Oyster Pates
Stew some large oysters with a little nutmeg, a few cloves, some yolk of egg boiled hard and grated, a little butter and as much liquor from the oysters as will cover them. When stewed a few minutes, take them out of the pan to cool. Have shells of puff paste, previously baked in patty pans, and lay two or three oysters in each.--Mrs. D.
A simple oyster filling in a baked puff pastry case. The whole dish turns on not overcooking the oysters — they should be pulled the moment their edges ruffle.
- "Pates" means the pastry caseHere "pates" is "patties": small pastry cases baked in patty pans, the shallow tartlet tins. The word's exact drift from French pâté, and its supposed line to the American "patty shell," is tradition rather than documented fact. Frozen puff pastry shells, or rounds of puff pastry baked in a muffin tin, serve the same purpose.
- Blind bake the shells firstBake the puff paste empty at 400-425F until fully risen, dry and browned, then hollow out any soft center. The filling is added cool to a cooked shell, so nothing goes back into the oven.
- Two minutes, not a few"Stewed a few minutes" is generous even by the standards of large 19th-century oysters. Modern shucked oysters plump and curl in about 60-90 seconds in barely simmering liquor; past that they tighten into rubber.
- Grated hard yolk is the thickenerGrated hard yolk -- The sieved yolk of a hard-boiled egg enriches the small amount of liquor and helps it cling to the oysters. The recipe gives no quantity; one yolk to about a pint of oysters is a reasonable starting point, pushed through a sieve so it disperses rather than clumping.
- Be sparing with the cloves"A few cloves" whole will overwhelm oysters quickly. Two or three, lifted out before serving, is plenty; a scant grating of nutmeg alongside them is a common pairing in period oyster cookery.
- Oyster liquor and saltThe liquor drained from the oysters is already salty, so season only at the end. If your oysters yield little liquor, top up with a splash of water or fish stock rather than adding more butter.
- Serve them soonFilled shells go soggy within the hour. Bake the shells ahead, cook the oysters at the last minute, and fill as they go out.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. A pint of shucked oysters will fill roughly 8-10 small shells at two or three oysters each — a first course for four. The original specifies large oysters, so a pint will yield fewer of them.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, appeared when Chesapeake oysters turned up scalloped, fried, in fritters, soups and pies throughout the book. Recipes like this one, credited only to "Mrs. D.," reflect the collection's method: dozens of named and initialed contributors, each supplying the version she actually cooked, with the brevity of a note passed between households rather than a formal instruction. The dish itself belongs to a long English line of small savory patties served as a side dish or entrée in the older sense — a made dish within the earlier courses of a service — and the seasoning of nutmeg, cloves and grated hard egg yolk is characteristic 18th-century English practice carried into American kitchens.