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Broiled Oysters on the Half-Shell
Select large shells, clean with a brush, open, saving juice; put oysters in boiling water for a few minutes, remove and place each oyster in a half-shell, with juice; place on a gridiron over a brisk fire, and when they begin to boil, season with butter, salt and pepper (some add a drop of lemon juice.) Serve on the half-shell.
A simple grilled-oyster method that predates the broiler, written for a coal or wood fire. The chief risk is overcooking: the recipe as printed cooks the oysters twice.
- The hinge: cook them once, not twiceThe brief plunge in boiling water may have been intended to firm the oysters for handling, but combined with the fire it easily doubles the cooking. Either dip them for no more than 20-30 seconds, or skip the blanch entirely and go straight to the shells; an oyster is done the moment its edges ruffle.
- "A brisk fire" and the gridironA gridiron is a flat grate set over live coals. A charcoal or gas grill at high heat, lid off, is the direct equivalent; indoors, a broiler element with the rack 4-5 inches below works, though you lose the smoke.
- "When they begin to boil"This is the visual cue that replaces a timer: the liquor in the shell bubbles at the rim. On a hot grill that is a matter of a few minutes, less if the oysters have been blanched first. Pull them then rather than waiting for a rolling boil.
- Steadying the shellsDeep half-shells tip and spill their liquor through a gridiron's bars. Set them on a bed of coarse salt or crumpled foil in a sheet pan, or lay a wire cooling rack over the grill bars.
- Saving the juiceShuck over a bowl and strain the liquor through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to catch shell grit, then spoon a little back into each shell. It carries most of the flavour before the butter, salt and pepper go on.
- Buying and holdingBuy oysters live, shells tightly closed or closing when tapped, and keep them cup-side down under a damp cloth in the refrigerator, never sealed in a bag or covered in water. Discard any that gape and stay open.
- ButterAdd it at the end so it melts into the hot liquor. A small knob per oyster is enough; too much floods the shell.
- YieldThe recipe gives none. Count six oysters per person as a first course, a dozen as a light main.
Broiling oysters in their own deep shells is one of the oldest ways of cooking them, and it survives today in Gulf Coast chargrilled oysters. The Dixie Cook-Book appeared in 1883, when oysters were cheap, abundant and shipped inland by rail and barrel in enormous quantity; a cookbook of the period could assume its readers had access to "large shells" and knew how to open them. The instruction to save the juice reflects an era before cooks had bottled clam juice or stock to fall back on, when the liquor in the shell was understood as the best seasoning the oyster had. A drop of lemon is offered as optional, flagged as something "some add."