Kirkpatrick

A half-shell oyster dish written in shorthand for cooks who already knew the house Creole sauce and had a coal range going. Two things need filling in: the oven heat, which is not given, and the bacon, which cannot cook in three minutes.

• Par-cook the bacon firstThree minutes will not render a raw strip of bacon, and undercooked pork fat over an oyster is unpleasant as well as unwise. Lay the strips on a rack and cook them until the fat has run but they are still limp, then cut to size and drape over the oysters.
• Heat: broiler, not a moderate ovenFor the timing given, the heat has to be fierce. Set a broiler on high or an oven at 500F with the rack near the top. At 350F the oysters will weep and toughen long before the cheese colours.
• Judge by the oyster, not the clockThey are done when the edges ruffle and the liquor bubbles at the shell rim, generally three to five minutes under a broiler. Past that they shrink and go rubbery.
• "Shell oysters"Whole live oysters in the shell, to be shucked and left on the deeper half with their liquor. Buy them closed and heavy, and discard any that gape and do not close when tapped.
• Steady them with saltSet the shells on a bed of rock salt or crumpled foil in a shallow pan. Otherwise they tip and the sauce and liquor run out in the oven.
• Creole SauceThe recipe assumes a Creole sauce given elsewhere in the volume; such sauces are generally tomato cooked down with onion, green pepper and cayenne, though the book's own version is not reproduced here. Use it thick, a scant tablespoon per oyster, or thin sauce will flood the shell and dilute the liquor.
• Go light on the ParmesanBetween the cured bacon, the seasoned sauce and the oyster liquor there is already a good deal of salt. A pinch of grated cheese per shell is enough to brown.
• YieldNo quantity is given. Six oysters make a first course for one; a dozen per person as a small supper dish.