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Roasted Oysters
Take oysters in the shell; wash the shells nicely and place them on a bed of hot coals; as soon as they begin to open they are sufficiently done. Remove the upper shell, and serve the oysters in the lower shell; pour a little melted butter over each one and serve.
A method rather than a recipe, and it still works exactly as written over any live fire. The only real decisions are how you arrange the shells and when you pull them.
- The hinge: cup side downSet each oyster with the deeper (cup) shell underneath and the flatter shell on top, so the liquor collects rather than runs into the fire. That liquor plus the butter is the whole sauce.
- "A bed of hot coals"Hardwood or charcoal burned down to grey-glowing embers, no flames. On a gas grill, high heat with the lid down for roughly 4-6 minutes will open them; a hot oven or broiler will also open them if you have no fire, though without the character live coals give.
- Doneness"As soon as they begin to open" is the correct signal and it is early — a gap of a quarter inch, usually 3-6 minutes depending on size and heat. Left until they yawn wide, the meat shrinks and toughens.
- Oysters that stay shutA shell that refuses to gap after the others have opened can be pried at the hinge with a shucking knife, but any oyster that was already open and did not close when tapped before cooking should be discarded.
- BuyingAsk for unshucked, live oysters and keep them cup-side down in the refrigerator under a damp cloth, never sealed in a bag or covered in water. Scrub the shells under cold running water just before cooking, as the recipe says.
- Handling hot shellsShells come off the coals blisteringly hot and often crack sharply. Long tongs, a folded towel and a stiff glove make short work of removing the top shell.
- The butterMelted butter alone is the period treatment. A few grains of salt, a grind of pepper and a squeeze of lemon are the usual modern additions and do not interfere with the method.
- YieldSix oysters is a small first course, twelve a generous one. Reckon on 2-3 dozen for four people if this is the centre of the meal, and cook in batches so each round is eaten hot.
Roasting oysters in their own shells is older than any cookbook and needs no equipment beyond fire, which is why it survived as a rural and coastal habit. American oysters of the period were cheap, abundant and shipped inland by rail in barrels, so a book like this could assume its readers had shell oysters to hand. The instruction to serve the oyster in its lower shell with nothing but melted butter makes this a plain treatment, one that shows off freshness rather than the cook's skill. Communal oyster roasts, still a fixture on the Chesapeake and the Carolina coast, work on the same principle at scale, with the shellfish tipped straight onto a sheet of hot metal over the coals.