Oysters à la Crème
From My mother's cook book, 1902
Presented as published in 1902. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation below, not the original instructions.
A modern interpretation · AI-generated from the original record
Ingredients
Method
No method was recorded for this recipe.
As published
This recipe was extracted from My mother's cook book (1902) by Matilda Lees Dods, page 10. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.
Twenty-five large oysters, two tablespoonfuls of flour, four tablespoonfuls of milk, four tablespoonfuls of cracker- dust, two eggs, four heaped tablespoonfuls of bread crumbs, one saltspoonful of salt, one saltspoonful of pep- per, one saltspoonful of grated nutmeg. Put the oysters into a strainer and drain them thor- oughly of their liquor. Then upon a plate, mix together the flour, milk, pepper and salt, into which preparation dip the oysters one by one, u^ng a fork and takiliig care not to mutilate the oyster. Place now upon a sheet of kitchen paper the cracker-dust,^ and putting the oysters therein, lift the sheet of paper by its opposite sides and roll them in the dust from side to side. The oysters should now bp removed to a plate an4 left standing for PRIED OYSTERS, 21 half an hour in order that the juices may drain out and harden tlie cracker dust encasing them. Heat meantime in a stew-pan one pound of clarified fat, and when the blue smoke arises therefrom, throw in a peeled potato to keep it from burning. Upon a plate beat now the two eggs, dip the oysters one by one into them, then roll them in the bread crumbs, which has been made ready upon the kitchen paper, and with which has been put the nut- meg, and drop them lightly into the hot clarified fat, let- ting them remain therein for three minutes. Before serv- ing put them for a moment upon a clean sheet of kitchen paper that it may absorb the extraneous fat. Notes — It is important to avoid touching the oysters with tht heated hands as it makes them both tough and heavy. Clarified fat and lard boils at about five hundred degrees, which is more than double the heat of boiling water. At three hundred and seventy-five degrees the blue smoke arises from these heated substances which is the cooking point, and boiling fat or lard will bum to a cinder instantly anything that is put into it. The peeled potato prevents burning as it furnishes an object for the fat to act upon and so keeps it from growing hotter ; a piece of hard bread will answer the same purpose. A large quantity of fat is used in this recipe, but its extravagance is tempered by the fact that the same fat may be used over and over again until the heating property is exhausted, The reason for allowing the oysters to stand for thirty minutes after being rolled in the cracker-dust is that unless so permitted to harden, the egg with which the oyster is subsequently treated would not adhere but merely draw the cracker-dust off, making it thus necessary to pack these substances on with the hands and a heavy, soggy dish be the consequence. Fried oysters must be quickly cooked and as quickly , served. I^ecipe for clarifying fat on ))3fje— . 22 OYSTEXS. Oysters &'la-Cr€me. — Materials and quantities as follows : Twenty-five large oysters, one dessert spoonful of chopped parsley, one heaped tablespoonful of bread- crumbs, three and one-half ounces of butter, one and one- half ounces of flour, a piece of onion half the size of a nutmeg, one gill of cream, one-half saltspoonful of grated nutmeg, one-half saltspoonful of pepper, a piece of salt the size of a pea
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