Home › Shell Fish › Oyster Stew (Qt oysters cup oyster liquor)
Oyster Stew (Qt oysters cup oyster liquor)
1 qt. oysters 1 cup oyster liquor 1/2 cup water 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon rolled crackers 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper Drain and clean the oysters, scald and strain the liquor; add to the strained liquor the water, seasonings, butter and cracker crumbs. Let it come to a boil, add the oysters, cook them till the edges curl. Half a cup of scalded cream may be added before serving.
A plain, liquor-forward oyster stew of the sort served before the milk-heavy version took over. Everything hangs on not overcooking the oysters.
- The hinge: curled edgesOysters are done the moment their frills ruffle and they plump, roughly one to two minutes in barely simmering liquid. Past that they tighten into rubber and leak their liquor into the broth.
- A quart of oystersThis means shucked oysters by volume, about two pints, or roughly 25 to 35 medium ones depending on size. Tubs of shucked oysters sold in the refrigerated case come packed in their own liquor, which is exactly what the recipe wants.
- Oyster liquorThe liquid in the tub or released during shucking. Scalding and straining it removes shell grit and coagulated protein, which would otherwise cloud the stew; pour it through a fine sieve or a coffee filter after it heats.
- Rolled crackersSoda or common crackers crushed fine with a rolling pin, used as a light thickener rather than a garnish. One tablespoon does very little; if you want body, use two or three, and serve extra whole crackers alongside as was customary.
- Cream at the endScald it separately and add off the heat. Boiling the stew after the cream goes in risks curdling.
- Seasoning orderSalt the broth before the oysters go in, then taste again at the end. Oyster liquor varies enormously in salinity, and half a teaspoon can be either right or far too much.
- YieldServes roughly four to six as a first course, or three or four as a supper with bread. It does not reheat well; cook only what will be eaten.
Oyster stew was everyday food in nineteenth-century America rather than a luxury. Chesapeake and Long Island Sound beds supplied barrels of shucked oysters that traveled inland by rail and canal, and "oyster saloons" and cellars operated in most cities of any size. Early versions like this one are built on the oysters' own liquor thinned with water; the all-milk stew most Americans now picture came later, as dairy grew cheap and reliably fresh. The tablespoon of rolled crackers reflects the older habit of thickening broths with hard biscuit rather than flour, and the round "oyster cracker" still sold today is long associated with the dish, though its precise origins are disputed.