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Oysters, No. 2
1 pint of solid oysters.
INGREDIENTS. 4 tablespoonfuls of butter.
1 tablespoonful of lemon juice.
1 scant teaspoonful of salt.
A few grains of cayenne.
Beaten yolks of 2 eggs.
Method.- Put the oysters into the blazer. When they look plump and the edges curl, put the blazer into the hot-water pan and add the seasonings.
Add a few spoonfuls of the liquor from the pan to the yolks of the eggs, and, after mixing well, pour into the chafing-dish. Stir constantly until the liquor thickens, then serve on thin slices of buttered toast or on thin crackers.
A chafing-dish standard: oysters barely cooked in their own liquor, then bound with egg yolk over hot water. The whole thing takes about five minutes and the only real risk is overcooking.
- The hinge: never let the yolks boilOnce the tempered yolks go in, the mixture must be held below a simmer or it will curdle into scrambled egg in grey broth. That is the entire reason the blazer moves into the hot-water pan first — the pan is a double boiler, and it should be hot but not boiling hard.
- Blazer and hot-water panA chafing dish has two vessels: the blazer, a shallow pan set directly over the flame, and the water pan beneath it. Without one, use a wide skillet for the initial cooking and finish in a metal bowl or saucepan set over barely simmering water.
- "Solid oysters"Period shorthand for oysters lifted from their liquor and drained, as distinct from oysters sold in liquor by volume. A pint of shucked oysters may run anywhere from about 15 to 30, depending on size. Reserve any liquor drained off; with the liquor the oysters throw in the blazer, it is what gives the sauce its flavour.
- Oyster timingPlump with curled edges takes about one to two minutes over moderate heat. Any longer and they tighten into rubber. Judge by the edges, not the clock.
- The butterFour tablespoons are listed but the method never names them. Melt them in the blazer before the oysters go in, or add them with the seasonings once the blazer is over the water — either reading works, and the second gives a glossier sauce.
- "A few spoonfuls of the liquor from the pan"This means the oyster liquor now in the blazer, not water from the hot-water pan. Whisk two or three spoonfuls into the yolks first, off the heat, then return the lot to the blazer.
- Cayenne"A few grains" is a light pinch — an eighth of a teaspoon or less.
- YieldServes three or four as a light supper or savoury course, on four to six slices of thin buttered toast. It does not hold; serve straight from the dish.
The chafing dish had a genuine vogue in American homes from the 1890s through the 1910s, when alcohol-fuelled table burners made it possible to cook in the parlour rather than the kitchen — useful for late suppers after the theatre or for a bachelor's rooms, and part of its appeal was that it needed no servant. Oysters were among the commonest subjects: cheap, abundant along the Atlantic coast before the great beds were fished out and polluted, and quick enough to cook in front of guests. This preparation is essentially a savoury custard built on oyster liquor rather than anything creamed or floured, and its virtue is that nothing masks the oyster. The number "No. 2" indicates it is one of several oyster variations in the book.