Miss Leslie's New Cookery Book

the liquor, a table-spoonful of salad oil. Use no other than _genuine cider-vinegar_. Much that is sold for the best white-wine vinegar is in reality a deleterious compound of pernicious drugs, that will eat up or dissolve the oysters entirely, leaving nothing but a sickening whitish fluid. This vinegar is at first so overpoweringly sharp and pungent, as to destroy, entirely, the taste of the spices; and, while cooking, emits a disagreeable smell. The oysters immediately become ragged, and in less than an hour are entirely destroyed. This vinegar acts in the same manner on all other pickles, and the use of it should always be shunned. _Drugs_ should not be employed in any sort of cookery, though their introduction is now most lamentably frequent. They ruin the flavor and are injurious to health. OYSTER PATTIES.--Make sufficient puff-paste for at least a dozen small patties. Roll it out thick, and line with it twelve small tin patty-pans. Bake them brown in a brisk oven; and when done set them to cool. Have ready two or three dozen large, fine, fresh oysters. Wash and drain them, and put them into a stew-pan with no other liquid than just enough of their own liquor to keep them from burning. Season them with cayenne, nutmeg, and mace, and a few of the green tops or leaves of celery sprigs minced small. Add a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, divided into bits, and laid among the oysters. To enrich the gravy, stir in, at the last, the beaten yolks of three or four eggs, or some thick cream or butter. Let the oysters stew in this gravy about five minutes. When the patties are beginning to cool, fill each with one or two large oysters. If you choose, you can bake for every patty a small round lid of pastry, to be laid lightly on the top, so as to cover the oysters when they go to table. For company, make a large quantity of oyster patties, as they are much liked. OYSTER LOAVES.--Take some tall fresh rolls, or small loaves. Cut