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Fried Oysters
Select large oysters and drain them; mix one tablespoonful of flour smoothly with one-half teacupful of milk, grate some stale breadcrumbs on a sheet of paper and season with salt and pepper; roll the oysters first in the paste and then in the breadcrumbs, covering well but touching them as little as possible. Lay them on a plate and leave them for several minutes. Beat one or two eggs thoroughly, roll the oysters in it one at a time, then roll them again in the seasoned breadcrumbs. Put a large lump of lard in a frying pan over the fire and when blue smoke arises put in the oysters and fry them until nicely browned. Take each oyster as it is cooked out of the fat and lay it on a sheet of paper in front of the fire to drain. Spread a folded napkin or an ornamental dish-paper over a hot dish, pile the oysters upon it, garnish with fried parsley and serve.
A straightforward double-breaded fry, but the original leans on visual cues from a coal range. Two things need translating: the fat temperature and the cooking time.
- Cook them fastLarge oysters need roughly 1 to 2 minutes in the fat — just long enough for the crumb coat to turn deep gold. Longer and the oyster shrinks and turns rubbery inside its shell of breading.
- "When blue smoke arises"The period cue that the lard is hot enough, roughly 370-375F, which is at or about lard's smoke point. A thermometer set to about 375F is the reliable version; if the fat smokes hard it is too hot and the crumbs will scorch before the oyster heats through.
- A teacupfulPeriod teacups ran small and inconsistent, somewhere between a half and three-quarters of a modern cup, so the half teacupful here works out at roughly a quarter cup of milk to the tablespoon of flour. That gives the thin slurry intended — it should coat, not cling in blobs.
- Stale breadcrumbsGrated dry bread, not soft fresh crumbs and not commercial panko. Dry crumbs absorb less fat and brown more evenly. Two cups seasoned with salt and pepper is ample for a pint of oysters.
- Handle them as little as possibleThis is the instruction doing the real work. Oysters are wet and slippery, and every extra squeeze breaks the crumb shell and lets fat in. Drain them well on a towel first, and use a fork or two spoons rather than fingers.
- The resting stepThe several minutes on a plate between coatings lets the first crust set so the egg has something to grip. A stint in the refrigerator instead of on the counter does the job better and firms the oysters up.
- DrainingA wire rack over a sheet pan in a low oven replaces the paper in front of the fire. Paper alone traps steam under the crust.
- Fried parsleyParsley must be bone dry before it goes into hot fat, and it spatters violently even then. Ten to fifteen seconds in the fat is enough; it should stay green, not brown.
- YieldA pint of shucked oysters gives somewhere in the region of 15 to 25 pieces depending on grade — a first course for four, or lunch for two.
Oscar Tschirky, the maître d'hôtel whose name carried the Waldorf's kitchen into print, was working in a New York where oysters were still cheap and everywhere. The city sat on some of the richest beds on the Atlantic coast, and fried oysters were as common in oyster cellars and hotel grillrooms as they were in home kitchens, which is why a recipe this basic earns a place in a book otherwise full of hotel showpieces. The service instructions are the period marker: a folded napkin or a pierced paper doily went under the pile, absorbing fat at the table. "Select" oysters, called for here as "large," was and remains a grading term for size rather than quality.