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Oysters Steamed in the Shell
Carefully wash and place them in an air-tight pan or dish with their upper shells downward, so that the deep shell will hold their juice as they open. Place the dish over a pot of boiling water so that the steam will reach them and keep the water boiling rapidly until the shells open. Fifteen or twenty minutes will be sufficient,. Serve at once in the shells, using butter, salt and pepper to season them.
A method rather than a formula, and the only real decisions are how the shells sit and how long the steam runs. Both need adjusting.
- The timing is the hingeOysters in the shell generally begin to gape after roughly five to ten minutes over hard-boiling water, depending on size and how tightly the pot is sealed. Fifteen to twenty minutes risks leaving them shrunken and rubbery in a puddle of their own evaporated liquor. Take them out as they open rather than waiting for the last holdout.
- Which side downThe instruction as printed says upper shells downward, but an oyster's cupped valve is the lower one and that is the half that holds the liquor. Set them cup-side down, flat shell up, which is almost certainly what was meant.
- "Air-tight pan or dish"A steamer insert or a colander over a stockpot with a tight lid does the same job. The point is a sealed chamber full of live steam, not a bain-marie; the oysters should never touch the water.
- ScrubbingWild oysters of the period came with mud and barnacles. Even today, scrub the shells under cold running water with a stiff brush before steaming, since whatever is on the outside ends up in the liquor you drink.
- Buying and discardingUse only oysters that are tightly shut or that close when tapped; discard any that gape beforehand. After steaming, discard any that stayed sealed rather than prying them.
- SeasoningMelted butter with a little salt and pepper is the period treatment and still works. Lemon, hot sauce or a splash of the shell liquor itself are the usual modern additions.
- YieldThe original gives no quantity. Six to eight oysters per person as a first course, a dozen or more as the centre of a casual meal, and figure on steaming in batches so nothing sits waiting.
Steaming in the shell is among the simplest and least interfering ways to cook an oyster, and it survived into printed cookery largely because it needed no equipment beyond a pot and a lid. When the Butterick book appeared, oysters were still cheap urban food in the United States, familiar enough that the fish chapter of a general household manual could treat them as an everyday ingredient. The habit of serving them straight in the deep shell with butter, salt and pepper belongs to that abundance, when the shellfish was the point and the sauce was an afterthought. Landings collapsed over the following century through overharvesting, silt and disease, which is why the same dish now reads as a small luxury rather than a Tuesday supper.