Oyster Salad. Maltese Cross
1 quart oysters, cut—not chopped—into small pieces.
1 bunch celery, cut—not chopped—into small pieces.
2 hard-boiled eggs.
2 raw eggs, well whipped.
1 great spoonful salad oil.
1 teaspoonful powdered sugar.
1 small spoonful salt.
1 small spoonful pepper.
1 small spoonful made mustard.
Half cup best cider vinegar.
Drain the liquor well from the oysters and cut them with a sharp knife into dice. Cut the celery, which should be white and crisp, into pieces of corresponding size. Set them aside in separate vessels, in a cold place while you prepare the dressing. Beat the eggs light (with a “Dover” egg-beater, if you have one), mix in the sugar; then whip in gradually the oil until it is a light cream. Have ready, rubbed to a powder, the boiled yolks; add to them the salt, pepper, and lastly the mustard. Beat these into the oil and yolk, and then, two or three drops at a time, the vinegar, whipping the dressing briskly, but lightly for two or three minutes. It should, if properly managed, be like rich yellow cream—or custard.
With a silver fork toss up the oysters and celery together in a glass dish; pour half of the dressing over them; toss up—not stir it down—for a minute, and pour the rest on the top.
Lay a border of light-green celery tufts close within the edge of the bowl, with a cluster in the middle of the salad. Serve as soon as may be, after it is mixed. Meanwhile, keep on the ice.