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Classic
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page 258
SHELL-FISH.
Oysters are the best known of shell-fish, and are an important article of food
from September to May. In most localities they are not more expensive than
meats, and the great variety of ways in which they can be cooked, makes them a
favorite with house-keepers. Oysters in the shell must be kept in a cool cellar
and occasionally sprinkled with salt water. When fresh the shell is firmly
closed; if opened the oyster is dead and unfit for use. The small-shelled
oysters have the finest flavor. For the freshness of canned oysters it is
necessary to trust to the dealer.
In preparing them for cooking or for the table, be careful to remove all bits of
shell; never salt oysters for soups or stews till just before removing them from
the fire, or they will shrivel up and be hard.
In frying, a little baking-powder put into the cracker dust will improve them.
Roasting in the shell best preserves the natural flavor. Always serve
immediately after cooking by any of the methods given. Lobsters and crabs should
be boiled as soon as caught. The most humane way to kill them is to drop them in
a kettle full of boiling water.
CLAM CHOWDER.
Chop fifty clams, peel and slice ten raw potatoes, cut into dice six onions and
half pound fat salt pork, slice six tomatoes (if canned use a coffee-cup full),
add a pound pilot crackers; first put pork in bottom of pot and try out,
partially cook onions in pork-fat, remove the mass from pot, and put on a plate
bottom side up; make
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