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Oysters Grilled in the Chafing-dish
Wash a pint of large oysters, pick them from the liquor and drain as dry as possible. Put them in a well-heated blazer and as fast as liquor drains from them, remove it with a spoon. When the oysters are dry and plump they are ready to serve. Before taking from the pan, dust with pepper and salt and add two tablespoons of butter. Serve between saltine wafers sandwich I. G. C.
A chafing-dish recipe stripped to essentials: shucked oysters, dry heat, butter at the end. Almost everything depends on driving off the liquor without cooking the oysters past plump.
- The blazerThe blazer is the upper pan of a chafing dish, set over the flame directly rather than over the hot-water bath. A heavy skillet over medium-high heat does the same job; the pan must be hot before the oysters go in or they will stew in their own liquor.
- A pint of oystersShucked oysters are still sold by the pint, roughly 16 to 24 depending on size. This serves two as a light course, or four as an appetizer on crackers.
- Drain, then drain againThis is the hinge. Lift the oysters from their liquor, spread them on a towel, and blot. Any liquid left in the pan turns the dish into a poach and the oysters tighten before they plump.
- How long "dry and plump" takesTwo to three minutes total, turning once. The signal is the edges ruffling and the body swelling; past that they shrink and go rubbery. Pull them while they still look slightly underdone.
- Butter lastThe two tablespoons go in at the very end, just before the oysters leave the pan, swirled with what juices remain. Added early it browns and the milk solids catch on a pan that hot.
- Saltine wafersSoda crackers of the period were not necessarily the same size or thickness as today's squares. Modern saltines work, but water crackers or an oyster cracker split in half hold up better under a hot oyster.
- The initials"I. G. C." appears to be an attribution, most likely to whoever supplied the recipe, rather than part of the method.
The chafing dish had a genuine vogue in American households between about 1890 and 1915, and books like this one carry whole chapters of dishes designed for it. It was cooking as parlor entertainment: a spirit lamp, a nickel-plated pan, and food finished in front of guests after the theater or at a late supper. Oysters suited it perfectly, being cheap, abundant along the Eastern seaboard, and quick enough to cook in the two or three minutes a host could plausibly hold a room's attention. Recipes of this kind were also often signed with initials, suggesting they came in from contributors.