Home › Fish › Oysters Fried in Batter
Oysters Fried in Batter
Scald the oysters in their own liquor, and drain them thoroughly on a cloth. For one-half pint of oysters take one-half pint of milk, two eggs, and sufficient flour to make the batter, pepper and salt, and a little nutmeg if liked. Mix the batter in the usual way and put the oysters in it. Then drop them, one at a time, in hot lard, fry a light brown, drain and serve.
A plain fritter batter that works well provided the oysters are genuinely dry before they go into it. The book assumes a deep kettle of lard and a cook who judges heat by eye.
- The hinge: dry oystersScalded oysters hold a surprising amount of liquid, and any of it left on the surface will make the batter slide off in the fat. Drain on a cloth or paper, then blot the tops as well; they should feel tacky, not slick.
- "Scald" means seconds, not minutes"Scald" means briefly -- bring the oysters and their liquor just to the point where the edges ruffle, then lift them out. Anything longer and they tighten into rubber before the frying has even begun.
- Half a pint of oystersThat is one cup of shucked oysters, roughly 8 to 12 of medium size depending on grade. Half a pint of milk is likewise one cup.
- "Sufficient flour"For 1 cup milk and 2 eggs, expect about 1 to 1 1/4 cups flour — enough for a batter that coats a spoon thickly and drips slowly. Thinner than that and the coating will be lacy and greasy.
- Fat and temperatureLard is the fat the book assumes; any neutral frying fat will do. Hold it around 350-365F. Below that the batter absorbs fat; above it, the outside browns before the oyster is heated through.
- Fry in small batchesDropping them "one at a time" is the point — a crowded pan drops the fat temperature and the fritters stick to one another. Four or five at a time, two to three minutes to a light brown.
- SeasoningOyster liquor is salty, so season the batter lightly and taste after the first fritter. The nutmeg is not decoration; a scrape of it is characteristic of nineteenth-century oyster cookery.
- YieldEnough for two to three as a first course. Serve at once with lemon; these do not hold.
Oysters were cheap, abundant and shipped inland by rail in barrels and cans, which is why a book aimed at ordinary households could call for half a pint at a time as casually as it would call for milk. Frying shellfish in a milk-and-egg batter is an old English fritter technique carried into American kitchens, and the preliminary scald in the oysters' own liquor firmed the flesh enough to handle. The pinch of nutmeg is often said to be a survival of a much older habit, when nutmeg and mace were commonly used to season oysters in English cookery.