Although oysters may with safety be eaten in September, or in any month in which the letter R is found, it is only when October comes with its first chilly days that we fully begin to appreciate them.

The chafing-dish will be found convenient for many recipes in which oysters are used, as there are so many dishes of this kind which may be as easily and quickly made at the table as in the kitchen.

Oysters on Toast.  Chop fine fifteen oysters, add salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg.  Take a gill of cream and beat it into the yolks of two eggs, beat this lightly into the oysters; put them on to simmer, and when set, pour the mixture over slices of buttered toast.

Pan-baked Oysters.  Drain the oysters.  Take individual baking-shells; put into the bottom of each a square of buttered toasted bread.  Cover this completely with three or four small oysters, dust with salt and pepper,, cover with breadcrumbs, with bits of butter on them, and bake in a quick oven from ten to fifteen minutes.  Add a tablespoonful of hot cream to each shell, and serve at once.

Fried Oysters.  For frying oysters, first make  your cracker meal and then season it with pepper and salt; then beat up three eggs and add to them a pint of sweet milk; then beat all well together.  Drain your oysters; then throw in your cracker meal, then drop them, one at a time, into the batter, then back again into the meal, and pat them gently so the meal will stick on them, and you have a nice shape to them.  Now put on your lard or cottolene.  You want to see that it is smoking hot before you drop your oysters in.  Use a medium-sized skillet; never try to fry more than a half a dozen at a time, for they will cool the grease, and your oysters will come out soft and not fit to eat.

Fancy Roast.  Put your oysters in a saucepan without water.  Stir them or shake the pan slightly; as soon as they are heated, sufficient liquor will come from them to keep from burning.  Cook only until the edges ruffle and the oysters look plump instead of flat.  Season with salt, pepper, and butter, and serve on toasted zephyrettes.

Scalloped Oysters.  Take one pint of solid oysters washed and drained.  Butter a shallow dish, and cover the bottom with a layer of cracker crumbs, then a layer of oysters, and moisten with the liquid from the oysters heated hot.  Season with salt, pepper, bits of butter dotted over the crumbs, and lemon juice.  Then put in another layer of crumbs, oysters, and seasoning, with a thick layer of crumbs on the top, and dot it over thickly with bits of butter.  Bake in a hot over about twenty minutes, or until the crumbs are brown.

Broiled Oysters.  Pick over, and drain large oysters.  Dip them in melted butter, then in fine cracker crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper.  Butter a fine, wire gridiron, put the oysters in closely, and broil until the juice flows.  It will be found necessary to keep a little a saucepan of melted butter in another pan of hot water else the butter will cool and harden.  Broiled oysters are much more easily digested than fried oysters.

Reference:

[NO AUTHOR] (1896, October). Oysters in October. The Household, XXIX(10), 28. Retrieved from http://victoriantimes.us/antique-recipes/oysters-in-october. ^

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