TURKEY AND OYSTERS. * 238 



turned to better account. No one who has not eaten 

 oysters dressed in this primitive mode has the least idea 

 of the piquant flavour of which they are capable. Stewed 

 in their own juice, the action of tire only brings out the 

 full flavour, and as the juice is consumed as well as the 

 oyster there is no waste, and no dissipation of the in- 

 describable but potent aroma. 



The immediate contact of fire, the great purifying 

 and vivifying influence of the material world, has a 

 wondrous effect upon the objects submitted to its in- 

 fluence. There should be as few intervening substances 

 as possible between the fire and the food. Are not 

 chops and steaks broiled over glowing charcoal infinitely 

 superior to the very same viands fried through the 

 intervention of sheet iron and melted grease? The 

 nearer the fire the better the food. Take, for example, 

 a slice of bacon, dress it in any complicated way you 

 like, and I will engage to surpass the most intricate 

 efforts of cookery by merely laying the bacon on the 

 glowing and smokeless coals. It will not burn. It will 

 curl, and coil, and twist, and splutter, as if in extremest 

 agony ; it will be lapped in fierce flames, ' like the pale 

 martyr in his shirt of fire,' and it will pass from the 

 flames to the table in supreme condition, without a 

 particle of cinder upon it, with all the flavour retained, 

 and all the superabundant grease and salt burnt out. 

 Expertissimo credo Roberto. 



Should any of my readers indulge in such a supper 

 as has been described, I can predict two events but not 



