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Oyster Soup with Milk
Pour one quart cold water over one quart oysters if solid; if not solid, use one pint of water, drain through a colander into the soupkettle, and when it boils skim; add pepper, then the oysters; season with butter and salt, then add one quart rich new milk brought to boiling point in a tin pail set in a pot of boiling water, let boil up and serve at once. Or, instead of adding the milk, place it, boiling hot, in tureen, pour the soup over it and then serve.
A plain oyster stew of the type served through the nineteenth century, built on the oysters' own liquor rather than a roux or stock. The whole thing takes about ten minutes once the oysters are shucked.
- The hinge: do not cook the oysters longOysters need roughly one to two minutes in the hot liquid, just until the edges ruffle and they plump. "Let boil up and serve at once" means exactly that — held at a simmer they tighten into rubber.
- "Solid" oystersShucked oysters were sold either loose in plenty of their own liquor or packed "solid," that is, drained and dense in the container. Solid oysters bring little liquid, so the full quart of water is needed; loose ones already carry liquor, hence the reduced pint.
- QuantitiesOne quart of shucked oysters is about 2 lb, or roughly 25 to 40 medium ones. With a quart of milk it would serve about six as a first course.
- Strain the liquorPouring the water over the oysters and draining through a colander is a rinse that carries grit and shell fragments out with the liquid. Let the strained liquor settle and pour it off the sediment, or line the colander with cheesecloth.
- "Rich new milk"Fresh whole milk, unskimmed and often with cream still in it. Whole milk with a splash of heavy cream comes closest; skim milk gives a thin, bluish soup.
- The tin pail in boiling waterAn improvised double boiler. Milk scorches on direct heat, and oyster liquor is commonly blamed for curdling milk that goes in cold, so scald the milk gently in a heatproof bowl or a double boiler and combine when both are hot.
- SeasoningSalt last and sparingly — oyster liquor is already salty, and the amount varies with how the oysters were packed. Butter to taste, a tablespoon or two, plus white or black pepper.
- The tureen methodThe alternative — hot milk in the tureen, soup poured over — keeps the milk out of the kettle and gives the least risk of curdling. It is the better choice if your oyster liquor tastes sharp.
Oyster stew of this kind was everyday food rather than luxury for much of the nineteenth century, when Chesapeake and Gulf oysters moved inland by rail and barrel in enormous quantities and were often cheaper than meat. The Dixie Cook Book (1883, and reissued for years after) was assembled from contributed household receipts in the manner of the period, which is why the same soup appears in several near-identical versions across such books — the method was common property, passed between kitchens rather than invented in any one of them. The instruction to heat milk in "a tin pail set in a pot of boiling water" is a reminder that purpose-made double boilers were still a convenience rather than a given, and that milk on a hot iron range scorched easily. The choice offered at the end, milk in the tureen instead of in the kettle, carries the least risk of curdling.