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Oyster Stew
Mrs. A. S. Ewing.
Strain the juice from the oysters placed in the colander into a stew pan; let it come to a boil; remove the scum and a clear liquor will remain ; turn cold water upon the oysters, and rinse thoroughly; add them to the liquor, with a cup of cream or milk, butter, salt, and cayenne pepper. Have ready buttered dice-shaped pieces of toast upon a meat dish; pour the oysters over, garnish with parsley, and serve hot.
A short recipe that assumes the cook already knows the proportions; the only real technique is knowing when to stop cooking the oysters.
- The hinge: seconds, not minutesNo cooking time is given for the oysters, and the omission has ruined many stews. Drop them into the hot liquor and pull the pan off the heat as soon as the edges ruffle and curl, roughly one to two minutes. Held at a simmer they tighten into rubber and leak their liquor back out.
- Quantities the original omitsAssume a quart of shucked oysters with their liquor, which will serve four. With that, a cup of cream, 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter and cayenne to taste are in proportion.
- Straining and skimmingThe colander step is there to catch shell fragments and grit. Modern shucked oysters in a tub are cleaner, but the liquor still benefits from a pass through a fine sieve. Bringing it to a boil coagulates stray protein as a grey scum; lift it off and the finished stew looks clear rather than muddy.
- Rinsing the oystersThe recipe rinses in cold water, a step that made sense when oysters came packed loose and could carry sand. If yours are clean, skip it, or rinse in a little of the strained liquor instead of tap water so you keep the flavour.
- Do not let the cream boilAdd the cream or milk to the hot liquor off a hard boil. A rolling boil after the dairy goes in, especially with salty oyster liquor, will curdle it.
- Cayenne, not black pepperThe recipe calls for cayenne rather than black pepper; cayenne carries heat without leaving dark speckle in a pale stew, though the reason for the choice is not stated. A pinch is enough for a quart.
- "Dice-shaped pieces of toast"Small croutons, cut from bread and toasted, then buttered — not the modern crouton fried in oil. A "meat dish" is a large flat platter, so the stew is served shallow rather than in bowls.
- Serve immediatelyThe dish will not hold. Toast on a platter goes to paste and the oysters keep cooking in their own heat, so have the platter and toast ready before the oysters go into the pan.
Oyster stew was among the plainest and most widespread of nineteenth-century American oyster dishes, made possible by a fishery so abundant that oysters were cheap food in inland cities as well as coastal ones — barrels went west by rail and canal, and "oyster saloons" operated in towns hundreds of miles from salt water. The version here, poured over buttered toast squares on a platter rather than ladled into bowls, sits at the more genteel end of the tradition: a supper or late-evening dish, quick to make. The Home Cook Book (Chicago, 1870s) was compiled from contributions by named local women, which is why the recipe carries Mrs. A. S. Ewing's name and why it reads like a note between cooks who already knew the quantities. The insistence on straining, skimming and rinsing reflects a trade in which oysters were shipped in bulk and could arrive with shell fragments and grit.