Home › Meats and Entrees › Angels on Horseback
Angels on Horseback
(English supper dish.) Cut 2 ounces of bacon into very thin slices, wrap each around a fat oyster, put three on a skewer, using all required, and fry in butter; serve that way on toast, with slices of lemon.
A three-line recipe that depends almost entirely on timing: the oysters cook in the time it takes the bacon to crisp, and no longer.
- The hinge: cook to the bacon, not the clockAn oyster is done the moment its edges ruffle and it firms slightly, roughly two minutes over moderate heat. Anything past that and it shrinks to a rubbery knot inside the bacon, so use thin bacon that will crisp fast rather than thick-cut that needs five minutes.
- Quantities and yieldTwo ounces of thinly sliced streaky bacon will wrap about six to eight oysters, which is two to three skewers at the recipe's three apiece. As a savoury or first course, count three oysters per person; scale the bacon at roughly a quarter-ounce per oyster.
- "Fat oyster"The recipe wants plump shucked oysters, the kind sold in a tub in their liquor. Drain and pat them dry before wrapping or the bacon will steam instead of crisping.
- SkewersShort metal skewers or cocktail sticks both work. Wooden picks should be soaked first if you broil rather than fry. Thread through the seam of the bacon so the wrap cannot unroll in the pan.
- Frying in butterBacon renders plenty of its own fat, so a small knob of butter is enough to start it. Butter alone over high heat will brown and catch; keep the pan at medium and turn the skewers once.
- The grill alternativeMany later versions grill these rather than fry them, turning once a few inches from the element. It gives crisper bacon and less risk of overcooking the oyster in standing fat.
- ServingToast triangles, crusts off, buttered while hot. The recipe says slices of lemon; wedges are easier to squeeze if you prefer. Serve immediately; they slump within a few minutes.
Angels on horseback are a Victorian and Edwardian British savoury — the small, hot, salty course served after the sweet and before the port, a peculiarly English fixture that puzzled French visitors. The dish also goes by the French anges à cheval, the pale oyster "riding" its wrapper, though which name came first is not settled. It has a well-known partner in devils on horseback, in which a prune or date takes the oyster's place and the seasoning turns hot. Here it is presented in its shortest recognisable form and labelled by country, as a national specialty.