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Oyster Patties
Follow the preceding directions, substituting creamed oysters for the chicken and mushroom mixture.
A cross-reference rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes you have already read the entry for chicken and mushroom patties just above it, which fills baked puff-paste cases with a hot creamed filling. What follows is what a modern cook needs to fill in.
- What a "patty" is hereNot a burger and not a baked casserole, but a small puff-paste shell — a bouchée or vol-au-vent — baked hollow and filled just before serving. Frozen puff pastry shells are the direct modern equivalent; four to six make a first course, eight to ten a supper dish.
- The hinge: barely cook the oystersPoach shucked oysters in their own liquor only until the edges ruffle, about one to two minutes, then lift them out. Longer simmering, which some period recipes call for, turns them tough and shrunken.
- Creamed oysters, builtMake a white sauce from roughly 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour, and a cup of liquid — use the strained oyster liquor for part of it — then fold in the drained oysters off the heat. Reckon on roughly a pint of shucked oysters for six shells.
- Seasoning of the periodSavory white sauces of the period run to salt, white pepper, and often a grating of nutmeg or a spoonful of sherry. A squeeze of lemon at the end is not in the original but suits the oysters.
- Crisp shellsWarm the baked cases at 350F for a few minutes before filling. Filled shells soften quickly, so assemble at the table's edge rather than in advance.
- Oyster liquor and gritStrain the liquor through a fine sieve or a doubled cloth. Even well-shucked oysters carry shell fragments, and the sauce is the place they collect.
- BuyingAsk for shucked oysters by volume; a pint is a convenient working unit. Small varieties hold their shape better in a cream sauce than large ones, which are better fried.
Filled puff-paste cases came into English and American cookery from the French kitchen, where petits pâtés and bouchées were the standard genteel way to serve a rich bound mixture in small portions; by the late nineteenth century the shells were a staple of American luncheon and reception menus, made at home from puff paste or bought from a bakery. Oysters were the obvious filling: before overharvesting and pollution thinned the Atlantic beds, they were cheap, shipped inland by rail in barrels and cans, and appear throughout period cookbooks in soups, stuffings, fritters and creamed dishes. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns, issued its cook book as part of a broader line of household guidance, and the recipe's compressed cross-reference style assumes a reader with the sauce chapter open in front of her.