No. 1059

Broiled Oysters, Maitre d'Hotel and on Skewers

Huitres Grillees Maitre d'Hotel et en Brochettes

Drain some large oysters; wipe dry, and season with salt and pepper; range them on a hinged broiler, coat over either with melted butter or oil (but no bread-crumbs), broil them over a quick fire without coloring, then dress them on pieces of toast, and pour over a little slightly melted maitre-d'hotel butter (No. 581); or, they may be bread crumbed after dipping in butter, and then broiled over a slow fire, covering with the maitre d'hotel butter.

For Brochettes or Skewers.—Blanch some large oysters, run a skewer through them twining around with a band of very thin and fat bacon, cut sufficiently long that one alone answers for a brochette; sprinkle over some butter, and broil them over a quick fire, then dress them on a hot dish, and cover with maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581).

← No. 1058 Oyster Brochettes with Truffles Oysters No. 1060 Fried Oysters a la Horly →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives three variations on one idea: a large oyster, butter, fierce heat, and a compound butter to finish. The whole thing lives or dies on how briefly the oysters see the fire.

Cook them for seconds, not minutesCook them briefly -- A shucked oyster is done when its edges just ruffle and the flesh firms — around a minute a side under high heat. Held longer it shrinks, weeps and turns to rubber; the instruction to broil "without coloring" points the same way, away from a long stay over the fire.
Maitre d'hotel butter (No. 581)Softened butter creamed with chopped parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Make it ahead, roll it in parchment, chill, and cut coins to melt over the hot oysters; "slightly melted" means soft and pourable, not clarified or browned.
A hinged broilerThe double-sided wire grill basket that let you flip delicate food over coals without losing it. A fish grilling basket does the same job. Under a domestic overhead broiler, arrange the oysters on a preheated heavy pan or a bed of rock salt instead and do not turn them.
"Quick fire" and "slow fire"Quick means the grill or broiler at its hottest, preheated at least 10 minutes; slow means a moderate, settled heat. The crumbed version gets the slower fire because the coating needs time to color while the oyster underneath must not overcook.
Dry oysters, or nothing brownsDrain and blot them properly. Surface liquor steams rather than sears and will also make butter spit. Reserve the liquor for a sauce or soup rather than discarding it.
Blanching for the brochettesSlip the oysters into their own strained liquor brought just to a shiver, hold 20 to 30 seconds until the edges curl, then lift out and cool. This firms them enough to take a skewer without tearing.
The bacon has to be paper thinRanhofer specifies "very thin and fat bacon" because the band must cook through in the same minute or two as the oyster. Modern thick-cut will still be raw when the oyster is finished; use thinly sliced streaky bacon or pancetta, or blanch the strips briefly first.
SkewersMetal skewers conduct heat and help the interior along. Wooden ones should be soaked 30 minutes. One long bacon strip wound the length of the skewer, as written, holds the oysters in place better than separate pieces.
QuantityNo yield is given. Six large oysters per person as a first course, on toast cut to fit; allow one or two brochettes each.

A Little History

This is Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the record of some thirty years' cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and the oyster section runs to dozens of numbered preparations because oysters were then abundant, cheap and eaten by everyone in the city. Brochette is simply the French for a small skewer, and the technique of binding a delicate morsel with a band of fat before putting it over coals is an old kitchen solution to the problem of an ingredient that cooks faster than it can brown. Maitre d'hotel butter — parsley, lemon, seasoning — is generally said to take its name from the head of the dining room, and by the 1890s it seems to have been a common finish for grilled fish and shellfish in professional French kitchens; Ranhofer numbers it as No. 581 because the book is built as a cross-referenced system rather than a collection of standalone recipes. The cross-references at the foot of the entry, to oyster brochettes with truffles on one side and fried oysters a la Horly on the other, show how finely a restaurant of that period expected to distinguish between treatments of the same shellfish.