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Veal Steak, with Oyster Sauce
Broil a steak in the usual way-take the liquor from a can of oysters; mix togther five ounces of butter, a tablespoonful of flour, stir into the liquor; as soon as it boils, put in the oysters. Let it come to a good boil, then pour on the steak, and serve very hot.
A broiled veal cutlet finished with a quick oyster butter sauce. The recipe assumes you know how to broil and gives no quantities for the steak itself, so the notes below fill the gaps.
- Do not boil the oysters twiceThe instruction to "let it come to a good boil" after the oysters go in will shrink them to erasers. Add the drained oysters to the finished sauce off the heat, or over the barest heat, and give them one to two minutes -- they are done the moment the edges ruffle.
- Five ounces of butter is a lotThat is ten tablespoons against a single tablespoon of flour and the liquor from one can of oysters, roughly half a cup to a cup. The result is closer to a butter sauce than a gravy. Two to three tablespoons of butter with the tablespoon of flour makes a sauce that will coat the meat rather than flood the plate.
- Canned oystersIn this period canned oysters were the cheap and reliable form and their liquor was the point of the recipe. Modern canned oysters are usually cooked in the can and sometimes smoked. A tub of fresh shucked oysters, packed in their own liquor, gives a far better sauce; strain the liquor before using it.
- Broiling vealA period broil meant direct radiant heat, generally over coals or on a gridiron. Under a modern hot broiler, a veal cutlet about three quarters of an inch thick needs roughly three to four minutes a side. Veal is lean and turns dry and grainy past medium; pull it at 145F and let it rest a few minutes.
- Thicken the sauce properlyThe recipe works the flour into the butter first, which is sound, but the raw paste goes straight into the liquor. Cooking the flour in the melted butter for a minute before whisking in the oyster liquor gives a cleaner, less pasty sauce.
- Season itNo salt or pepper is listed, which is common in recipes written this tersely. Oyster liquor is salty, so season the sauce at the end. A squeeze of lemon or a little cayenne keeps the butter from tasting flat.
- YieldThe recipe dresses a single steak, but the sauce from one can of oysters would stretch to two or three cutlets.
Oyster sauce on a broiled steak was standard American middle-class cookery in the late nineteenth century, and it survives on old chophouse menus. Oysters were then cheap and abundant along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, and canning made them available inland year-round, which may help explain why a household book like this one assumes a can in the pantry rather than a trip to the fishmonger. Veal was also more commonly eaten in this period than it is now, and is often said to have been inexpensive in dairying regions where surplus calves were slaughtered young. The pairing follows an older logic still visible in steak and oyster pies and in beef and oyster stews: the shellfish liquor supplies a savory depth that lean broiled meat lacks, a job later handled by bottled sauces and commercial bouillon.