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Green Corn Oysters
To a pint of grated corn add two well beaten eggs; one-half cup of cream, and a half cup of flour, with onehalf spoon of baking powder stirred in it; season with pepper and salt and fry in butter, dropping the batter in spoonsful; serve a few at a time, very hot, as a relish with meats.
A late-summer fritter that contains no shellfish at all — the name refers to the size, shape and soft bite of the little cakes. A few points of translation before you start.
- "Green corn" means fresh sweet cornNot a green-hued variety, but corn picked young and milky rather than dried for meal. Roughly four to six medium ears will give the pint called for, depending on their size and how closely you scrape.
- How to grate itSplit each row of kernels down the middle with a knife tip, then scrape the cob with the back of the blade so the pulp and milk come out and the tough hulls stay behind. A box grater over a bowl does the same job faster and messier.
- "One-half spoon" of baking powderThe book gives no size, and period recipes use "spoon" for both teaspoon and tablespoon, so this is a judgment call. Half a teaspoon suits half a cup of flour; anything approaching half a tablespoon would risk a soda taste.
- Batter consistency is the hingeCorn varies enormously in moisture. The batter should mound on the spoon and spread only slightly in the pan — if it runs, add flour a tablespoon at a time. Too loose and the cakes tear when turned; too stiff and they are pasty inside.
- Butter alone will burnCook over medium heat, roughly 350F, and either clarify the butter or add a spoonful of neutral oil to raise the smoke point. Two to three minutes a side, until deep gold and set through the middle.
- CreamHand-skimmed nineteenth-century cream varied a good deal and was often lighter than modern heavy cream, so half-and-half or whole milk may give a fritter closer to the original.
- Yield and servingThe batter comes to something over three cups, which at oyster size will give appreciably more than a dozen fritters -- enough for four to six as a side. The instruction to serve a few at a time, very hot, is sound; they soften within minutes of leaving the pan.
Corn oysters belong to a whole family of nineteenth-century American "mock" dishes, in which a cheap or abundant ingredient borrowed the name and shape of an expensive one: mock turtle soup, mock duck, salsify called the oyster plant. Oysters were shipped and canned in quantity to the Midwest by this period and were not a luxury in Chicago, but they were a familiar relish alongside meats at a substantial dinner, and a spoonful of corn batter fried to the same size could fill the same slot on the plate during the few weeks of the year when sweet corn was at its milky best. The Home Cook Book (Chicago) was among the earliest of the American charity compilations -- it first appeared in the mid-1870s, with its recipes contributed by local housewives and the proceeds going to a benevolent institution -- a format that went on to dominate community publishing for decades.