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Scalloped Oysters
Do not drain the liquor from the oysters, but fork them out of it as you use them; in that way as much liquor as you require adheres to them. Use stale bread, and do not crumb it too fine, or it will be clammy. 1/2 teacupful cream. 2 great spoonfuls butter. Salt and pepper. Oysters part with a great deal of moisture in cooking, and if the mixture is too wet it is not as good; it should be rather dry when done. Cover the bottom of a well-buttered dish with a layer of very dry bread crumbs, dust over a little salt and pepper, and stick little bits of butter all over the crumbs; then, with a spoon, moisten it with cream. Next, place a layer of oysters, alternating with bread crumbs, until the dish is filled, finishing with butter and cream; invert a plate over it to keep in the flavor. Bake three-quarters of an hour, or until the juice bubbles to the top. Remove the plate, and brown on the upper shelf of the oven for two or three minutes only.--Mrs. R. Scalloped Oysters.
Those who are fond of oysters prepared in this way will find them much more delicate when cooked entirely by reflected heat. Have your tinner make you an old-fashioned "tin-kitchen" with sloping sides. Take small oblong dishes, such as are in general use at hotels, fill them with alternate layers of oysters and rolled crackers, and lay lumps of fresh butter liberally on top of each dish. Arrange them in the "kitchen," set the open dish in front of a bright fire or very warm grate, and in fifteen or twenty minutes you will find the oysters delicious.--Mrs. D.P.
Scalloped Oysters.
Put on the oysters with just enough liquor to keep from burning and parboil slightly. Season the rest of the liquor as for stewed oysters with butter, pepper, salt, and a little flour, and boil until done. Put the parboiled oysters in a baking-dish, with a piece of butter and a grated cracker or stale bread and pepper, and pour as much of the gravy as the dish will hold. Put a little of the grated cracker on top, and set it in the oven to brown.--Mrs. W. Oysters Scalloped in the Shell.
Open the shells, setting aside for use the deepest ones. Have ready some melted butter, not hot, seasoned with minced parsley and pepper. Roll each oyster in this, letting it drip as little as may be, and lay in the shell, which should be arranged in a baking-pan.
Add to each a little lemon juice, sift bread crumbs over it, and bake in a quick oven till done. Serve in the shells.--Mrs. S.
Scalloped Oysters.
Put in the scallop shells as many oysters as each will hold. Season with butter, salt and pepper; a few bread crumbs.
Cook until well done; add a piece of butter just before they are served.--Mrs.
Five versions of the same dish from five contributors, ranging from an oven bake to a reflector oven set before an open fire. The measurements are casual even by the standards of the book, and the baking time in the first version is the thing most in need of adjustment.
- The hinge: do not bake it three-quarters of an hourOysters are done when their edges ruffle, which takes a few minutes. Forty-five minutes at any temperature turns them to erasers and drives out the liquor the recipe is trying to conserve. A modern scallop of this size goes into a 400F oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the center is bubbling, then briefly under the broiler as Mrs. R. directs.
- Two layers of oysters, never threeThe traditional rule for scalloped oysters, and the reason this dish so often goes watery: with a deep middle layer the oysters at the center steam in their own liquor while the top browns. Crumbs, oysters, crumbs, oysters, crumbs is the working structure regardless of how tall the dish is.
- Teacupful and great spoonfulA teacupful in books of this period is usually reckoned at somewhere between 4 and 6 fluid ounces, so half a teacupful of cream is roughly 1/4 to 1/3 cup. A "great spoonful" is most likely a heaped tablespoon, which would put the two spoonfuls of butter at about 2 ounces, but the book defines neither measure.
- Quick ovenMrs. S.'s oysters in the shell go into a quick oven, conventionally reckoned at about 400 to 425F. At that heat they need only long enough to set the crumbs, eight to ten minutes.
- Bread crumbs versus crackersThe warning against crumbing too fine is sound. Torn stale bread, dried out in a low oven, keeps its structure; fine dry commercial crumbs pack into a paste. Where the recipes call for "rolled" or "grated" crackers, unsalted soda crackers crushed coarse are the closest thing, and you should cut back on the added salt.
- The tin kitchenA reflector oven: an open-fronted tin box with sloping polished sides, set before the hearth so the fire's heat bounces onto the food. Mrs. D.P.'s claim that reflected heat is gentler is fair, and the nearest modern equivalent is a moderate oven with the dish shallow and wide rather than deep.
- Oyster liquor and saltThe instruction to fork oysters out of their liquor rather than drain them is the whole technique in one line. Shucked oysters in a tub carry plenty of salt in that liquor, so season the crumb layers lightly and taste before adding more.
- ShellsFor the two versions served in the shell, scrub the deep half-shells hard, boil them briefly and dry them before filling. Steady them in the pan on a bed of coarse salt or crumpled foil so the butter and lemon juice do not run out.
- YieldNone of these versions names a quantity of oysters. A quart of shucked oysters will fill a 9-inch baking dish and serve four to six as a supper dish, or six to eight alongside a roast.
Scalloped oysters belonged to the whole Atlantic seaboard in the nineteenth century, not just to Virginia: oysters were cheap, abundant and shipped inland in barrels and cans, and a dish that stretched them with buttered crumbs was economical rather than luxurious. The name is traditionally traced to the scallop shell the dish was baked and served in, and the two shell versions here preserve that older sense while the others have already migrated to a baking dish. What makes this page characteristic of Housekeeping in Old Virginia is its form: Marion Cabell Tyree compiled the book, published in 1878, from contributions by named Virginia housekeepers, and rather than reconcile them she printed five versions side by side, initials attached. The result reads like a set of neighbors disagreeing amiably about whether to parboil first, whether crackers beat bread, and whether an oven can be trusted at all.