Drain thoroughly and have your cracker crumbs and white sauce ready.
Put a layer of oysters on a platter, then the white sauce over them, and a layer of the crumbs on top. Bake about twenty minutes or until they are brown. For this quant.i.ty of oysters use a cup of cracker or bread crumbs and about one-third of a cup of b.u.t.ter, melted and stirred into the crumbs. To make the white sauce, take two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, one pint of milk, two heaping tablespoonfuls of flour, one-half teaspoonful of salt and one-half saltspoonful of pepper. Heat the milk. Put the b.u.t.ter in a granite saucepan and when it bubbles stir in the dry flour very quickly until well mixed. Pour on one-third of the milk, let it boil up and thicken, then add slowly the rest of the milk. It should be free from lumps before you put in the last of the milk. Let it boil a little, then add the pepper and salt; also a tablespoonful of lemon juice and a little celery salt.
"LITTLE PIGS IN BLANKETS."
From MRS. ISABELLA LANING CANDEE, of Illinois, Alternate Lady Manager.
This amusing and appetizing dish is easily made. Take large fine oysters and drain them well, and season with salt and pepper, and a drop of lemon juice if desired. Cut fat bacon into very thin, even slices, and wrap each oyster in a slice of bacon, fastening securely with a wooden skewer--a toothpick will do. Two cloves can be inserted at one end of the roll to simulate _ears_. Have the frying pan very hot, and cook the little pigs until the bacon crisps. Serve immediately upon small pieces of toast.
ESCALLOPED OYSTERS.
From MISS META TELFAIR MCLAWS, of Georgia, Alternate Lady Manager.
Spread cracker crumbs on bottom of baking dish; then place bits of b.u.t.ter and a layer of oysters, which must be sprinkled with salt and pepper. Make alternate layers of oysters, cracker crumbs, salt, pepper, and b.u.t.ter until dish is full. Have crumbs on top. Now make a small incision in center and pour in one well beaten egg, with a small quant.i.ty of oyster liquor. Put in hot oven and brown nicely.
CREAMED SHRIMPS.
From MRS. M. D. FOLEY, of Nevada, Lady Manager.
Cover one can of shrimps with cold milk and allow to come to a boil; then drain. Rub one tablespoonful flour with same quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter and add slowly one cup rich milk or cream at the boiling point. Season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and enough tomato juice to color a shrimp pink. Stir in the shrimps and when hot pour over small squares of toast arranged on a warm platter. Garnish with sliced lemons.
SAUCES
SAUCE MOUSSELINE.
From MRS. WILSON PATTERSON, of Maryland, Alternate Lady Manager.
_I am always interested, and do my best to help anything done to help other women.
I send you a recipe which I hope may be of service to you. It is a delicious sauce for asparagus and is given me by the chef of Prince Jerome Bonaparte.
Wishing you every success in your most worthy undertaking, I am,
Sincerely yours, _
Put in a sauce pan a piece of b.u.t.ter, melt it, add it pinch of flour; work it together thoroughly, wet it with a little warm water, salt it, make it boil, add the yolk of an egg; then beat up the sauce with a little fresh b.u.t.ter; pa.s.s it through the finest gauze. At the minute of serving add two spoonfuls of beaten cream, well mixed.
BOILED EGG SAUCE.
From MRS. JAMES R. DOOLITTE, JR. of Chicago, Lady Manager.
One large tablespoonful b.u.t.ter; two small tablespoonfuls flour; two eggs. Put the b.u.t.ter in a tin pan over boiling water; when melted, stir in flour. When thoroughly and smoothly mixed, add enough milk to make it the proper consistency for sauce. Boil the eggs hard, cut them in small pieces, stir them into the sauce, and serve with fish or boiled mutton.
TARTAR SAUCE.
From MRS. MYRA BRADWELL, of Chicago, Lady Manager.
Three eggs; four tablespoonfuls olive oil; one and one-half teaspoonful of mustard; one teaspoonful black pepper; one teaspoonful salt; juice of one lemon; two tablespoonfuls of vinegar; one tablespoonful chopped parsley. Boil two of the eggs very hard; rub the yolks to a powder; add the raw yolk of the other egg. Stir in slowly the oil. Chop fine the two whites of the boiled eggs; add the chopped parsley and one small onion chopped as fine as possible.
MEATS
FILET OF BEEF.
From MRS. GOVERNOR OGLESBY, of Illinois, Lady Manager.
