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Deviled Oysters
Into the blazer of a chafing-dish put two tablespoons of butter. Melt and add one eighth of a teaspoon of Larkin Cayenne Pepper, two teaspoons of Larkin Table Salt and two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce. Blend well, and when thoroughly heated, add the oysters, a few at a time, cooking until the gills curl and the oysters are plump. Take from the sauce and serve very hot.
A chafing-dish recipe that runs on speed and heat rather than technique. The only real decisions are how many oysters and how much salt.
- The blazerThe blazer is the upper pan of a chafing dish, the one that sits directly over the flame. Any wide skillet does the same job; the point is a broad surface so the oysters sit in one layer rather than stewing in a heap.
- Quantity of oystersNone is given. Two tablespoons of butter and the seasoning listed would suit something in the region of a pint of shucked oysters, enough for about four as a first course, but the amount is left to the cook.
- Cut the saltTwo teaspoons of table salt for a pint of oysters is far more than modern palates want, particularly since the oysters carry their own liquor and the Worcestershire adds more salt. A quarter teaspoon is a reasonable starting point, tasting at the end.
- Drain the oystersLift them from their liquor and let them drain before they go in. Water released into a shallow pan of butter will drop the temperature and poach them instead of searing them.
- "Until the gills curl"What visibly curls is the frilled edge of the mantle rather than the gills proper. It ruffles quickly over a good flame, and that is the signal to stop; oysters held past that point tighten and turn rubbery, and the recipe accordingly says to take them from the sauce rather than let them sit in it.
- A few at a timeWorth obeying. Crowding the pan cools it and the oysters weep; work in two or three batches and keep the finished ones warm on a hot dish.
- The sauceNothing thickens here, so what remains in the pan is butter, oyster liquor and Worcestershire. Spoon a little over each portion, or reduce it briefly once the last batch is out.
- ServingToast points or crackers suit the dish and take up the pan liquid, though the recipe itself names no accompaniment.
Good Things to Eat was published by the Larkin Company of Buffalo, a soap-and-household-goods concern that built an enormous mail-order business on premiums and club buying, which is why the cayenne and the table salt are specified by brand in a recipe of five lines. The chafing dish itself was at the height of its vogue around the turn of the century: a spirit-lamp burner and a pair of nested pans let a hostess cook at the table without a servant, and oysters, then cheap and shipped inland by rail in barrels and cans, were its standard material. "Deviled" in this period simply means seasoned hot with cayenne and a sharp bottled sauce, a usage generally traced to eighteenth-century English kitchens and applied to almost anything from kidneys to biscuits.}