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Fried Oysters and Bacon
Open and remove the beards from one dozen oysters, cut as many thin slices of bacon as there are oysters, trim neatly and lay an oyster on each, rolling them up and fasten with a skewer. Fry each roll carefully and nicely. Cut as many rounds of bread about a third of an inch thick and two inches in diameter as there are rolls of bacon, toast them evenly on both sides and butter them. Spread a folded napkin or fancy edged dish-paper on a hot dish, place the pieces of toast upon it with a roll on each, garnish with fried parsley and serve.
This is the Waldorf's version of what English kitchens called angels on horseback, and it is almost entirely a matter of timing: the bacon has to crisp before the oyster overcooks.
- "Remove the beards"The beard is the dark frilly mantle edge and the attached gill fringe on a shucked oyster. Trim it off with scissors or the point of a knife; it is edible but tough and holds grit. Shucked oysters sold in tubs are usually already clean.
- Bacon thicknessUse standard thin-sliced bacon, not thick-cut. Thick bacon will still be flabby by the time the oyster has shrunk to a nub. The recipe allows one slice per oyster, trimmed neatly, which need only wrap once with a slight overlap.
- SkewersWooden cocktail picks or short toothpicks do the job. Soak them briefly if you plan to finish the rolls under a broiler rather than in a pan.
- "Fry each roll carefully"A dry, moderately hot skillet, no added fat, turning the rolls as the bacon renders. A few minutes is usually enough, though the bacon may need a little longer to crisp; the oyster is done as soon as the edges ruffle, and held much beyond that it turns rubbery.
- The croutesCut the two-inch rounds with a plain cutter from firm white bread, a third of an inch thick as written. Toast them dry, then butter while hot so they stay crisp under the bacon fat.
- Fried parsleyCurly parsley, well dried, dropped into 350F fat for about 10 seconds until it stops sputtering and turns bright and brittle. Wet parsley will spit violently, so blot it thoroughly first.
- "Fancy edged dish-paper"A doily-cut paper liner used to absorb fat and dress the platter. Purely decorative now; a warmed plate serves the same purpose.
- YieldA dozen rolls is four servings as a first course, or a dozen canapes passed with drinks. Serve immediately, since the toast softens within minutes.
Oysters wrapped in bacon appear in English cookery of the later nineteenth century under the name angels on horseback, generally understood as a savoury course served at the end of a formal dinner rather than the beginning, alongside such things as devilled sardines and cheese ramekins. Oscar Tschirky's book records the dish in its unnamed, working form, which is a fair reflection of how the Waldorf kitchen operated: oysters were cheap and everywhere in turn-of-the-century New York, and much hotel cooking is said to have consisted of small hot mouthfuls set on rounds of buttered toast so they could be plated fast and carried up in numbers. The fried parsley and the cut-paper doily are the period's idea of finish, and both were common enough on a hotel platter of the 1890s.