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OYSTERS, SCALLOPED (a simple method)
Open and beard a dozen oysters, and wash them in their own liquor. Scrape the deep shells, and cleanse them thoroughly. Put an oyster in each one, season it with salt and pepper, and sprinkle bread-crumbs thickly upon it. Put some little pieces of butter on the top, arrange the shells in a dish, and bake in a quick oven, or in a Dutch oven, before a brisk fire, until they are lightly and equally browned. Serve very hot. Time to bake, about a quarter of an hour. Probable cost of oysters, 1s. 6d. to 3s. per dozen. Sufficient for one or two persons.
A single-oyster-per-shell method that stands or falls on oven heat: the crumbs must brown before the oyster overcooks. Everything below serves that one balance.
- The hinge: heat high, time shortThe recipe's quarter of an hour is likely to leave the oysters shrunken by modern taste. A hot oven (around 450F) and pulling the shells as soon as the crumbs are evenly golden, usually 6 to 10 minutes, suits them better; the oysters need only to firm and plump.
- "Quick oven"425 to 450F. If your oven runs cool, finish under the broiler for a minute rather than extending the bake.
- "Dutch oven" hereNot the enamelled cast-iron pot. In this book it is a tin reflector oven, open on one side and stood before an open fire. A hot broiler is the modern equivalent of that radiant heat.
- BeardingThe beard is the dark frill of gill and mantle around the edge of the oyster. Trim it away with scissors or a small knife; it is edible but stringy and holds grit.
- Washing in their own liquorStrain the liquor released on opening through a fine sieve or muslin, swill each oyster in it to shed sand, then keep the liquor. A spoonful in each shell before the crumbs go on keeps things from drying out.
- The shellsUse the deep half of each shell, scrubbed and, if you like, boiled briefly. Steady them on a bed of coarse salt or crumpled foil in a shallow tray so they sit level and the liquor does not run out. Small ramekins work if you have no shells.
- Crumbs and butterDry, fresh white crumbs, not the sandy commercial kind, and a generous dot of butter on each so the topping colours rather than merely dries. A little grated lemon zest or cayenne in the crumbs is within the spirit of the period.
- Cost and yield1s. 6d. to 3s. a dozen dates the entry rather than helping you shop. A dozen shells is a first course for two, or a light supper for one, as the original suggests.
Scalloped oysters are generally said to take their name from the shell they were cooked and served in " " the fluted escalop, traditionally credited with giving English both the dish and the word for anything baked in a shell or small dish with crumbs. The recipe belongs to a period when oysters were cheap enough in Britain to be everyday food, supplied from the oyster beds of Essex and Kent to street sellers and cookshops. The one-oyster-per-shell arrangement is a sign of the dish's ambition, or lack of it " " the more genteel scallop, then as now, layered chopped oysters with crumbs in a dish. Note that the recipe assumes you will open the oysters yourself and that the deep shells are worth scrubbing and keeping, both habits of a kitchen where nothing arrived shucked in a tub.