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Oysters in Shells with Curry
Open twenty-four large fresh oysters, leaving them in their deep shells; lay the oysters and shells on a large tin. Season evenly with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika. Knead well in a bowl one ounce butter, three tablespoons bread crumbs, half teaspoon curry powder and evenly cover the oysters with this. Set in a brisk oven for twenty minutes, or until a nice golden colour. Remove, dress on a large hot dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A simple baked oyster with a curried crumb crust, from the era when curry powder was a standard pantry seasoning in English and American kitchens. Two things need attention: the oven heat and the timing.
- The timing is the hingeTwenty minutes at brisk heat will shrink the oysters to erasers and boil away their liquor. At 450F the crumb topping browns in 6 to 10 minutes, which is all the cooking an oyster wants. Pull them the moment the crumbs are golden and the edges of the oysters have just ruffled.
- "Brisk oven"425-450F. Position the tray in the upper third so the crumbs colour before the oysters overcook; a minute under the broiler at the end does the same job more reliably.
- Steady the shellsA bare tin lets the deep shells tip and spill the liquor, which is the best part of the dish. Spread a half-inch bed of coarse rock salt or crumpled foil on the tray and nest each shell into it.
- One ounce butterTwo tablespoons. Kneaded with three tablespoons of crumbs and the curry powder it makes a stiff paste rather than a loose topping, which is intentional: it sits on the oyster and bastes it instead of scattering.
- SaltA full teaspoon of salt across two dozen oysters, on top of their own brine, will read as very salty to most palates now. Season lightly and taste one before dressing the rest.
- Curry powderCommercial blends vary enormously in heat and in how much raw turmeric they carry. A half teaspoon in this quantity of crumbs is mild; if your blend tastes dusty from the jar, warm it briefly in the butter before kneading it in.
- Buying the oystersAsk for a variety with a deep cup, and use them within a day. Shells should be tightly closed before opening; discard any that gape and do not close when tapped.
- YieldTwenty-four oysters serves four as a first course, or two as a light main. The "folded napkin" on the platter is a period service convention; it would also have helped keep the shells from sliding.
Curry powder reached English domestic cooking in the late eighteenth century, sold as a pre-mixed convenience, and by the time this book was compiled it was as unremarkable a seasoning as mustard or mace. Its appearance here, sprinkled into a buttered crumb crust for baked oysters, is a small demonstration of that domestication: nothing about the dish is Indian, and the curry functions as a warm, faintly bitter counterweight to the sweetness of the shellfish. Oysters were still cheap and abundant on both sides of the Atlantic in the years before the great beds were fished out and polluted, which is why cookbooks of this period treat two dozen as an unremarkable quantity for a family course, and why so many recipes for them exist -- baked, scalloped, fried, stewed, in patties, on skewers. The instruction to serve on a hot dish with a folded napkin belongs to the formal service of the period, when the platter came to the table.