Oyster Soup, French Style

Cut two ounces of onions into eighth of an inch squares; fry them without coloring in some butter, and add sixty medium oysters with as much water as there is oyster juice; then season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Place the saucepan on the fire, and remove again at the first boil, lay the oysters into a soup tureen and strain the broth through a fine sieve, returning it to the fire to add to it half a pint of bechamel (No. 409), and thicken it with egg-yolks, cream and butter, the proportions for each quart being, three raw egg-yolks, one gill of cream and two ounces of good butter. Make a garnishing of pike quenelles (No. 90), adding to it some cooked fine herbs; another, garnishing may also be used, composed of round bread croutons, each one inch in diameter, sprinkled over with butter and browned in the oven; serve these separately, but at the same time as the soup.