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Devilled Oysters
1 pint oysters 1/4 cup butter 1/4 cup flour 2/3 cup milk Yolk 1 egg 1/2 tablespoon finely chopped parsley 1/2 teaspoon salt Few grains cayenne 1 teaspoon lemon juice Buttered cracker crumbs Clean, drain, and slightly chop oysters. Make a sauce of butter, flour, and milk; add egg yolk, seasonings, and oysters. Arrange buttered scallop shells in a dripping-pan, half fill with mixture, cover with buttered crumbs, and bake twelve to fifteen minutes in a hot oven. Deep oyster shells may be used in place of scallop shells.
Crab meat, Indienne 2 tablespoons butter 1 teaspoon finely chopped onion 3 tablespoons flour 2/3 tablespoon curry powder 1 cup chicken stock 1 cup crab meat Salt Cook butter with onion three minutes, add flour mixed with curry powder and chicken stock. When boiling-point is reached add crab meat and season with salt.
A simple oyster gratin baked in shells: a thick white sauce enriched with egg yolk, seasoned sharply, and browned under crumbs. The only real difficulty is not overcooking the oysters.
- Hot ovenA "hot oven" in books of this period is usually read as roughly 400-450F. Twelve to fifteen minutes at that heat sets the sauce and colours the crumbs; the oysters cook largely in the heat of the sauce rather than by long baking.
- Do not pre-cook the oystersThey go into the sauce raw, chopped, and are heated only in the oven. Oysters simmered or baked much beyond this point tighten into rubber, which is why the recipe is timed so short.
- A pint of oystersShucked oysters were sold by liquid measure. A pint is roughly a dozen to two dozen medium oysters and weighs about 1 lb with its liquor, rather less drained. Drain them well or the sauce will thin and weep in the shells.
- The sauce is deliberately stiff1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup flour to only 2/3 cup milk makes a very thick binding paste, not a pouring sauce. That stiffness is what holds the filling in the shell; do not slacken it with extra milk.
- Adding the yolkTake the sauce off the heat before beating in the yolk so it thickens rather than scrambles. Add the lemon juice last, after the yolk, since acid in a hot roux sauce can make it grainy.
- Shells and panScallop shells or deep oyster shells were the standard individual gratin dish. Ramekins or small gratin dishes work identically. "Dripping-pan" means a shallow roasting pan, used here simply to keep the shells upright.
- Buttered cracker crumbsCoarse crumbs from a plain soda or water cracker, tossed with melted butter -- about 1/2 cup crumbs to 2 tablespoons butter. Panko behaves much the same but browns faster, so watch the last few minutes.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; the quantity would fill roughly four to six shells, serving about four as a first course.