Oyster Omelet
Stew one quart large oysters long enough to plump them with one-half cup milk, one-half cup butter, one tablespoon flour, a little salt and pepper; leave this on the stove and proceed to make the omelet; beat the yolks of six eggs light, with two tablespoons cream or milk, a little salt; lastly, beat the whites of the eggs very stiff and stir with the yolks and the milk; have in your sauce pan a piece of butter the size of an egg, and when this is hot pour the mixture in and then cover the top with oysters drained from the stew; turn the omelet one-half over as you would a turnover and place on a well buttered platter; after this is done, take the remainder of the oysters and gravy and pour over it; it is a delicious dish.
A soufflé-style omelet in a rich oyster cream, from the era when supper meant something lighter than dinner but still substantial. Two things decide whether it works: how briefly the oysters cook, and how gently the eggs set.
- Oysters: plump only"Long enough to plump them" means 1-2 minutes, until the edges just ruffle and the flesh turns opaque. Past that they tighten and go rubbery, and no amount of cream will bring them back. Pull the pan off the heat and let them sit in the warm liquid rather than holding it at a simmer while you beat eggs.
- A quart of oystersShucked oysters were sold by liquid measure. A quart is roughly 2 lb of meats with their liquor, or 30 to 40 medium oysters. Include the liquor from the container in the stew; it carries most of the flavor and most of the salt, so season at the end.
- That much butterHalf a cup of butter with only half a cup of milk and a tablespoon of flour gives a broken, oily sauce by modern standards. Two to three tablespoons is enough for a sauce that clings; cook the flour in the butter a minute before the milk goes in so it does not taste pasty.
- The eggsSix yolks beaten with cream, whites whipped stiff and folded in, is a soufflé omelet, not a French rolled one. Fold with a spatula in a few strokes; overmixing deflates it and you get a flat, dense pancake.
- Pan and heatUse a 10-inch skillet, well seasoned or nonstick, over medium-low. "When this is hot" should mean the butter foams without browning. High heat sets the bottom before the middle cooks and the fold will crack.
- Setting the topThe recipe does not say how the surface is set before the oysters go on. Cover the pan for 3-4 minutes, or slide it under a broiler for a minute, until the surface is just set before you add the drained oysters and fold it over.
- AssemblyDrain the oysters well before they go on the omelet; free liquid on the surface makes the fold slump. Keep the remaining oysters and sauce hot but not simmering, and pour it over at the table.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; six eggs and a quart of oysters will serve about four as a supper dish, or six as part of a larger spread.
Oysters were cheap protein through most of the nineteenth century in America, dredged in enormous quantities from Chesapeake and Long Island beds and shipped inland in barrels and later in cans once rail and ice made it possible. That abundance is why oysters turn up in cookbooks of this period in places a modern reader finds surprising: in stuffings, in patties, on toast, in soups, and folded into eggs for supper. The older meal structure, in which dinner came in the afternoon and the evening meal was lighter, often egg- or milk-based, and assembled quickly from what was already in the larder, suits a dish like this. The combination of a puffed omelet with a cream sauce poured over it is common in late-Victorian American household cooking.