Oyster stew

“ Pour the water over the oysters and stir with a spoon until all the liquid has passed through the strainer. Reserve 1/2 cup of the milk, pouring the remainder into the double boiler, set it on the fire. Put the oyster liquor in a stew-pan, and heat slowly. Mix the cold milk with the flour, and stirring into the boiling milk; cook for 10 minutes. When the oyster liquor boils, skim it. When the flour and milk have cooked for 10 minutes, add the oysters, butter, salt, pepper and oyster liquor. [93] Cook until the oysters curl on the edge and are plump. Serve at once. ”

“ Drain the oysters, and season them with the salt and pepper. Put a few tablespoonfuls of the crumbs on a plate and roll the oysters in them. Beat the egg in a soup plate and afterward stir the milk into it. Dip the oysters, one at a time, in this mixture, and roll in plenty of bread crumbs. Place them on a platter and set in a cool place. When it is time to cook them, put a layer in the frying basket and plunge into fat so hot that blue smoke rises from the centre. Cook for one minute and a half, and serve at once.
Never place one breaded oyster on top of another before they have been fried. ”

“ The beard is taken off, the oyster loosened from its shell, and with the liquor it still contains is put into the vessel prepared for it, with some good butter, some Parmesan cheese, and pepper, and thus it is put into the oven, or on the gridiron, and when it has turned a little brown some lemon-juice is poured on it, after which it may be served up. Having no Parmesan, good dry Cheshire, or even bread crumbs, are desirable. The largest and finest oysters should be chosen for this purpose ”

“ Good fat oysters generally yield five quarts of solid meat to the bushel; but, after floating two tides or more, they will measure six quarts to the bushel. After they have been properly floated they are taken from the shell—and as soon as the liquor is all strained off, they are washed in cold fresh water—and are then packed for market. In warm weather they are put into the water with ice, and are also packed with ice for shipping. Water increases their bulk by absorption and by mixing with the liquor on the surface of the oysters. The Salter the oyster the more water it absorbs. ”

“ SAUTED OYSTERS Drain twenty-five fat oysters, spread them out on a board, carefully lifting them with the fingers by the muscular part. Never stick a fork into an oyster. With a soft piece of cheese cloth, dry each one carefully without bruising. Dust lightly with salt and red pepper. Have ready a large sheet-iron sauted pan. Put in the bottom just sufficient butter to keep the oyster from sticking. Have at your side the serving dish, nicely heated, in which you may put a tablespoonful of butter, and if you use wine, a tablespoonful of sherry, and about four drops of Worcestershire sauce. ”

“ Lay the roe on one side, the liver on the other side of the fish. Serve oyster, shrimp sauce, or plain melted butter; also scalloped oysters.—Garnish with lemon, and horse-radish. If the fish be in slices, the water should be made to boil as soon as possible after they are in it, and 10 minutes will cook them: pour shrimp or anchovy sauce over the slices. If you wish it to be rich, having some clear broth, put in a boned anchovy, some pickled oysters, chopped fine, pepper, salt, a glass of Port wine, and a thickening of butter and flour ”

“ This sensation scarcely remains with people who eat oysters every day; it is more practically felt when oysters are eaten for breakfast or before dinner, although they are also very wholesome in the evening, when taken moderately. Gourmets and epicures eat the oyster in its natural state, except that the beard is taken away. In England it is eaten with pepper, in Holland with vinegar, in Germany frequently with lemon-juice; but I am of the opinion, and am convinced, that when taken with the liquor they still contain, they are more digestible and more tasty. ”

“ In the latter case the oyster becomes, for the most part, very tender, and green and fat, because the stagnant water promotes the germination of those microscopical spores of marine plants, which always abound in natural sea-water, and upon which it delights to feed. These reservoirs, therefore, are not only the means of preserving them for sale, but of purifying them from the muddy odour which they have imbibed at sea, and which indicates them to be hard and devoid of that luscious and somewhat gastronomic quality so much prized by the world at large. ”

“ Besides these young oysters, the liquor contains a variety of animalcules." Indeed, with the aid of a microscope one million of young have been discovered in a single oyster. Guarded by their two tender shells, these swim freely in the sea when ejected by the parent oyster, until, by means of a glutinous substance, they fix themselves so fast to some object that they can be separated only by force. These young are very soon able to produce others, many say at four months after their birth. When the oyster attains the size of a crown the shell is still very tender and thin ”

“ The moment an oyster in the barrel opens its mouth it dies, because there is nothing in the barrel to sustain its life. It is therefore as well, on the receipt of the little cask, to open it at once by removing the top and the first hoop, and then to place the top on the upper-most layer of oysters, keeping it in position by the addition of some heavy weight, which causes the staves to spread and stand erect; and as the layers of oysters are required for the table, it is only necessary each time to replace the top and the weight to a similar position to keep the remainder fresh for a few days. ”

“ During that month, by the law of the Admiralty Court, the dredgers have liberty to take every kind of oyster, whatsoever be its size. When they have taken them they gently raise with a knife the small brood from the cultch, and then they throw the cultch in again, to preserve the ground for the future, unless they are so newly spat, that they cannot be safely severed from the cultch, in which case they are permitted to take the stone or shell, which the spat is upon, one shell having often twenty spats. ”

“ Bob Sawyer’s supper party in Pickwick, it may be recollected that “the man to whom the order for the oysters had been sent had not been told to open them; it is a very difficult thing to open an oyster with a limp knife or a two-pronged fork: and very little was done in this way.”
And in one’s own house, unless there be an adept at oyster-opening present, the simplest way to treat the bivalve is the following. It should be remembered that a badly-opened oyster will resemble in flavour a slug on a gravel walk. So roast him, good friends, in his own fortress.
Oysters in their own Juice. ”

“ SPOILING THE AMERICAN OYSTER.
Nowhere in the world are oysters more abundant than in America. Nowhere are they cheaper or better. As a rule, too, we cook them well, in various styles; but in the opinion of most epicures a cooked oyster is an oyster spoiled. Its food value in any case, raw or cooked, is very small, and it is chiefly as a relish that those who know how to eat value it. But for years the public has been allowing the men who market oysters to eliminate the very elements which give them relish by soaking them in fresh water, which makes them bloated, blonde, and tasteless. ”

“ The oyster contains a tough muscle, by which it is attached to the shell; the body is made up largely of the liver (which contains glycogen, animal starch) , and is partially surrounded by fluted layers, which are the gills. Natural oyster beds (or banks) are found in shallow salt water having stony bottom, along the entire Atlantic Coast. The oyster industry of the world is chiefly in the United States and France, and on account of its increase many artificial beds have been prepared for oyster culture. Oysters are five years old before suitable for eating. ”