Top make A Ragoo of Oysters for Flesh-Days
Open your Oysters, and put them into a saucepan with their own Liquor; give them two or three turns over the stove to blanch them; then take them out one by one, clean them well, and lay them in a plate. Toss up in a saucepan some Mushrooms and Truffles, with a little melted Bacon; moisten them with Gravy, let them simmer a while, and thicken them with a cullis of Veal and Ham. When you are ready to serve, throw in your Oysters, make them hot, but take care they do not boil, for then they will lose their taste. So serve them in Plates or little Dishes.
To make a Ragoo of Oysters for Fish-Days
Open, blanch and clean your Oysters as in the above Receipt. Then toss up in a stewpan some Mushrooms and Truffles, in fresh Butter; moisten them with fish-broth, and when they are stew’d thick them with a meagre Cullis, put in your Oysters and heat them; so serve them in Plates or little dishes.
Another way of making a Ragoo of Oysters
Having open’d your Oysters, lay them in a sieve to drain, but not something under the sieve to receive the liquor. Put a piece of fresh Butter in to a saucepan, and set it over a stove; when it is melted, put in some flour, and keep stirring it with a wooden spoon till it be brown; then put in some crusts of Bread, of the bigness of the top of your finger, and next your drain’d Oysters; give them five or six turns over the fire, season them with Pepper, Parsley and Chives, moisten them with their own liquor and fish broth, half one and half the other, heat all this together, but let it not boil; so serve them in plates or little dishes.
To broil Oysters
Open them and leave them in their shells; put to them some pepper, a little shred Parsley, and Butter, and cover them with Bread, grated very fine; so broil them, and brown them at top with a red-hot shovel: serve them hot in plates or little dishes.
To stew Oysters
Rub over the bottom of a silver dish with good butter, and having open’d your Oysters, lay them in it, and strew over them a little Pepper and minc’d parsley. Then put to them half a glass of Champaign Wine; cover them with slices of fresh butter, cut very thin, strew over them some crumbs of Bread grated very small; lay a tartpan cover over the dish, and set them a stewing with fire over and under them, till they are of a fine brown colour; then take off all the fat, clean the brims of your dish, and serve them very hot.
Instead of grated bread, we sometimes shrew them over with grated Cheese, and then call them, Oysters au Parmesan.
To fry Oysters
Open them and lay them in a sieve to drain; when they are drained marinate them in a dish or stewpan with pepper, a Bayleaf, a little Basil, a sliced Onion, half a dozen Cloves, and the juice of three or four lemons; and keep turning them in it from time to time. Make a batter with Flour and Water, a little Salt, and one Egg, both white and Yolk of it. Beat it all well together, and let your Batter be neither too thick nor too thin. Melt as big as a Walnut of Butter, and mix it with your Batter. When you are ready to fry your Oysters, take them one by one out of the Marinade, and lay them on a napkin; lay likewise another napkin over them, and dry them very well; put your pan over the fire with clarify’d Butter, dip you Oysters one by one in the batter, and put them into the frying pan, which must first be very hot; fry them brown, then serve them on a clean napkin with fry’d Parsley.
On Flesh-Days instead of the Butter, we fry them in Hogs Lard.
Oysters a la Daube
Open your Oysters and season them with Parsley, Basil and Chives, shred very small, putting a little of it to each Oyster, with Pepper and a little White Wine; then cover them with the upper shell, and broil them on a gridiron, lay from time to time a red-hot shovel over them. When they are enough, take off the upper shell, and serve them in the under one.
To farce Oysters
Open your Oysters and blanch them; then hash them very small, with parsley, chives, Salt, Pepper, Anchovies and Butter. Mix with this the crumb of a French roll soak’d in Cream, with Nutmeg and other sweet spices, and the Yolks of two or three Eggs. Pound all this together in a mortar, fill your shells with it, and strew some crumbs of bread over it. Put a Gridiron into the Oven and bake them upon it; so serve them dry.
Another way to farce Oysters
Make a farce with the flesh of an Eel, and a dozen of blanch’d Oysters, a little Parsley and Chives, some Mushrooms, savoury herbs, and sweet Spices, a piece of fresh Butter, some crumb of bread soak’d in Cream, the yolks of two raw Eggs, all hash’d together and pounded in a mortar. Lay some of this Farce very thin on the bottom of your shells, and put in each of them a ragoo’d Oyster. [the Manner of making the Ragoo is mention’d before] cover your shells with the same Farce, rub them over with beaten Egg, pour in a little melted Butter, drudge them with bread crumm’d very small, and bake them in the oven till they are of a brown colour; so serve them. You may likewise farce Oysters with a farce made of flesh, making use of the Ragoo above-mention’d for flesh-Days.
To make an Oyster Pie. See Article Pie.
