No. 334

Oyster Soup a la Cruyst

Soupe aux Huitres a la Cruyst

For Ten Persons.—Mince up the white part of a small leek, and cut one small onion into one-eighth inch squares; fry these colorless in two ounces of butter, add two ounces of bread-crumbs, frying it in with the onion, and also sixty oysters with their own juice and a quart and a half of fish broth. Set the saucepan over a quick fire, and stir vigorously to prevent the oysters from sticking to the bottom, then skim, and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg; when ready to serve thicken the soup with raw egg-yolks cream and fine butter, the proportions for each quart being, two egg-yolks, one gill of cream and two ounces of butter. Stir in also, when serving, a little chopped parsley.

← No. 333 Oyster Soup, American Style Soups & Broths No. 335 Oyster Soup, French Style →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's oyster soup is a bread-thickened broth finished with an egg-and-cream liaison. Two moments decide whether it succeeds: how long the oysters stay over heat, and how hot the soup is when the yolks go in.

Do not boil the oystersSixty oysters dropped into hot broth need only a minute or two, until their edges ruffle. Held at a simmer they tighten into rubber. If the broth needs further cooking or reduction, do it first and slip the oysters in at the end.
The liaison must never boilTwo yolks, one gill of cream and two ounces of butter per quart will curdle outright at a simmer. Temper the yolk-cream mixture with a ladle of hot soup, stir it back off the heat, and bring the pot no higher than about 175F, just enough to thicken.
A gillHalf a cup, four fluid ounces. For a quart and a half of broth plus oyster liquor you are looking at roughly three yolks, three-quarters of a cup of cream and three ounces of butter, scaled to the finished volume.
"A quick fire"High heat on a coal range. On a modern burner, medium-high is ample; the recipe's own reason for stirring vigorously is to keep the oysters from sticking to the bottom.
Fish brothA light fumet of white fish bones, not a heavy stock and not clam juice, which will overwhelm the oysters. If you use bottled clam juice, dilute it and hold back on the salt until the end.
Oysters and their liquorSixty shucked oysters is roughly a quart, about two pounds of meats. Strain the liquor through a cloth before it goes in; shell grit is the usual fault in this kind of soup.
Bread-crumbs as thickenerThese are dry crumbs from a stale loaf, fried with the onion and leek until they drink up the butter. They soften into the broth and give body before the liaison is added. Panko will not dissolve the same way.
NutmegGrate it fresh and use a restrained hand. It is a period signature in shellfish and cream cookery, and pre-ground nutmeg reads as dusty against oyster liquor.
YieldTen servings as written, in the small soup portions of a long menu. As a first course on its own terms it will serve six generously.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty-odd years in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and its soup chapter carries oyster soups in a row: American style, French style, and this one, each a different treatment of a shellfish then abundant on the Atlantic coast. The name a la Cruyst is not explained in the book and does not correspond to a standard French garnish; Ranhofer routinely attached proper names, place names and patrons' names to dishes, and this looks like one of them rather than a technique. What is thoroughly French is the construction: an aromatic base fried colorless in butter, a crumb thickening of the sort that predates roux-based soups, and a finish with yolks, cream and butter stirred in when ready to serve, the classic liaison. Oysters in the 1890s came by the barrel from beds in the Chesapeake and around Long Island, and a recipe calling for sixty of them to feed ten people reflects a supply that collapsed within a generation.