ariole is a small straight-sided tin mould, holding rather less than a
gill. They will be found at large house-furnishing stores, or a tinman
could easily make them, they being, in fact, like deep corn-muffin pans.
If they are made to order, avoid getting them too large--three inches
deep by two across will be large enough. Fill these moulds with aspic
jelly nearly cold, set them on ice while you prepare the oysters, which
must be bearded and cooked till plump in butter, but not allowed to
color. When cool, cut them in half, throw them into some stiff
bechamel,[77-*] which must be warmed till like thick cream, sprinkle
with a dust of cayenne; lay the oysters to get cold, that the bechamel
may harden on them. Scoop the centre very carefully out of the moulds of
aspic, leaving a half-inch thickness all round, fill the centres with
the oysters, pour in more aspic, cold, but not set, and put on ice for a
few hours, or till ready to serve. The aspic from the centres should
have been preserved and used to chop with more to garnish the dish. Turn
the moulds out very carefully, and garnish with chopped aspic and
watercress or parsley.

It is, of course, understood that bechamel sauce, cold, is like
blanc-mange, and that anything coated with it will be enveloped in white
jelly, not in a sticky white sauce. If bechamel does not become white
jelly when cold the stock of which it is made is not stiff enough.

_Lobster in Aspic_ is prepared as for salad, the solid meat cut in dice
and rolled in mayonnaise, then in chopped chervil or parsley. Then
proceed exactly as for the oysters.

_Oysters a la Tartare._--The oyster-shells for serving oysters a la
Tartare must be of good shape and exquisitely clean; therefore, when
using oysters on the half-shell, always pick out any that may be deep
yet stand well, and have a good shape; scald and scrub them, and keep
for use. Scald as many fat oysters as required in their own liquor till
firm--three minutes at boiling-point will usually do this; the oysters
must be just plump, yet if underdone they will be flabby. Put them on
ice, choose as many tiny leaves as you have oysters from the heart of a
lettuce; they must all be of a size, or trimmed so, and the size only
just large enough to line the shells without coming over them. Lay a
leaf on each shell, cut each oyster in half, lay four halves in pyramid
fashion on the lettuce leaf, and mask the top of each, just before
serving, with Tartare sa