far the variations of fashion should be followed in such matters. _Obs._—We were accustomed formerly to have the brine which was supplied to oysters intended to be kept for some days, changed twice in the twenty-four hours; but we were informed by