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Oysters, Ancienne
Open twenty-four large, fresh, salty oysters, detach from but leave in shells with their own liquor. Place on a roasting tin; season with half teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika, equally divided. Cut twenty-four thin pieces lean bacon in one-inch square pieces. Place one piece on top of each oyster. Sprinkle a tablespoon Parmesan cheese over all, set to bake in the oven for fifteen minutes, remove, squeeze the juice of half a small lemon over them, place on a hot dish and serve.
A half-shell oyster roast in the Delmonico manner, and it works well provided you fix the two things the original leaves loose: the oven temperature and the bacon.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A hot oven, around 450F, suits the dish, or run the broiler with the rack about six inches down.
- Fifteen minutes is too longAt 450F an oyster in its shell is plump and just set in six to eight minutes. Held for fifteen it shrinks, weeps its liquor and turns to rubber. Pull them when the edges ruffle and the liquor bubbles at the rim.
- Par-cook the baconA raw one-inch square will not render in the shorter cooking time. Lay the slices in a dry pan for two or three minutes until the fat begins to run but the bacon is still limp, then cut and place. Lean bacon, as specified, matters here; a fatty piece floods the shell.
- Steady the shellsOysters tip on a flat roasting tin and lose the liquor, which is most of the seasoning. Spread a half-inch bed of rock salt or crumpled foil on the tin and nest each shell in it.
- Shucking and "detach from"Cut the adductor muscle free from both the top and bottom shell so the oyster lifts cleanly with a fork at the table, then leave it sitting in the deep shell with all its juice.
- Cheese and saltA tablespoon of Parmesan across two dozen oysters is a whisper, and it is meant to be. Given the cheese, the bacon and the oysters' own brine, the half teaspoon of salt is optional; taste first.
- YieldTwenty-four oysters serves four as a first course, or six if other appetisers follow. Serve on a heated dish, as directed, with the lemon squeezed on at the last second.
- Buying"Large, fresh, salty" points to a briny Atlantic oyster. Buy them closed and heavy, keep them cupped side down under a damp cloth, and discard any that gape and will not close when tapped.
Alexander Filippini spent decades in the kitchens of Delmonico's in New York, and his books carry the restaurant's habit of tagging dishes with a French style name: à l'ancienne, in the old manner, was one of a stock of such labels applied loosely rather than to any fixed formula. What it describes here is the baked half-shell oyster, often said to be an American development, which spread through hotel and oyster-house menus around the turn of the century as Rockefeller, Casino and a dozen house variations, each a matter of some fat, some seasoning and a brief blast of heat. The bacon-and-oyster pairing has a longer English pedigree, seen in angels on horseback, where oysters are wrapped in bacon and grilled on toast. Oysters were still cheap and abundant enough in this period that a recipe could open with two dozen without comment, an abundance the Atlantic beds are generally said not to have sustained for much longer.