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Fried Deviled Oysters
Take one pint of oysters or sufficient to make a good dish, wipe them dry and lay them on a flat dish; cover with butter well-warmed and mixed with cayenne pepper and lemon juice, turn them over and over in this mixture for ten minutes, then roll them in a paper of rolled crackers or sifted breadcrumbs; dip them into beaten egg and again roll them in the crumbs, fry them in boiling lard and butter mixed and serve as hot as possible.
A straightforward fry that depends on two things: dry oysters and fat hot enough to set the crust before the oyster overcooks.
- The hinge: dry them properlyOysters shed liquor constantly, and wet oysters will not hold a double crust. Drain them in a sieve, then blot each one between paper towels just before it goes into the butter mixture.
- A pint of oystersShucked oysters are still sold by the pint in some markets; a pint is somewhere around 16 to 30 medium oysters depending on grade, and weighs roughly a pound with its liquor. That serves three or four as a first course.
- "A paper of rolled crackers"Most likely crackers crushed with a rolling pin and spread on a sheet of paper, though "a paper" may also have meant a small packaged quantity. Soda or water crackers are the sort meant; saltines crushed fine are the closest match, and commercial cracker meal also works, giving a crisper coat than fresh breadcrumbs.
- Butter "well-warmed"Soft and just fluid, not hot. Melted-and-hot butter will begin to cook the oyster edges and thin out so it will not cling. Warm it off the heat until it is the consistency of cream.
- Ten minutes of turningThis is a marinade, not a step to rush past, but keep it cool. Ten minutes on the counter is fine; longer than that, refrigerate.
- Frying fat and temperatureLard and butter mixed tastes right but the butter's milk solids scorch. Use mostly lard or a neutral oil with a spoonful of clarified butter, at 370-375F, deep enough to float the oysters.
- TimingNinety seconds to two minutes, until the crumbs are deep gold. An oyster fried until it looks thoroughly cooked inside is already tough; the crust is the doneness cue.
- ServingFry in small batches, drain on a rack rather than paper so the crust stays crisp, and send them out at once with lemon. They lose everything sitting in a warm oven.
"Deviled" in nineteenth-century American and English cookery meant nothing more than seasoned hot — cayenne, mustard, sometimes Worcestershire — and it was applied to kidneys, ham, crab and above all oysters. The period was one of cheap American oysters: New York harbor and the Chesapeake still supplied them by the barrel, oyster saloons stood on ordinary street corners, and a hotel kitchen expected to keep a dozen oyster preparations in its repertoire. The double breading here, crumb then egg then crumb again, is a method often used for frying in deep fat, and the recipe's offer of rolled crackers or sifted breadcrumbs as equal alternatives reflects an American pantry of the period, in which the soda cracker was as much a staple as the loaf of stale white bread.