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Oyster Cocktail
Follow recipe for clam cocktail, using one pint small oysters drained from their liquor in place of clams.
A one-line variation that leans entirely on the clam cocktail preceding it: raw shellfish, drained, dressed in a sharp tomato-and-horseradish sauce and served over ice. Everything that matters here is in the sourcing and the temperature.
- What the base recipe suppliesPeriod clam and oyster cocktail dressings were generally similar in character: tomato catsup or chili sauce, lemon juice, grated horseradish, salt, often a pepper sauce, and in some versions a little of the shellfish liquor; the exact formula varied from book to book. If your edition's clam cocktail is missing, a cocktail sauce of that general description is in keeping with the intent.
- A pint of oystersShucked oysters were sold by liquid measure, and modern shucked oysters still come in pints and half-pints, so the measure translates directly. The number of oysters in a pint varies widely with grade, and the recipe gives no yield.
- "Small oysters"The recipe specifies only "small," presumably a smaller grade rather than the large frying sizes. Anything much bigger than a bite wants cutting, which spoils the point of the dish; avoid the largest counts.
- Save the liquorDrained does not mean discarded. A tablespoon or two of the strained liquor stirred back into the sauce restores the brine the draining removed, and the rest is worth keeping for chowder.
- Cold is the whole techniqueThere is no cooking, so temperature is the only variable you control. Chill the oysters, the sauce and the glasses separately, assemble at the last minute, and set the glasses in crushed ice. A cocktail that has stood at room temperature ten minutes tastes flat and slack.
- Raw shellfish and who should skip itThese are eaten raw. Buy from a dealer who can show the shellfish tag, keep them at refrigerator temperature throughout, and use them the day you buy them. Anyone pregnant, immunocompromised, or with liver disease should not eat raw oysters at all, Vibrio vulnificus being the specific concern; cooked preparations are the alternative.
- ServingSmall stemmed glasses. Oyster cocktails were customarily served at the start of the meal; lemon wedges and thin bread and butter are a usual accompaniment, though the recipe specifies neither.
Lowney's Cook Book was compiled by Maria Willett Howard for the Walter M. Lowney Company, the Boston chocolate manufacturer, and published in 1907 — a promotional book that ran well beyond chocolate into a full course-by-course household manual, which is how a raw oyster course ends up in it. The oyster cocktail is generally regarded as an American dish of the later nineteenth century; a much-repeated tradition traces it to Gold Rush-era San Francisco, though that origin is not documented, and the name and the stemmed glass are usually said to have been borrowed from the bar. By the time Howard was writing, oyster cocktails appeared regularly as opening fare on hotel and club menus, and commercial catsup, bottled horseradish and rail-borne ice had made them easier to produce away from the coast. The terseness of the entry — a single sentence pointing back at the clams — suggests how familiar the dish had become.