The Oyster Chef

Curried Oyster Sandwiches

2012-01-13T06:26:00.000-08:00

From "Sandwiches", by Mrs. S. T. Rorer, "Author of Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Philadelphia Cook Book, Bread and Bread-Making, and other Valuable Works on Cookery", 1912.

Butter a slice of bread before you take it off the loaf; cut it about a half inch thick and remove the crusts. First of all, cover each slice with a thin layer of hard-boiled egg that has been pressed through a sieve or chopped very fine. In the center of this sandwich put the soft parts of six pickled oysters. Put a tablespoonful of butter and one of flour into a little saucepan; mix without melting; add a gill of thick cream, a teaspoonful of onion juice and a teaspoonful of curry and a half teaspoonful of turmeric.

Bring to boiling point; beat and stand away until perfectly cold. When you are ready to serve the sandwiches, cover each one with a thin layer of this sauce; put a slice of bread on top, press together, and serve. The sauce must not go over the sandwiches until you are ready to serve; and then, remember, you have but one layer between two slices of bread.

Minced Chicken and Oyster Casserole

2012-01-11T08:25:00.001-08:00

From "The Stevenson Memorial Cookbook", 1919. This recipe is from Miss Agnes Sieber

Line ramekins or large casserole with minced chicken, seasoned well, and moistened with a little cream. Fill with parboiled oysters cut in pieces, and mushrooms sliced sauted in butter and mixed with the following sauce: Cook three tablespoonfuls salt pork fat with three of flour, add salt, cayenne, nutmeg and parsley; also thyme and mushroom parings.

Cook a moment, add one and one-half cups white stock, and simmer one hour, skimming often. Strain, add about one-half cup hot cream or enough to make sauce right consistency. Add four drops lemon juice.

Cover with more chicken, sprinkle with buttered crumbs, and brown in oven.

Oysters on the Half Shell

2012-01-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

From "Fifty-Two Sunday Dinners, A Book of Recipes", by Elizabeth O. Hiller, 1913.

3 dozen oysters
2 lemons cut in quarters
Salt, pepper
Tobasco sauce
Horseradish
Tomato catsup

Process: If possible, have the little Blue Points. Open, loosen, and leave them on the lower shell. Fill soup plates with shaved ice and arrange shell on ice having the small end of shells point toward center of the plate. Wash lemons, cut in quarters, remove seeds and serve one-quarter in center of each plate. Garnish with sprays of parsley arranged between the shells. Pass remaining ingredients on a small silver tray, or a cocktail dressing may be made and served in a small glass dish and passed to each guest.

Baked Oysters in the Shell

2009-03-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Take 50 small Eastern oysters with their liquor and a piece of butter. Drain the oysters very carefully and strain the liquor. Thicken with an ounce of butter mixed with an ounce of flour. Stir, and boil five minutes. Finish with the yolks of 3 eggs.

Add a little salt, some white and red pepper and grated nutmeg. Boil a few minutes longer, stirring constantly. Then remove from the fire. Add the oysters and juice of a lemon, and mix well with the sauce. Have ready some large, deep, well-shaped oyster-shells slightly buttered; fill these with the prepared oysters, sprinkle rolled cracker crumbs over; put a piece of butter on top of each; arrange in a pan; brown slightly in a pretty hot oven (about ten minutes), and serve.

This vintage recipe is from "The Cookery Blue Book, by Society for Christian Work of the First Unitarian Church, San Francisco, California"

Oysters a la Catalan

2009-03-19T18:02:00.001-07:00

Take one tablespoonful of butter, two teaspoonfuls grated Edam or Parmesan cheese, four tablespoonfuls catsup, one-half teaspoonful Worcestershire sauce, two tablespoonfuls cream, meat of one good-sized crab cut fine and two dozen oysters. Put the cheese and butter into a double boiler and when melted smooth add the catsup and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well and add the cream and then the crab meat. When creamy and boiling hot drop in the oysters. As soon as the oysters are crinkled serve on hot buttered toast on hot plates.

Oyster Soup #2

2009-02-27T16:46:00.001-08:00

Scald one gallon of oysters in their own liquor. Add one quart of rich milk to the liquor, and when it comes to a boil, skim out the oysters and set aside. Add the yolks of four eggs, two good tablespoonfuls of butter, and one of flour, all mixed well together, but in this order—first, the milk, then, after beating the eggs, add a little of the hot liquor to them gradually, and stir them rapidly into the soup. Lastly, add the butter and whatever seasoning you fancy besides plain pepper and salt, which must both be put in to taste with caution.

Celery salt most persons like extremely; others would prefer a little marjoram or thyme; others again mace and a bit of onion. Use your own discretion in this regard.

Oysters a La Poulette

2009-02-26T19:06:00.000-08:00

One-half cup butter, three tablespoons flour, yolks of three eggs. One pint chicken stock (or veal), one tablespoonful lemon juice, one-eighth teaspoon pepper, one level teaspoon salt.

Beat the butter and flour together until smooth and white. Then add salt, pepper and lemon juice.

Gradually pour boiling stock on this mixture and simmer for ten minutes. Beat the yolks of eggs in a saucepan, gradually pouring the cooked sauce upon them. Pour into a double boiler containing boiling water in lower part of utensil. Stir the mixture for one and one-half minutes. Into this put two dozen large oysters and let cook until edges curl up and serve hot.