At six a clock in the morning, put over a leg of Beef, about six pound of Brisket-Beef, cut in five or six pieces, season’d moderately with Spices and Salt; skim it, let it boil till your Broth is very strong; take a neck of Veal, a Neck of Mutton, a piece of a Loin of Pork; if no Pork, then take half a Pig; or if you have neither of them, take half a gang of Hog’s Feet, boil them tender with good seasoning; cut your Mutton, Port, and Veal in square pieces, two ribs to a piece, skin your Pork, give it all two or three boils in boiling Water, then let it drain in a colander; when it is drain’d, either roast it or fry it of a good colour; if you roast it, you must do it quick, that it lose not its gravy; then take your Brisket-Beef out of your Broth, before it be quite tender, because it must boil along e=with the other Meat; place it in a large brass dish or stewpan. At the same time, get ready the Roots and Herbs following; viz. three Savoy’s cut in four pieces each, six Carots cut in long slices, two parsnips cut in long slices, two bunches of Celery, six Leek-heads a hand long ,twelve Parsley roots, six heads of Endives or Cabbage-Lettice; put over five or six dozen of Carots, Turnips, and Onions as big as the yolks of Eggs; blanch all these off in boiling water, and drain them through a colander; then tie each sort of the herbs up by itself, with a piece of pack thread twice round; place them in your stewpan, with your meat above-mentioned and strain your broth from your Leg of Beef, through a sieve on the top of your meat and herbs, as much as will barely cover it, and set it a boiling softly three hours before you use it; then fry off your Turneps, Carots, and Onions, that were cut round, in Hogs Lard or clarify’d Butter: place them in a saucepan; then get the Fowls following, or what the country can afford, viz two chickens, two pigeons, two woodcocks, four snipes, two Teals, or Widgeons, two dozen of larks; let them be all singed and trussed up for boiling, blanch them in boiling water, then throw them out on a colander; when they are cold, lard half of them with small lardoons, and either roast or fry them brown, as you did your meat aforesaid, as quick as you can, because they may not lose their goodness. When your said meat and herbs are half-dressed, put your fowl on the top of it with the breasts down, with as little broth as barely covers all; then put some Broth and Gravy to your fry’d Roots, and split your Hogs feet, and put in them a little bit of Bacon stuck with Cloves: set all a stewing together; put likewise a quarter of a pound of middling Bacon, stuck with tow dozen of Cloves, in the Middle of your Meat that is a stewing and two or three Cloves of Garlick, ty’d up in a rag with a pennyworth of Saffron; you must take care in the boiling, that it take not too much taste of either; cover all up, and let it stew softly; then make your thickening ready as follows: if in summer, boil up two quarts of green Pease, and put to them three pints of good strong broth, and strain them through a strainer as thick as you can, and thicken your Olio with this, but it must not be so thick as a Cullis for any other soop; likewise put a little into your fry’d roots; or, if in winter, you may use blue Pease; but if you have neither of these put a quarter of a pound of Butter in a sauce pa, a small handful of flour, brown it softly over a clear fire, rubbing it with a lade; when brown, put to it three pints of the same broth and gravy, let it boil up and strain it through a fine sieve; about an hour before you serve it, pour half of it over your Olio, and half over your fry’d roots; put into it six whole Onions; let all stew softly together giving it a shake now and then; that it sit not to, and take care that it be tender boil’d but come not to a mash; set it off before you intend to dish it up, and skim the fat off clean; then prepared some dry’d bread in the bottom of your dish, a good stout rim of lean Paste an inch high, set on with the Yolk of an Egg and dry’d in an Oven. Then put some of the same broth from your Olio to soak your bread with. It will take half an hour’s time to dish it in order; when you dish it up, take up all your Meat, fowls, and Herbs, and put them into another dish, and begin with your coarsest meat first, in the bottom of your dish, such as Beef, Pork, mix’d with some of your roots; lay your first row out, touching your rim, and so by degrees draw it into the top in the manner of a sugarloaf, the finest of your fowl next to the top, with the Hogs Feet and Ears; then take the fry’d roots, the at being clean taken off, lay them handsomely with your spoon in al the vacancies and hollow places round and over your Olio; take care you do not hide you Fowl too much, and that you put not too much Broth in your dish when you dish it up, because you must leave room for some of your boiling cullis to be pour’d over it when you serve it away; then strain the remainder of your broth that you stew’d your roots in, and likewise some of that in your stewpan, be sure there is no fat on it; put into it the crust of half a French roll, when it is tender soak’d, put it into a silver cup or china bason, with about a quart of your broth. So serve it up on a plate with your Olio, as it goes away; take care you make it not too salt, because there comes salt from your larded fowls, and from your bacon that is stuck with cloves; be sure that none of your liquor run over the rim of your dish. According to your company and bigness of your dish, you may put in half the quantity of meat above mentioned. So serve it.
