It's a thousand pities that everybody doesn't know how to make good
puff paste, for without that knowledge it is impossible to make a good
oyster pie; but in case you are an adept at puff paste making, just
try concocting one some fine day. Line a pie dish with the paste and
fill it with uncooked rice; butter the paste that covers the edge of
the dish and lay a cover of puff paste over the pie; press the edges
together a bit and trim them neatly. Meanwhile prepare a quart of
oysters by draining them from their liquor and chopping them fine. Mix
a teaspoonful of cornstarch in a very little cold milk, and pour over
slowly half a pint of boiling milk or cream; when it is thick and
smooth add to it an ounce of butter. Season the oysters with salt and
pepper, and stir them into the mixture; simmer for five minutes. When
the pie-crust is done remove it from the oven, take off the top crust,
turn out all the rice and fill the dish with the oysters; put on the
cover again, and set in the oven to get thoroughly hot.
They do say the recollection of an oyster pie so made is one of the
sweetest echoes to start when memory plays a tune on the heart, even
though one lives to be as old as Methuselah.