No. 2340

Shells of Oysters a la Villa

Coquilles d'Huitres a la Villa

Poach the oysters, drain and suppress the hearts. Saute in butter half as much escalops of cooked lobster, and half as much white part of cooked chicken as lobster. Cut the poached oysters in five-eighths of an inch squares, mingle with the lobster, chicken and bechamel sauce (No. 409), thickening with egg-yolks, cream and fresh butter; use this preparation to fill up some buttered and bread-crumbed clean oyster shells; when very full sift over each a little fried bread-crumbs, and set them in the oven a few minutes before serving.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A gratin of three luxuries bound in a yolk-enriched béchamel, from Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean. The recipe is written for a professional kitchen with sauces already standing, so the work is mostly in reading the proportions and the liaison correctly.

The hinge: the egg liaisonOnce the yolks and cream go into the béchamel it must not boil, or the sauce will break into curds and weeping butter. Stir the yolk-cream mixture into sauce taken off the heat and hold it below a simmer; the brief pass in the oven finishes the setting.
Poach the oysters brieflyBring them just to the point where the edges ruffle in their own liquor, 30 seconds to a minute, then lift them out. They cook again in the oven, and oysters held at a simmer turn to rubber.
"Suppress the hearts"Most likely an instruction to cut away the tough adductor muscle, the pale firm nub on the side of the oyster; the phrase is not glossed in the book. That muscle stays chewy no matter how gently the rest is treated.
ProportionsThe quantities are relative: lobster is half the weight of the oysters, chicken half the weight of the lobster. For a workable batch, roughly 1 lb shucked oysters, 8 oz cooked lobster meat, 4 oz cooked chicken breast.
EscalopsThin, broad slices cut across the grain, not dice. Cut the lobster tail and claw meat into slices about a quarter inch thick and warm them briefly in butter only, without browning.
Béchamel No. 409Béchamel No. 409 -- a béchamel of this period is a white roux moistened with milk, often simmered with veal and aromatics and then strained; consult No. 409 for Ranhofer's own formula. A well-made modern béchamel finished with a little reduced chicken or shellfish stock stands in for it.
Oven and shellsSet a hot oven, 425F, and give them five to eight minutes, just to heat through and colour the crumbs. Deep oyster shells are traditional; scallop shells, small gratin dishes or ramekins work identically. Wash and dry any shells thoroughly before buttering and crumbing.
Two kinds of crumbsThe shells are lined with plain crumbs; the topping is crumbs already fried in butter. Frying them first is what gives colour in a few minutes rather than a few minutes too many.
YieldThe quantities above fill about a dozen shells, which serves six as a first course or four as a light main.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its several thousand numbered recipes are cross-referenced like an encyclopedia rather than written to be read straight through, which is why this one sends you to No. 409 for its sauce. Filled shells, coquilles, were a standing category on that kind of menu: a way to serve a small hot portion of expensive protein bound in sauce, gratinéed, and presented in its own vessel with no plating required. Oysters were then cheap and abundant in New York waters, so the extravagance here is the lobster and the white meat of chicken rather than the shellfish that gives the dish its name. The suffix à la Villa follows the period's convention of naming variations after patrons, places or staff; like many such tags in Ranhofer, its referent is not recorded, and the name functions mainly as a filing label distinguishing this filling from the dozen others in the same section.