After the soup? Well, suppose you lay in a deep dish fit to be placed
in the oven a bed of medium-sized oysters; season them with salt,
pepper, and a few small pieces of butter; sift over them some fresh
bread-crumbs and pour in a little sherry with some of the oyster
liquor; repeat the same operation until the dish is full, then
besprinkle the whole with bread-crumbs; scatter small pats of butter
here and there, and set the dish in a hot oven for fifteen minutes to
color a light brown, then serve, and serving be modestly proud of the
fact that you have prepared a dish which sometimes appears upon the
menu at Delmonico's as "Huîtres au Gratin à la Crane." Order it the
next time you are lunching or dining at that hostelry and compare
your effort with that of the famous chef at Delmonico's. For your
sake, as well as for my own, I trust that you will find that the
success turned out by your own cuisine gains by the comparison.