“They now sailed out of the thoroughfare into the broad mouth of the Manokin, where a calm fell upon air and water for a little while, and they could hear smothered music, as of drum-fish beneath the water, beating, "thum! thum!" and crabs and alewives rose to the surface around them, chased by the tailor-fish. The cat-boat drifted into the mouth of a creek where rock and perch were running on the top of the water, and with the tongs Jack Wonnell raised half a bushel of oysters in a few dips, and opened them for the party. Along the shores wild haws and wild plums still adhered to the bushes, and the stiff-branched persimmon-trees bore thousands of their tomato-like fruit. The partridges were chirping in the corn, the crow blackbirds held a funeral feast around the fodder, some old-time bayside mansions stretched their long sides and speckled negro quarters along the inlets, half hidden by the nut-trees, and in the air soared the turkey-buzzard, like a voluptuary politician, taking beauty from nothing but his lofty station.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1 cup oyster crabs 1 cup mushroom caps ⅓ cup Sherry wine ¼ cup butter 1 tablespoon flour Salt Cayenne Nutmeg ¾ cup cream Yolks two eggs 1 tablespoon brandy Peel mushroom caps and break in pieces. Add oyster crabs and wine, cover, and let stand one hour. Melt butter, add first mixture, and cook eight minutes. Add flour, and cook two minutes. Season with salt, cayenne, and nutmeg; then add heavy cream. Just before serving add egg yolks, slightly beaten, and brandy.
Sources: The passage is from George Alfred Townsend, The Entailed Hat, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Farmer, The Boston cooking-school cook book of 1896, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — navy cloth, oyster stamp.