Melt the butter, and when it bubbles put in the flour, shaking
the saucepan as you do so, and rub till smooth. Put in the hot
milk, a little at a time, and stir and cook without boiling till
all is smooth and free from lumps. Add the salt, and, if you
choose, a little pepper.

Cream sauce is made exactly as is white sauce, but cream is used
in place of milk. What is called thick white sauce is made by
taking two tablespoonfuls of butter and two of flour, and only
one cup of milk.


Creamed Oysters

1 pint oysters.
1 large cup of cream sauce.

Make the sauce of cream if you have it, and if not use a very
heaping tablespoonful of butter in the white sauce. Keep this hot.

Drain off the oyster-juice and wash the oysters by holding them
under the cold-water faucet. Strain the juice and put the oysters
back in it, and put them on the fire and let them just simmer till
the edges of the oysters curl; then drain them from the juice again
and drop them in the sauce, and add a little more salt (celery-salt
is nice if you have it), and just a tiny bit of cayenne pepper.
You can serve the oysters on squares of buttered toast, or put
them in a large dish, with sifted bread-crumbs over the top and
tiny bits of butter, and brown in the oven. Or you can put them
in small dishes as they are, and put a sprig of parsley in each dish.