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Oyster Stew
Put the liquor from the oysters on the stove, let boil, skim, and season with butter and pepper, add oysters, let come to a boil only, season with salt and serve. This is pronounced a "royal stew."
A stew of oysters in nothing but their own liquor, butter and pepper — the leanest version of the dish, with no milk or cream at all. Everything depends on not overcooking the oysters.
- The hinge: "let come to a boil only"Take the pan off the heat the moment the liquor moves and the oyster edges ruffle, roughly one to two minutes. Oysters held at a boil tighten and turn rubbery, and the liquor goes cloudy and grey.
- Salt last, and taste firstOyster liquor is already saline, and reducing it while skimming concentrates it further. Season at the end as written, and expect to need very little.
- Not enough liquorShucked oysters often come with far less liquor than a stew for several people needs. Shuck your own if possible; otherwise extend with a little water or bottled clam juice rather than boiling the liquor down.
- SkimmingThe grey foam that rises is coagulated protein and grit. Skim it off and, if the oysters were shop-shucked, strain the liquor through a fine sieve or cloth for sand and shell fragments.
- Butter and pepperThe recipe gives no quantities; about 2 tablespoons of butter per pint of oysters, with white or freshly ground black pepper to taste, suits it. Butter stirred into the hot liquor before the oysters go in enriches the broth.
- YieldA pint of oysters with their liquor makes two modest bowls as written. Traditionally served with oyster crackers or dry toast, which absorb the thin broth.
- SourcingUse oysters from a reputable supplier, kept cold and plump in clear liquor. Because the cooking is so brief, the quality and freshness of the shellfish is doing nearly all the work.
Oyster stew was one of the most democratic dishes in nineteenth-century America. Oysters were cheap and shipped inland in barrels and cans, and oyster saloons and cellars operated in cities well away from the coast. Cookbooks of the period typically give two forms: a milk stew and a "plain" one like this, made only with the liquor, so that nothing masks the oyster. The Dixie Cook Book, a Southern-marketed compilation of the 1880s assembled from earlier regional collections, groups it under Shell-Fish alongside other shellfish. It closes with the note that the dish is "pronounced a royal stew."