60 TnE OYSTER. 



valuable recipe for making oyster sauce, -which was one c 



the great luxuries at the table of that celebrated gastronome :- 



" Choose plump and juicy natives for this purpose ; do not tak 



them out of their shells till you put them into the stew-par 



To make good oyster sauce for half a dozen hearty fish-eater; 



you cannot have less than three or four dozen oysters ; sav 



their liquor, strain it, and put it and them into a stew-pan 



as soon as they boil, and the fish plump, take them oiF the fir 



and pour the contents of the stew-pan into a sieve over a clea 



basin ; wash the stew-pan out with hot water, and put into it tl 



strained hquor, with about an equal quantity of milk, and aboi 



two and a half ounces of butter, with which you have well rubbe 



a large table-spoonful of flour; give it aboil up, andpourit throng 



a sieve into a basin, that the sauce may be quite smooth, ai 



then back again into the saucepan ; now shave the oysters, ai P 



(if you have the honour of making sauce for " a Committee 



Taste," take away the gristly part also) put in only the soft p£ 



of the oysters ; if they are veiy large, cut them in half, and 



them by the fire to keep hot ; ' if they boil after, they wiU 1: 



come hard.' If you have not liquor enough, add a little melt 



butter, or cream, or milk beat up with the yolk of an egg (tl 



must not be put in tiU the sauce is done) . Some barbarc 



cooks add pepper, or mace, the juice or peel of a lemon, hor 



radish essence of anchovy, cayenne, etc. ; plain sauces are oi 



to taste of the ingredients from which they derive their nan 



It wiU very much heighten the flavour of this sauce to pound t 



soft part of half a dozen unboiled oysters ; rub it througl 



hair sieve, and then stir it into the sauce. Tliis essence of oyst 



and for some palates a few grains of cayenne, is the only addit: 



we recommend." 



Notwithstanding Dr. Kitchener's objection to t 

 introduction of extraneous substances by " harhan 

 cooks,'' because de Gustihus, as the adage of ''t 

 apple and the onion" has abeady reminded me, 

 always a matter not to be disputed, I shall add Ale: 



