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Plain Oyster-soup, mature

From The cook and housewife's manual (1847).

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A historical recipe

The cook and housewife's manual, by C. I. (Christian Isobel) Johnstone (1847).

United Kingdom

Known as a British recipe, with similar versions prepared across other nations.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Printed in United Kingdom: that says where the book was made, not where the dish comes from.

Ingredients 3 ingredients

  1. four pints of water
  2. a half pound of fresh butter
  3. four onions

Cook safely

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

  • Hot oil. Never put water on an oil fire: turn off the heat and cover the pan with a lid or a damp tea towel. Pat food dry before it goes into hot oil, and lower it in gently, away from you.
  • Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
  • Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Method

  1. Have good Court Bouillon (No.
  2. 679,) or make some of four pints of water, four onions fried in butter, mace, and other seasonings.
  3. Put to this when skimmed a half pound of fresh butter, and a hundred picked oysters ;
  4. also a few mushrooms.
  5. Thicken with rice-flour and simmer slowly a quarter of an hour.

Plating

Cookware for this recipe

  • Frying pan
  • Saucepan
  • Chef's knife
Source public domain per archive.org metadata; unverified
Credit

From The cook and housewife's manual (1847), printed page 129, digitised by the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/cookandhousewif03johngoog

What was changed: Read by machine from the book's scanned text into ingredients and method. The title's capitals were tidied; spelling and scanning errors are left as they are.