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Oysters, Casino
Open twenty-four large fresh oysters, completely detach and keep in the deep shells with their own liquor. Finely chop six sound shallots with one green pepper and evenly divide over the oysters. Cut from a piece of lean bacon twenty-four thin, square pieces and arrange one piece over each oyster. Dredge two tablespoons fresh bread crumbs over, place on a roasting tin and set in the oven to bake for fifteen minutes. Remove, dress on a large hot dish, decorate with parsley greens and six pieces lemon and serve.
A straightforward baked oyster, but the original timing and oven are left to the cook's judgment. Both need pinning down.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given. A hot oven, in the region of 450F, will render the bacon and colour the crumbs before the oysters have a chance to toughen.
- Fifteen minutes is too longFifteen minutes may be too long -- The hinge of the dish. Oysters are done when the edges just ruffle, which in a hot oven can take as little as 8 to 10 minutes. Watch them rather than the clock; left too long they shrink and go rubbery in their own liquor.
- Keep the shells levelThe instruction to keep the oyster in the deep shell with its liquor only works if the shell does not tip. Set the shells in a bed of rock salt or crumpled foil on the roasting tin so nothing drains away.
- The baconBacon of the period was often saltier than modern supermarket bacon. Cut the squares thin enough to be nearly translucent, or give them a minute in a dry pan first, otherwise they will still be flabby when the oysters are cooked.
- Green pepperA sweet green bell pepper, not a chilli; the casino seasoning here is aromatic rather than hot.
- Six shallotsThat is a heavy hand by modern taste, especially raw under bacon. Two or three, finely chopped, distribute over 24 oysters without burying them; sweat them briefly if you want the sharpness off.
- CrumbsTwo tablespoons across two dozen oysters is a dusting, not a topping. Use dry fresh crumbs and resist adding more, or the dish becomes a gratin.
- YieldTwenty-four oysters and six lemon wedges points to six servings of four as a first course. Serve straight from the oven; they lose everything as they cool.
Oysters Casino belongs to the American hotel and club cooking of the early twentieth century, when oysters were cheap, plentiful and served in dozens rather than as a luxury. The name is generally traced to a seaside casino dining room on the Rhode Island coast, with the invention most often credited to a maitre d'hotel there, though the attribution is traditional and the dish clearly circulated in professional kitchens before any single version was written down. What is documented is the formula itself: oyster on the half shell, something allium and something green, a square of bacon, a breath of crumbs, hot oven.