No. 804

Oysters Tartare

Huitres Tartare

Blanch some large oysters, drain them well, and season with salt, pepper, fine herbs, shallots cut into very small dice and blanched, capers, minced pickled cucumbers, and lobster coral chopped up very fine. Have some thin slices of bread cut oval shaped the size of an oyster, fry in butter, place one oyster on each and cover every one of these with the chopped garnishing, finish by covering all with a mayonnaise jelly (No. 613).

← No. 803 Raw Oysters on the half Sheel or Little Neck Cold Side Dishes No. 805 Oyster Crabs, Pickled →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed cold canapé from Ranhofer's The Epicurean, built one oyster at a time. Nothing here is difficult, but two of the components — the mayonnaise jelly and the lobster coral — are cross-references to a book you may not have in front of you.

Blanch means seconds, not minutesSlip the shucked oysters with their liquor into a pan, bring just to the point where the edges ruffle and they firm slightly, then lift them out at once — well under a minute for large oysters. Anything longer and they tighten into rubber, which no amount of garnish will hide.
Chill hard before assemblingThis is a cold side dish, and the oysters are barely cooked. Drain them, spread them on a plate and refrigerate until thoroughly cold before dressing; keep the finished pieces below 40F and serve them the same day. If anyone at the table avoids lightly cooked shellfish, this is not the dish for them.
Fine herbsFines herbes in this book means chopped parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon, chopped fine and used in small quantity. Parsley and chives alone will do; tarragon is the one that reads as period.
Mayonnaise jelly (No. 613)Ranhofer's version is mayonnaise combined with aspic or dissolved gelatin, cooled to the point where it coats but has not set. The proportions are given at No. 613, not here; whatever mixture you use, stir it over ice until it just thickens, then spoon it over each oyster. Because the mayonnaise is uncooked, use pasteurized eggs or a good jarred mayonnaise.
Lobster coralThe dark green roe of a hen lobster, which turns coral red when heated. Sold rarely on its own; you get it by buying whole female lobsters. Cook it briefly until red, then chop or push through a sieve. Paprika gives the colour but not the flavour, and the dish survives without it.
Blanching the shallotsThirty seconds in boiling water and a plunge into cold takes the raw bite out of the diced shallot so it does not dominate the oyster. Do not skip it.
The croûtonsCut oval slices from a firm white loaf, about a quarter inch thick and just the footprint of an oyster, and fry in clarified butter so they brown without the milk solids burning. Drain and cool completely — a warm base will melt the jelly and go soft.
Yield and servingThe original gives no count. Figure one piece per person as part of a spread of cold dishes, or six to eight pieces per person as a canapé course. Assemble within an hour or two of serving and keep refrigerated; the bread will not hold up overnight.

A Little History

Tartare in nineteenth-century French kitchen language pointed to a cold sauce sharpened with mustard, capers, pickled cucumber and herbs — the ancestor of the tartar sauce still served with fried fish — and the name was applied loosely to any dish dressed in that manner rather than to raw meat, a usage that came later. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York for over thirty years, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full record of that restaurant's repertoire, and its cold side dishes are the small, labour-intensive pieces that a large brigade could turn out by the hundred for a banquet buffet. The section around this recipe is thick with oysters — raw on the half shell, Little Necks, even pickled oyster crabs — a reminder that New York harbour and the Long Island beds still supplied the city with oysters cheaply enough that they turned up at every level of the menu.