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Oyster Roll
Cut a round piece, say six inches across, from the top of a wellbaked round loaf of bread, remove the inside from the loaf, leaving crust half an inch thick; make a rich oyster stew, and put in the loaf first a layer of it, then of bread-crumbs, then oysters, and so on; place cover over the top, glaze the loaf with the beaten yolk of an egg, and place in oven for a few moments. Serve very hot.
A hollowed loaf used as a serving vessel, filled with oyster stew and layers of crumbs. The whole success of it rests on how briefly the oysters cook.
- Oysters cook in two minutesBring the stew liquid and butter to a bare simmer, drop in the shucked oysters, and pull them off the heat the moment the edges ruffle. Anything longer and they shrink and turn rubbery, and the loaf goes back into a hot oven afterward as well.
- "A rich oyster stew"The recipe gives no proportions; a typical version runs about a pint of shucked oysters with their liquor, half a pint to a pint of milk or cream, 2 to 3 tablespoons butter, salt, and pepper. Thicken lightly with a spoonful of flour or a handful of the crumbs if it seems thin; a loose stew will soak the crust through.
- The loafA firm round country loaf large enough to take the six-inch lid the recipe calls for, a day old, works best. Cut the lid, pull out the crumb in large pieces, and leave a shell half an inch thick. Reserve the crumb, dry it in the oven, and use it for the layers.
- Brush the inside tooThe recipe does not call for it, but painting the interior of the shell with melted butter and drying it in the oven for a few minutes before filling helps the crust resist the liquid.
- OvenThe recipe gives no heat, only "a few moments." A hot oven for 5 to 8 minutes is enough to set the egg glaze and heat the surface. The filling is already hot; the oven is not there to cook it.
- The glazeOne egg yolk beaten with a teaspoon of water or cream, brushed over the top and sides. Straight yolk scorches quickly at this heat, so watch it.
- Yield and servingOne loaf serves three or four as a supper dish. Carry it whole to the table and cut it in wedges with a serrated knife, or spoon out the filling and cut the shell into pieces alongside. It must go out immediately; it does not hold.
The oyster loaf belongs to a nineteenth-century American habit of treating a hollowed bread as a dish in its own right, and versions are recorded in several nineteenth-century oyster cities, San Francisco among them, as well as on the Gulf Coast, where oysters were cheap, plentiful and shipped inland by barrel. In New Orleans the fried version was known as la mediatrice, "the peacemaker" — traditionally said to be what a husband brought home late to placate his wife, a story repeated far more often than it is documented. The Dixie Cook Book, compiled in the 1880s from the same stock of material as Estelle Woods Wilcox's earlier Buckeye Cookery, gives it in this baked form among a long shell-fish chapter.