[Illustration:  IDA SAXTON McKINLEY.]

OYSTER SOUP.  No. 2.

Scald one gallon of oysters in their own liquor.  Add one quart of rich milk to the liquor, and when it comes to a boil, skim out the oysters and set aside.  Add the yolks of four eggs, two good tablespoonfuls of butter, and one of flour, all mixed well together, but in this order—­first, the milk, then, after beating the eggs, add a little of the hot liquor to them gradually, and stir them rapidly into the soup.  Lastly, add the butter and whatever seasoning you fancy besides plain pepper and salt, which must both be put in to taste with caution.

Celery salt most persons like extremely; others would prefer a little marjoram or thyme; others again mace and a bit of onion.  Use your own discretion in this regard.

CLAM SOUP. (French Style.)

Mince two dozen hard shell clams very fine.  Fry half a minced onion in an ounce of butter; add to it a pint of hot water, a pinch of mace, four cloves, one allspice and six whole pepper corns.  Boil fifteen minutes and strain into a saucepan; add the chopped clams and a pint of clam-juice or hot water; simmer slowly two hours; strain and rub the pulp through a sieve into the liquid.  Return it to the saucepan and keep it lukewarm.  Boil three half-pints of milk in a saucepan (previously wet with cold water, which prevents burning) and whisk it into the soup.  Dissolve a teaspoonful of flour in cold milk, add it to the soup, taste for seasoning; heat it gently to near the boiling point; pour into a tureen previously heated with hot water, and serve with or without pieces of fried bread—­called croutons in kitchen French.

CLAM SOUP.

Twenty-five clams chopped fine.  Put over the fire the liquor that was drained from them, and a cup of water; add the chopped clams and boil half an hour; then season to taste with pepper and salt and a piece of butter as large as an egg; boil up again and add one quart of milk boiling hot, stir in a tablespoon of flour made to a cream with a little cold milk, or two crackers rolled fine.  Some like a little mace and lemon juice in the seasoning.

MODES OF FRYING

The usual custom among professional cooks is to entirely immerse the article to be cooked in boiling fat, but from inconvenience most households use the half-frying method of frying in a small amount of fat in a frying pan.  For the first method a shallow iron frying kettle, large at the top and small at the bottom, is best to use.  The fat should half fill the kettle, or an amount sufficient to float whatever is to be fried; the heat of the fat should get to such a degree that, when a piece of bread or a teaspoonful of the batter is dropped in it, it will become brown almost instantly, but should not be so hot as to burn the