No. 1066
Oysters a la Hollandaise
Huitres a la Hollandaise
Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade: two cross-references and one sentence. The whole dish turns on not overcooking the oysters and not overheating the sauce.
- The hinge: poach barely at allOysters are done the moment their edges ruffle and they plump, roughly 30 to 60 seconds in their own strained liquor held just below a simmer. Anything approaching a rolling boil, or more than a minute or two, turns them tough and shrunken.
- What No. 1067 meansThe cross-referenced fricassee is the entry Ranhofer sends you to for the poaching itself, and it will presumably begin with the oysters in their own liquor. Strain that liquor through cloth first, as shucked oysters carry shell grit; the liquor can then be reduced and whisked into the sauce for flavour.
- Hollandaise, Ranhofer's versionRecipe No. 477 is a yolk-and-butter emulsion of the classic type rather than the sharp modern lemon-forward sauce; check the entry itself for the acid he uses. Hold it between 130 and 140F (55-60C); above about 160F (70C) the yolks scramble and the sauce breaks, and it will not sit indefinitely.
- Drain thoroughlyPoached oysters keep shedding liquid. Drain them on a cloth for a minute before dressing, or the released liquor will thin the hollandaise into a puddle at the bottom of the dish.
- The deep dishA warmed deep serving dish, not an oven dish. Nothing here is baked or glazed; the sauce is simply poured over and the dish goes straight to table.
- QuantityThis entry gives none. Reckon six to eight oysters per person as a first course, and about a cup of hollandaise for two dozen oysters.
Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894) records the kitchen of Delmonico's in New York, where he was chef across some three decades (in two spells, from the 1860s to the 1890s), and it is organised as a professional reference rather than a teaching book — hence the bare sentence and the two recipe numbers. Oysters occupy dozens of entries because they were then cheap, abundant and eaten in enormous quantity: the beds of New York harbour and Long Island Sound supplied the city, and an oyster course commonly opened formal dinners of the period. "A la hollandaise" in this system simply signals the butter-and-yolk sauce, part of the grid of named sauces a French-trained kitchen could apply to almost any poached ingredient; the same logic produces the Bechamel and poulette treatments on either side of this entry.