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Oyster Salad
Select small oysters for this salad. Drain off all the liquor, and to each cupful of the oysters allow 1 cupful of fresh crisp celery cut into half-inch lengths, and sprinkle with salt. Stir in lightly some mayonnaise dressing. Line a salad bowl with crisp lettuce leaves, fill with the oyster salad, and pour more mayonnaise over all. Garnish with pimolas.
A turn-of-the-century composed salad that depends almost entirely on the quality of the oysters and the firmness of the celery. Two of its assumptions — that oysters go into the bowl straight from the shell, and that mayonnaise is made at home from raw yolks — need a decision from the cook before anything else.
- The oysters are never cookedAs written, drained raw oysters are simply folded into dressing. Some cookbooks of the period parboil oysters in their own liquor before using them in a salad, just until the edges ruffle, then drain and chill. If you keep them raw, use oysters from a reputable source, shucked the same day and held cold; anyone pregnant, elderly, immunocompromised or with liver disease should avoid raw shellfish entirely.
- Drain, then dry"Drain off all the liquor" matters more than it sounds. Residual brine will thin the mayonnaise. Tip the oysters into a sieve, let them sit ten minutes, then blot on a towel.
- QuantitiesEqual volumes of oysters and celery. A cupful of small shucked oysters is roughly 15 to 20; two cups of each, plus dressing, serves four as a first course.
- Salt with restraintOysters carry their own salinity and commercial mayonnaise is already salted. The recipe's sprinkle of salt assumes a homemade dressing; taste before adding any.
- MayonnaisePeriod mayonnaise is raw yolk, oil and vinegar or lemon, often with mustard. If you make it, use pasteurised eggs, or use a good bottled mayonnaise thinned with a spoonful of lemon juice so it coats rather than clogs.
- PimolasA turn-of-the-century trade name for green olives stuffed with pimiento — what a supermarket now sells as pimiento-stuffed Spanish olives. Sliced crosswise they give the red-and-green garnish the recipe is after.
- CeleryHalf-inch lengths from the pale inner ribs, crisped an hour in ice water and dried. Outer ribs are stringy and will dominate the oysters.
- Assemble lateDress and bowl this immediately before serving. Held even half an hour, the celery weeps and the lettuce wilts under the dressing.