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Oyster Stew (Qt oysters cup liquor cup)
1 qt. oysters 1 cup liquor 1/2 cup water 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 saltspoon pepper 1 tablespoon butter 1 tablespoon rolled cracker 1/2 cup milk or cream Clean and pick over oysters as for oyster soup. Heat oyster liquor and water to boiling point, strain and add oysters. Cook until oysters grow plump and edges curl. Add seasonings, butter and cracker crumbs; add scalded milk or cream before serving. A few grains of nutmeg add to the flavor.
A plain oyster stew of the shucked-oyster era, when a quart of oysters came in a tin or a pail with its own liquor. The whole recipe hinges on pulling the oysters off the heat the moment their edges ruffle.
- The hinge: two minutes, not moreOysters are done as soon as they plump and the edges curl, which takes about a minute or two in barely simmering liquid. Held longer they contract and turn rubbery, and the liquor clouds.
- A saltspoonA saltspoon is roughly a quarter teaspoon, so the pepper here is about 1/8 teaspoon. White pepper is one option if you want to keep the stew pale, though the recipe does not specify which.
- A quart of oystersThat means shucked oysters by volume, about 2 lb drained; the count per quart varies widely with grade, from roughly 25 to 50. Fresh shucked oysters sold in tubs come packed in their own liquor, which is what the recipe's "1 cup liquor" refers to; bottled clam juice is one stand-in if there is not enough.
- Cleaning and picking overTip the oysters into a bowl, lift them out one at a time and feel for bits of shell along the frill, then strain the liquor through a fine sieve or a coffee filter to catch grit. The instruction to strain after boiling does the same job for any residue that rises.
- Rolled crackerSoda or oyster crackers crushed fine, used as a light thickener rather than a garnish. A tablespoon barely bodies the stew; leave it out if you want it clear.
- Scalded milkHeat the milk or cream to just below a simmer in a separate pan and add it at the end. Added cold it drops the temperature, and dairy can curdle against the salty oyster liquor.
- YieldServes four as a first course, or two or three as a supper with crackers. Season at the very end; oyster liquor varies enormously in saltiness.
Oyster stew belongs to the period when oysters were cheap protein rather than luxury, shipped inland by rail in sealed tins and sold by the quart in ordinary groceries. Cookbooks of the 1900s and 1910s print oyster soup, oyster stew and scalloped oysters as routine household dishes, usually distinguished only by how much milk went in and whether crackers thickened it. The method here, with its scalded milk finished at the last moment, resembles the Boston Cooking School line of thinking often associated with Fannie Farmer: keep the dairy and the shellfish apart until serving, on what is generally given as the reasoning that neither should be overcooked. Oyster crackers are said to take their name from this use, though the etymology is traditional rather than documented, and the pairing survives most visibly in the oyster stew still eaten on Christmas Eve in parts of the Midwest and among Irish-descended families, a custom often traced to meatless fast-day observance.