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Mussels, Scalloped
Cleanse the shells as before directed (see MUSSELS, KETCHUP OF). Beard the mussels when boiled, and reserve the juice that flows from them; strain it through muslin. Butter some scallop-shells or patty-pans, and have ready finely-prepared bread-crumbs, seasoned with cayenne, and a little white pepper and salt. Strew some of the crumbs over the bottom of the patty-pans or shells, and lay mussels over them; cover with the seasoned bread-crumbs and bits of butter, continuing until mussels and crumbs are used up. Moisten with the reserved liquor, and run a little oiled butter over the top. Brown in the oven, and serve hot. Time, a quarter of an hour.
A straightforward gratin of steamed mussels layered with seasoned crumbs and baked in shells. The main adjustment is timing: the mussels are already cooked when they go into the oven.
- Cook the mussels first, brieflySteam them in a covered pan with a splash of water or dry white wine, over high heat, just until the shells open — three to five minutes. Anything longer and the second stint in the oven will leave them tough.
- The hinge: keep the oven stage shortThe original gives a quarter of an hour and no oven temperature. A hot oven, around 425F, and only until the crumbs colour and the liquor bubbles; start checking at about 8 minutes. The dish is finished when the top is brown, not when the clock says so.
- BeardingThe beard is the byssus, the tough fibrous tuft the mussel uses to anchor itself. Pull it out toward the hinge end after cooking, when it comes away easily. Discard any mussel that stayed shut.
- Strain the liquor seriouslyMussel liquor carries fine sand no matter how well the shells were scrubbed. Muslin, or a coffee filter, and leave the last spoonful in the pan.
- SaltThe reserved liquor is already saline. Season the crumbs with cayenne and white pepper, and add salt only after tasting the moistened crumbs.
- "Oiled butter"Butter melted until it runs clear. If you pour off the clear fat and leave the milky sediment behind you get something close to clarified butter, which is less inclined to scorch on the crumb topping.
- Scallop-shells and patty-pansDeep scallop shells or individual tartlet tins. Ramekins or a single small gratin dish work; with one larger dish, increase the bake by a few minutes and check that the centre is hot.
- QuantityThe original gives none. About 2 lb of mussels in the shell, with a cup of crumbs, fills four shells as a first course.
Cassell's belongs to the era when mussels were a cheap shellfish on the British coast and carried a slight social stigma alongside a genuine reputation for danger — Victorian household books devote anxious paragraphs to telling good mussels from bad, and the advice to cleanse the shells carefully, beard them and strain the liquor comes as much from that unease as from cookery. "Scalloped" here means the method rather than the mollusc: anything layered with buttered crumbs and browned in a scallop shell earned the name, which is why dishes with no connection to shellfish appear scalloped. Baking in the shell was practical as well as decorative, since it gave a portion-sized vessel.