Oyster Tart or Pie, Smith Style

Poach in their own liquor three dozen medium oysters, drain and remove the muscles or ligaments. Fry in two ounces of butter, four ounces of bacon cut in three-sixteenths of an inch squares, two ounces of onions cut the same size, and half a pound of peeled and seedless tomatoes cut into five-eighths of an inch pieces; add the oyster liquor, reduce the whole with a pint of veloute sauce (No. 415), and when well done and seasoned nicely, add the oysters. Place all of this into a deep pie dish (Fig. 183), and lay on the edge, after slightly wetting it, a narrow band of puff paste (No. 146) an eighth of an inch thick and half an inch wide; moisten the top of this band, and cover the whole with a layer of paste made of fragments of puff paste; cut away the extending edges, and decorate the top with bits of the paste rolled out to one-eighth of an inch in thickness; pinch the edges round the border, and egg over the surface twice, then cook the pie in a hot oven for twenty to thirty minutes, and serve on a folded napkin. Either salt or smoked bacon can be used.