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Oysters, Pauvrette
Open thirty-six good-sized fresh oysters and keep in their deep shells, being careful to detach the eyes, then place them (in their half shells) on a roasting pan. Equally season with a teaspoon salt and half teaspoon paprika, cover each oyster with a little bread crumbs, pour a little melted butter over each, then set in hot oven for ten minutes, or until they have attained a nice golden colour. Remove, carefully take up, dress on hot dish, and send to table with six quarters lemon.
A plain baked oyster on the half shell — crumbs, butter, paprika, nothing else. The whole dish hinges on not overcooking, so watch the colour rather than the clock.
- "Detach the eyes"This means severing the adductor muscle where it grips the shell, so the oyster lifts free when eaten. Slide the knife flat along the inside of the shell and cut the muscle without tearing the body.
- Hot ovenThe book gives no temperature; "hot oven" in this period is usually taken as somewhere around 425-450F. At that heat ten minutes is about right for large oysters in the shell; smaller ones will be done sooner, and a minute under the broiler at the end gives the golden crumb faster than extra oven time.
- Don't overcookAn oyster is done when the edges just ruffle and the liquor bubbles. Past that it tightens and turns rubbery, and no amount of butter recovers it.
- Steady the shellsDeep shells rock and spill their liquor. Spread a half-inch bed of rock salt or crumpled foil in the roasting pan and nest each shell in it so the oyster bakes in its own juice.
- Crumbs and butterUse dry fine crumbs, not fresh soft ones, which sog in the liquor. About a cup of crumbs and 4 oz of melted butter will cover three dozen; toss the crumbs in the butter first if you want more even browning.
- SeasoningA teaspoon of salt across thirty-six oysters is modest, and oyster liquor is already saline — taste one raw before salting at all.
- YieldThirty-six oysters and six lemon quarters means six servings of six, as a first course. Serve on plates warmed in the oven, since the shells lose heat quickly.
- SourcingBuy shell oysters live, with shells tightly closed, and cook them the day you get them. Pre-shucked oysters in a tub will not work here; the recipe depends on the deep half shell as the cooking vessel.
"Pauvrette" translates roughly as "poor little thing"; the idea that restaurant kitchens used such names for near-bare preparations is plausible but not documented, and here the dish is simply crumbs, butter and paprika over the oyster's own liquor. Alexander Filippini, long associated with the Delmonico's kitchens in New York, included many oyster preparations in his cookbooks, which reflects how cheap and abundant the East Coast oyster still was in the late nineteenth century, when a cook could afford to serve six apiece as a mere opening course. Paprika may be a fashionable touch of the period, Hungarian paprika having been gaining ground in American professional kitchens as a milder, redder alternative to cayenne.