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Oysters, Marinaded and Fried
Make a batter as follows. Mix three ounces of flour very smoothly with a well-beaten egg, add a pinch of salt, half an ounce of clarified butter, and one-eighth of a pint of lukewarm water. Open a dozen oysters, put them into a saucepan, cover them with cold water, and bring them slowly to a boil. Take them out, throw them into cold water for a minute, then drain them and place them side by side in a shallow dish, sprinkle a little salt, pepper, and grated nutmeg over them, squeeze the juice of a large fresh lemon upon them, and let them remain in this marinade for half an hour. Dip them separately into the batter, drop them into boiling fat, and fry until they are crisp and brown. Serve very hot. Time to fry the oysters, six minutes. Probable cost, 1s. 6d. to 3s. per dozen. Sufficient for one or two persons.
A Victorian fritter that hinges entirely on not cooking the oysters twice. The original blanches them, then fries them for six minutes — follow that literally and you will serve rubber in a crisp shell.
- The frying timeSix minutes is far longer than a battered oyster needs. In fat at 350–375F the coating is golden in 60–90 seconds, and the oyster inside is already cooked from the blanching. Pull them the moment the batter colours.
- The blanchBringing oysters slowly to a boil from cold water is a period technique for firming them enough to handle and coat. Modern practice is to heat them only until the edges ruffle, a matter of a minute or so, then straight into cold water as the recipe says. Do not let the water reach a rolling boil.
- MeasurementsThree ounces of flour is roughly two-thirds to three-quarters of a cup; one-eighth of an imperial pint is 2 1/2 fluid ounces, about 5 tablespoons (a generous quarter cup). Half an ounce of clarified butter is one tablespoon — ordinary melted butter works, though the milk solids will brown faster in the fat.
- The marinadeHalf an hour in lemon juice with salt, pepper and nutmeg both seasons and firms the flesh. Longer than that and the acid starts to toughen the oysters further. Drain them well and pat dry, or the batter will slide off.
- NutmegGrated nutmeg with shellfish reads oddly now, but it appears frequently in nineteenth-century British fish and shellfish recipes. Use it lightly — a few strokes on a fine grater over a dozen oysters, not a measured pinch.
- The fat"Boiling fat" means deep fat at frying heat, around 350–375F, not fat that is literally boiling. Fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash; wet oysters drop it fast.
- Yield and costA dozen oysters is 'sufficient for one or two persons', as the recipe states. At 1s. 6d. to 3s. per dozen these were not the cheapest oysters on the market, though the price bears no useful relation to what oysters cost today.
Cassell's was compiled when oysters were still widely eaten in Britain — the Kentish and Essex beds, and the great Whitstable fishery, supplied London by the barrel. Overfishing and disease had largely ended that by the early twentieth century. The technique here, blanching then steeping in an acidulated, spiced liquor before frying, is what the book appears to mean by "marinaded": a short seasoning bath rather than a long tenderising soak, comparable to the practice of pickling or souring fried fish found elsewhere in European cookery. Nutmeg alongside pepper and lemon on shellfish reflects an earlier English habit of spicing fish dishes, common in Victorian recipes and much rarer in British kitchens by the mid-twentieth century.