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Oyster Soup
Mrs. T. V. Wadskier.
Pour one quart of boiling water into a skillet; then one quart of good rich milk; stir in one teacup of rolled cracker crumbs; season with pepper and salt to taste. When all come to a boil, add one quart of good fresh oysters; stir well, so as to keep from scorching; then add one quart of raw potatoes sliced; let it boil; then add a piece of good sweet butter about the size of an egg; let it boil up once, then remove from the fire immediately; dish up and send to table.
A straightforward milk-and-cracker oyster soup, but the order of operations as written will overcook the oysters badly. Read the sequencing note first.
- Fix the orderRaw sliced potatoes need a good while to become tender, depending on how thickly they are cut, and oysters go firm and rubbery after about two minutes in hot liquid. Cook the potatoes in the water first, add the milk and crackers, and put the oysters in at the very end, cooking only until their edges curl.
- "A skillet"The word covered a wider range of pans in this period than it does today and need not mean a frying pan. Use a heavy 4- to 5-quart saucepan or Dutch oven; the volume here is roughly a gallon, and milk scorches in thin pans.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. "Sweet butter" means unsalted, as distinct from the salted butter that kept longer.
- One teacup of cracker crumbsA Victorian teacup runs about 3/4 cup. Use plain soda or water crackers rolled fine with a pin, not seasoned crumbs; they thicken the milk and will keep swelling as the soup stands.
- A quart of oystersShucked oysters sold in tubs, two pints; the count varies with size, roughly three to four dozen small ones. Include the liquor from the container, which carries much of the flavor, and strain it if gritty.
- Keep it below a boil once the milk is inThe recipe calls for boiling repeatedly, which curdles milk and toughens the oysters. Bring it just to a shiver and hold it there.
- Potato thicknessSlice no thicker than 1/8 inch so they cook through without turning the soup to paste. Waxy potatoes hold their shape; russets will break down and thicken it further.
- YieldClose to a gallon of finished soup, enough for eight to ten as a first course or six as a supper.
Oyster soup of this kind was standard American home cooking in the second half of the nineteenth century, when rail and ice shipments carried barrels of shucked Atlantic and Gulf oysters deep inland and made them a cheap staple rather than a luxury. Chicago cooks are said to have bought them by the quart, and cracker crumbs olled fine served as the everyday thickener before flour-based cream soups became the norm. The Home Cook Book was compiled in Chicago in the 1870s from recipes contributed by local housewives and sold for charity, which is why nearly every entry carries a donor's name; the Mrs. T. V. Wadskier credited here is generally identified with the family of Theodore V. Wadskier, an architect working in the city at the time. The potato-and-milk treatment resembles the New England chowder tradition that produced oyster stew, a dish still served at holiday tables in parts of the United States.