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Oyster and Celery Salad
Chop a dozen oysters into dice, and shred finely the white part of two heads of celery. Toss both in some mayonnaise dressing, and put the mixture in a glass dish. Mask it all thoroughly with more mayonnaise, and serve garnished with celery tufts, and tiny heaps of caviare.
A late-Victorian cold entrée that depends entirely on the quality of three raw components: oysters, celery hearts and a properly made mayonnaise. Nothing is cooked, so nothing hides.
- The oysters are rawNothing here brings them to temperature, so this is effectively an oyster salad on the half-shell principle. Buy from a supplier who can tell you the harvest date, keep them cold, and shuck to order; anyone pregnant, immunocompromised, or with liver disease should not eat raw oysters at all, because of Vibrio.
- "Two heads of celery"A head is a whole bunch. Victorian celery was commonly blanched pale by trenching, so "the white part" means the tender inner ribs and heart — roughly the pale third of each bunch. Two modern bunches give more than enough; reserve the green outer ribs for stock.
- Drain the oystersChopped oysters release liquor that will slacken mayonnaise into a grey soup. Drain them well after shucking, pat dry, then dice. Save the liquor for a sauce or soup.
- Chop, do not mince"Into dice" implies pieces that stay distinct in the dressing, perhaps a quarter inch; note that the recipe shreds the celery finely rather than dicing it. Smaller and the oyster disappears into the dressing; the point of the dish is the contrast between soft oyster and crisp celery.
- MayonnaisePeriod mayonnaise is raw yolk, oil, vinegar or lemon and seasoning, made fairly stiff so it will coat. If you make your own, use pasteurised eggs given that nothing in the dish is cooked. A commercial mayonnaise loosened with a little lemon juice works for the masking coat.
- MaskingTo mask is to coat the assembled salad in an even, opaque layer so the mixture beneath is invisible. The recipe asks only for "more mayonnaise"; a slightly thinner mayonnaise, spooned over and smoothed, spreads more evenly. Do this at the last moment, as the coat can weep if it stands.
- The caviareIn this period caviare meant sturgeon roe, cheaper then than now. Any firm roe — lumpfish, trout, or salmon — serves the same visual purpose, though only lumpfish gives the dark colour. Add it just before it goes to table so the colour does not bleed into the white.
- Yield and serviceA dozen oysters and two celery hearts would make a first course for about four, or a light supper for two. Serve very cold, in a glass dish as directed, so the layers show.
Oysters were still cheap enough to be chopped up and buried in dressing, which tells you a good deal about the period this dictionary belongs to; Cassell's is full of oysters in patties, sauces, forcemeats and stuffings, uses that would be extravagant now. The dish itself is a product of the late-Victorian vogue for the cold, masked salad served in cut glass rom French service, where masquer means exactly this: to cloak a preparation in a smooth sauce so the finished surface is flawless and the contents a small surprise. Celery is doing double duty, supplying the crunch a raw oyster lacks and a faintly saline, bitter note against shellfish. The caviare garnish is pure display, the same instinct that put truffle slices on a chaudfroid.