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Oysters Fried in Batter
INGREDIENTS for dish for 4 persons. dozen oysters, 2 eggs, 1/2 pint of milk, sufficient flour to make the batter; pepper and salt to taste; when liked, a little nutmeg; hot lard. AVERAGE COST, 3s. 6d.
Scald the oysters in their own liquor, beard them, and lay them on a cloth to drain thoroughly. Break the eggs into a basin, mix the flour with them, add the milk gradually, with nutmeg and seasoning, and put the oysters in the batter. Make some lard hot in a deep frying-pan, put in the oysters, one at a time; when done, take them up with a sharp-pointed skewer and dish them on a napkin. Fried oysters are frequently used for garnishing boiled fish, and then a few bread-crumbs should be added to the flour.
TIME.-5 or 6 minutes.
SEASONABLE from September to April.
A straightforward oyster fritter, though two of Beeton's numbers need adjusting before you start: the oyster count has dropped out of the ingredient list, and the frying time belongs to the panful rather than to each oyster.
- The missing quantityThe list opens with "dozen oysters" — a numeral has clearly dropped out in setting. For four people as a savoury course, two dozen shucked oysters is the likeliest reading, though the original figure cannot be recovered from this text.
- Half a pint of milkAn imperial half-pint is 10 fl oz, or 1 1/4 US cups. With two eggs and enough flour to bind, expect a thin coating batter about the consistency of pouring cream; add the milk gradually as directed and stop when it will cling to a spoon in a thin film.
- Scald, don't cookThis is the hinge. Bring the oysters and their strained liquor just to the point where the edges ruffle — 30 to 60 seconds — then lift them out. Oysters held at a simmer turn to rubber, and they still have a spell in hot fat ahead of them.
- BeardingThe beard is the dark frill of gill tissue along one edge. Pinch it off with your fingers; it is edible but tough and holds grit.
- Drying matters"Lay them on a cloth to drain thoroughly" is not optional. Batter slides off a wet oyster, and residual liquor makes hot fat spit violently.
- Real frying timeThe stated 5 or 6 minutes most likely covers the whole panful rather than each oyster, though Beeton does not say which. By modern practice each battered oyster needs roughly 1 to 2 minutes in fat at 350-375F — a figure the book itself never gives — until the coating is pale gold. Fry in small batches so the fat does not drop in temperature.
- Lard and its substitutesLard was the standard deep-frying fat and gives a clean flavour and good crispness. Any neutral oil with a high smoke point works; use enough for the oysters to float free in a deep pan.
- Dishing on a napkinA folded linen napkin on the serving dish absorbed the fat, the Victorian equivalent of draining on paper. Serve at once with lemon and cayenne.
- For garnishing fishThe breadcrumbs added to the flour in that variation give a rougher, more durable crust that holds up beside a moist poached fish rather than going soft.
The season Beeton gives — September to April — is the old English oyster rule, the months with an R in them, and it had two justifications: native oysters spawn in warm weather and eat poorly then, and before mechanical refrigeration shellfish carted inland in July was a genuine risk. In the 1860s oysters were still cheap enough to be barrel food for the London poor as well as a garnish on a middle-class dinner table, which is why the household books treat them so casually, scalding them by the dozen and using fried ones merely to trim a boiled turbot. Frying oysters in a milk-and-egg batter belongs to the broad family of British fritter cookery, and the same treatment crossed the Atlantic, where fried oysters outlived their English fashion by a long way.