Filets of beef may be supplied by the butcher already trimmed and larded, but a more economical way is to buy the large piece which contains the tenderloin. Have the butcher cut the tenderloin out and the rest of the meat into slices one-half or one inch thick; these pieces may be used to advantage in beef olives, stews or pies, the bones in the piece of meat to be broken up for the soup pot. The filet is then to be prepared by the cook in this manner: Remove all skin and fat; fold the thin end under and skewer in place; the upper side must present a smooth surface for larding; with a larding needle lard the filet of beef in regular and even rows, with strips of firm, fat pickled pork one-quarter of an inch square and about two and one- quarter inches long. The lardoon should be about one-third of an inch under the surface and come out about three-quarters of an inch from where it went in, one-half inch projecting on each side. Place the filet in a small baking pan, with minced salt pork and suet on the bottom of the pan, and six spoonfuls of stock to baste the filet.
One-half to three-quarters of an hour will roast it, depending on heat of oven and whether it is preferred underdone or well done.
Serve with mushroom sauce or a la jardiniere.
_Mushroom Sauce_--Melt one tablespoon b.u.t.ter; stir in a tablespoon of flour, and when it is well browned, add, after heating, six tablespoons of stock with half the juice from the can of mushrooms and one-half teaspoonful of lemon juice, seasoned with pepper and salt; add the b.u.t.ton mushrooms and let all simmer about ten minutes.
Pour over the filet of beef and serve.
_a la Jardiniere_--Potatoes, turnips, beets, and carrots, cut in round b.a.l.l.s, tiny onions, cauliflower blossoms, French beans or peas, are boiled separately in salted water, seasoned with salt, b.u.t.ter and cream, drained and then piled in little groups around the filet of beef, each pile being one kind of vegetable.
_Beef Olives_--Slices of beef one-half inch thick and about four inches square, spread with a force meat of cold meat, bacon or ham, with one cup of bread crumbs, the yolks of three eggs, one pint of gravy or stock, a tablespoon of catsup, salt and pepper to taste. Roll up the slices of beef and fasten with tiny skewers; brush them over with egg and crumb and brown slightly in the oven; then put in stew pan and stew till tender. Serve in gravy in which they were cooked, with fried or toasted croutons of bread.
ROAST BEEF.
From MRS. MATILDA B. Ca.r.s.e, of Chicago, Lady Manager,
In roasting meats of all kinds, the method adopted should be the one that in the most perfect manner preserves the juices inside the meat.
To roast beef in the best possible manner, place the clean-cut side of the meat upon a _very_ hot pan. Press it close to the pan until seared and browned. Reverse and sear and brown the other side.
Then put at once in the oven, the heat of which should be firm and steady, but not too intense, and allow 20 minutes to the pound: if it is to be rare, less half an hour deducted from the aggregate time on account of searing. For example, a five-lb. roast of beef will require one and one-quarter hours, a six-lb. roast one and one-half hours, and so on. If the oven is in not too hot, the beef requires no basting.
When it is at the proper temperature and the cooking is going all right, the meat will keep up a gentle sputtering in the pan. A roast of beef should never be washed but carefully wiped off with a damp cloth. When meal is done, take it from the oven, cut off the outside slices, then salt and pepper well. The meat, if roasted in this way, will be sweet, juicy and tender.
YORKSHIRE PUDDING.
From MRS. HARRIET A. LUCAS of Pennsylvania, Lady Manager.
This pudding, as its name indicates is a great English dish, and to be used as vegetables are, with _roast beef only_. When vegetables are scarce, it adds a change to the menu, which everybody likes but few know how to make successfully, because _it is very simple_.
For a small family, put one pint of milk into a bowl, a small pinch of salt: break into this (without beating) two fresh eggs. Now have a good egg beater in your hand; dust into this one-half pint of sifted flour; beat vigorously and rub out all the lumps of flour. Have ready a smaller roasting pan than that in which your beef is roasting, and put in it a good tablespoonful of sweet lard, _very hot_; pour your light batter into this, place a spit or wire frame in the pudding, lift the roast from the pan about 20 minutes before it is done and put it on the spit, so that the juices of the beef will drop on to the pudding. About 20 minutes will cook it. Make gravy in the pan from which the roast has been removed. Slide into a hot meat dish and serve with the meat. Most cooks persistently raise it by adding some sort of baking powder, thinking it of no importance that the meat is over the pudding.
I never yet found a person that did not enjoy a _good_ Yorkshire pudding. This is a small one, for four or five persons. If you increase the pudding, also select a larger pan, as the batter should be fully one-half to an inch in the pan; if not, it will become too crusty.