A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

off. In order to keep them hot while you are frying the rest lay the paper on a dripping pan and set it in the oven. Take next a recipe for oyster soup, thickened with cracker dust. For a quart of oysters, remove all bits of shell, as usual, and mix the oyster liquor with enough to make a quart. Take one tablespoonful of butter, a very little white pepper, if you have it, two tablespoonfuls of cracker dust finely powdered. As I told you the other day, the cracker dust which you buy at the cracker factories is the nicest. Stir all together over the fire, and when it comes to a boil put in the oysters, with a level teaspoonful of salt. Stir till the edges of the oysters curl; then serve. To thicken with flour, stir one tablespoonful of flour and one of butter together over the fire. Season with pepper, and put in one quart of liquor and milk. For plain broiled oysters, prepare the oysters as above directed and lay them on a towel. Take a double-wire broiler and butter it thickly, taking care to have the fire hot. Season the oysters lightly with pepper and but very little, if any, salt. Put the oysters between the broiler, and broil them; serve them on toast. For breaded oysters, prepare as before, and dip the oysters in melted butter seasoned with pepper and salt, and roll them in cracker crumbs. Put them on the gridiron and broil them until they are light brown. For oysters broiled with bacon, cut very thin slices of breakfast bacon, as many slices as oysters, and stick them on little skewers, half a dozen oysters on each skewer, first a slice of bacon and then an oyster, until you have half a dozen on each skewer. Flatten them so that they will lie a little apart. Put the skewer between the buttered bars of the gridiron, dust them a little with pepper and brown them. The bacon should be cut very thin and about the size of the oyster. Serve them