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Fried Oysters (In Batter)
Follow directions in the foregoing recipe, and dip oysters in batter (see next page). Fry in deep hot Cottolene, turn occasionally. Drain and serve on folded napkin, garnished with curled celery and slices of lemon rind dipped in finely chopped parsley. Supplementary Recipes 1 cup bread flour. 1/2 teaspoon salt. 1/2 teaspoon celery salt.
A fragment of a recipe that depends on two others: the "foregoing recipe" for preparing the oysters and a batter whose ingredient list is cut off mid-thought. What survives is enough to work from, provided you supply the missing liquid.
- CottoleneA cottonseed-oil shortening sold by the N. K. Fairbank Company, which sponsored this book. Any neutral high-smoke-point frying fat stands in: peanut, canola, or refined sunflower oil, or lard if you want the period texture.
- The batter is incompleteOne cup bread flour, half a teaspoon salt and half a teaspoon celery salt is a dry mix, not a batter; the liquid is on the page that was cut off. A dipping batter of this size would typically take an egg and something in the region of two-thirds to three-quarters cup of milk or water -- add liquid until it coats a spoon thickly and falls in a ribbon.
- Frying temperatureThe recipe says only 'deep hot' and gives no test. For battered oysters, fat in the region of 365-375F works. Use a thermometer and fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash.
- Timing is the hingeOysters need only long enough for the batter to set and colour, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes. Past that the oyster contracts and turns rubbery, and no amount of batter hides it.
- Preparing the oystersThe foregoing recipe is not reproduced here, so its instructions are unknown; in practice, drain shucked oysters thoroughly, look them over for shell fragments, and pat them dry on a towel. Wet oysters shed their batter in the fat.
- DrainingThe folded napkin is decorative and does drain, but a wire rack set over a sheet pan keeps the undersides crisp. Serve immediately; battered oysters go soft within minutes.
- The garnishCurled celery means celery cut into short lengths, slit at the ends and left in ice water until it splays. "Slices of lemon rind dipped in chopped parsley" reads oddly today; thin lemon slices with a parsley-dipped edge give the intended effect.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield. This quantity of batter will coat roughly a pint of shucked oysters -- somewhere around a dozen to two dozen medium ones, depending on size -- enough for about four as a course.
52 Sunday Dinners (1913), compiled by Elizabeth O. Hiller, is a promotional cookbook: it was issued in the interest of Cottolene, the cottonseed-oil-and-beef-suet shortening made by the N. K. Fairbank Company of Chicago, and the product is named throughout wherever fat is called for. That commercial frame is why a simple plate of fried oysters specifies a brand rather than "hot fat." The dish itself needs no promotion. Oysters were cheap, abundant and shipped inland by rail in barrels and cans by the late nineteenth century, and fried oysters appeared on hotel menus, at church suppers and in oyster saloons across the country. The old rule about eating oysters only in months with an R kept them to the cooler part of the year, when shellfish could be moved and kept without reliable refrigeration.