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Oyster Stew
Put the liquor from the oysters on the stove, let boil, skim, and season with butter and pepper, add oysters, let come to a boil only, season with salt and serve. This is pronounced a "royal stew."
A stew of almost nothing but oysters and their own liquor. The whole thing hinges on how briefly the oysters see heat.
- The one thing that matters"Let come to a boil only" is the entire technique. Oysters are done the moment their edges ruffle, about one to two minutes in barely simmering liquid; held at a boil they tighten into rubber and shed water into the broth.
- Oyster liquorThis is the liquid in the shell or in the container of shucked oysters, not a store-bought stock. A pint of shucked oysters yields roughly half a cup to a cup of liquor, which is not much stew for more than two people. Strain it through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to catch shell grit.
- SkimmingBringing the liquor to a boil coagulates stray proteins into a grey foam that reads as dirty in a pale broth. Skim it off before the butter goes in and the stew stays clean-looking.
- Butter, not creamThis version is a clear stew, thickened by nothing. Two to three tablespoons of butter per cup of liquor gives it body. If you want the familiar milky oyster stew, heat cream or milk separately and combine off the heat, so the dairy never boils either.
- Salt last, and lightlyThe instruction to salt at the end is deliberate. Oyster liquor is already saline and reduces as it boils; taste after the oysters are in, since they release more brine as they heat.
- Buying the oystersShucked oysters sold in tubs are packed in their own liquor and are the practical choice here. Keep them cold until the moment they go in, and cook them the day you buy them.
- YieldThe recipe specifies no quantities. On the scale suggested above -- one pint of oysters with their liquor and a good knob of butter -- it serves two as a first course. Serve immediately in warmed bowls with oyster crackers or dry toast.
Buckeye Cookery appeared in 1877, during the rise of the American oyster trade: rail lines and barrels of ice had put Chesapeake and Long Island Sound oysters on tables far inland, and Ohio households ate them in quantity through the cold months. Oyster stew, oyster soup and "scalloped oysters" fill the shell-fish chapters of many community cookbooks of the period, and the plainest versions like this one relied on little more than liquor, butter, pepper and salt. The "royal stew" tag is the sort of endorsement these compiled books traded in: recipes came from contributing housewives, and the praise attached to a dish travelled with it. That such a spare formula could be called royal says something about the oysters themselves, which were cheap, abundant and expected to carry the dish without help.