Oyster Omelet

2009-02-23T16:38:00.001-08:00

Stew six oysters in their own liquor for five minutes; remove the oysters, and thicken the liquid with a walnut of butter rolled in flour; season with salt and cayenne; whisk this to a cream. Chop the oysters, and add them to the sauce; simmer until the sauce thickens. Beat up four eggs lightly, and add a tablespoonful of cream; turn out into a hot pan, and fry a light gold color. Before folding the omelet entirely, place the oysters with part of the sauce within, and turn it over on a hot dish. The remainder of the sauce should be poured round it.

Oyster Recipes: Oyster Soup, No. 1

2009-02-23T05:52:00.001-08:00

Two quarts of oysters, one quart of milk, two tablespoonfuls of butter, one teacupful of hot water; pepper, salt.

Strain all the liquor from the oysters; add the water, and heat. When near the boil, add the seasoning, then the oysters. Cook about five minutes from the time they begin to simmer, until they "ruffle." Stir in the butter, cook one minute, and pour into the tureen. Stir in the boiling milk and send to table. Some prefer all water in place of milk.

Oysters Fried in Batter

2009-02-22T18:47:00.002-08:00

Ingredients.—One-half pint of oysters, two eggs, one-half pint of milk, sufficient flour to make the batter; pepper and salt to taste; when liked, a little nutmeg; hot lard.

Scald the oysters in their own liquor, beard them, and lay them on a cloth to drain thoroughly. Break the eggs into a basin, mix the flour with them, add the milk gradually, with nutmeg and seasoning, and put the oysters in a batter. Make some lard hot in a deep frying pan; put in the oysters one at a time; when done, take them up with a sharp pointed skewer and dish them on a napkin. Fried oysters are frequently used for garnishing boiled fish, and then a few bread crumbs should be added to the flour.

Oyster Recipes: Roasted in the Shell

2009-02-22T18:47:00.001-08:00

Select the large ones, those usually termed "Saddle Rocks," formerly known as a distinct variety, but which are now but the large oysters selected from any beds; wash and wipe them, and place with the upper or deep shell down, to catch the juice, over or on live coals. When they open their shells, remove the shallow one, being careful to save all the juice in the other; place them, shells and all, on a hot platter, and send to the table hot to be seasoned by each person with butter and pepper to taste. If the oysters are fine, and they are just cooked enough and served hot, this is, par excellence, the style.

Oyster Fritters

2009-02-22T18:46:00.001-08:00

Select plump, good-sized oysters; drain off the juice, and to a cup of this juice add a cup of milk, a little salt, four well-beaten eggs, and flour enough to make batter like griddle-cakes.

Envelope an oyster in a spoonful of this batter (some cut them in halves or chop them fine), then fry in butter and lard, mixed in a frying pan the same as we fry eggs, turning to fry brown on both sides. Send to the table very hot.

Pan Oysters No. 1

2009-02-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

Cut some stale bread into thin slices, taking off all the crust, round the slices to fit patty-pans; toast, butter, place them in the pans and moisten with three or four teaspoonfuls of oyster liquor; place on the toast a layer of oysters, sprinkle with pepper, and put a small piece of butter on top of each pan; place all the pans in a baking-pan, and place in the oven, covering tightly. They will cook in seven or eight minutes if the oven is hot; or, cook till the beards are ruffled; remove the cover, sprinkle lightly with salt, replace, and cook one minute longer. Serve in patty pans. They are delicious.

Boston Oyster Pie

2009-02-22T18:35:00.001-08:00

Having buttered the inside of a deep pie plate, line it with puff paste, or common pie crust, and prepare another sheet of paste for the lid; put a clean towel into the dish (folded so as to support the lid), set it into the oven and bake the paste well; when done, remove the lid and take out the towel. While the paste is baking, prepare the oysters. Having picked off carefully every bit of shell that may be found about them, drain the liquor into a pan and put the oysters into a stewpan with barely enough of the liquor to keep them from burning; season them with pepper, salt and butter; add a little sweet cream or milk, and one or two crackers rolled fine; let the oysters simmer, but not boil, as that will shrivel them. Remove the upper crust of pastry and fill the dish with the oysters and gravy. Replace the cover and serve hot.

Some prefer baking the upper crust on a pie plate, the same size as the pie, then slipping it off on top of the pie after the same pie is filled with the oysters.

Fricasseed Oysters

2009-02-22T18:34:00.001-08:00

Take a slice of raw ham, which has been pickled, but not smoked, and soak in boiling water for half an hour; cut it in quite small pieces, and put in a saucepan with two-thirds of a pint of veal or chicken broth, well strained; the liquor from a quart of oysters, one small onion, minced fine, a little chopped parsley, sweet marjoram, and pepper; let them simmer for twenty minutes, and then boil rapidly for two or three minutes; skim well and add one scant tablespoon of cornstarch, mixed smoothly in one-third cup of milk; stir constantly, and when it boils add the oysters and one ounce of butter; after which, just let it come to a boil, and remove the oysters to a deep dish; beat one egg, and add to it gradually some of the hot broth, and, when cooked, stir it into the pan; season with salt, and pour the whole over the oysters. When placed upon the table, squeeze the juice of a lemon over it.