No. 2353

Oysters in Their Shells with Fried Bread

Huitres dans leurs Coquilles Naturelles au Pain Frit

Heat some butter in a small saucepan; mix in with it some white bread-crumbs, stir continuously and let it get a light brown color, then remove from the fire and drain. Poach and drain some oysters; lay six of their natural shells on a baking sheet having an inside perforated sheet to hold the oysters level, or cover the bottom of the pan with a bed of salt. Take up a heaping teaspoonful of the fried bread-crumbs and pour it into each shell; on top place one or two oysters and cover with a little well seasoned veloute sauce (No. 416); bestrew the surfaces with grated parmesan and on each set a small piece of butter; push the shells into a moderate oven for five or six minutes, then remove and dress in a circle on a folded napkin, with a sprig of parsley in the center.

← No. 2352 Oysters Roasted and English Style in Their S Miscellaneous Entrées No. 2354 Shells of Scallops, Parisian Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

A gratin of oysters set back in their shells over a bed of buttered crumbs, from Charles Ranhofer's Delmonico's kitchen. Nearly everything hangs on how briefly the oysters see heat.

Poach means barelyBring the oysters just to the point where the edges ruffle — 30 seconds to a minute in their own liquor — then lift them out. They get a second heating in the oven, and oysters cooked twice at length turn to erasers.
Moderate ovenGenerally read as somewhere in the 325-375F range; 350F is a safe reading. Five or six minutes is enough to melt the butter and colour the parmesan; if the cheese is not taking colour, finish under the broiler for a minute rather than leaving the shells in longer.
Velouté, No. 416Ranhofer's velouté is a white roux thinned with veal or chicken stock and simmered down, not a milk béchamel. Any well-reduced stock-based white sauce works; season it firmly, since the crumbs soak up a good deal of it.
The crumbsDry white crumbs, not the coarse damp kind from fresh bread, fried in butter until light brown and then drained on paper. They are there to keep the sauce from pooling — a wet crumb layer defeats the purpose.
ShellsUse the deep bottom halves, scrubbed and boiled briefly. A perforated pan is unnecessary; a half-inch bed of coarse salt in a sheet pan holds them level and stops them rocking on the way to the table.
Parmesan and butterGrate the cheese finely so it melts in the short bake, and keep the butter to a pea-sized piece per shell. More than that and the sauce breaks and runs into the salt.
YieldThe recipe is written for six shells, one or two oysters in each. Figure roughly a cup of velouté and half a cup of fried crumbs for four servings.
The napkinThe folded napkin may also catch the salt and butter that come off the hot shells. A warmed plate with a linen napkin still does the job.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's account of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and its oyster chapter is a long one because American oysters were then cheap, abundant and served at every level of dining — barrels of them shipped inland by rail, and dozens of preparations expected of a first-class kitchen. This dish belongs to the au gratin family that French chefs applied to shellfish throughout the nineteenth century: a bound sauce, grated cheese, a brief pass through the oven for colour. The dish is served in the natural shell rather than a metal or porcelain coquille, and the cross-reference to velouté No. 416 shows how the book was built — a system of mother sauces and numbered components that a brigade could assemble to order, rather than a set of standalone recipes for home cooks.