As American As Roasted Oysters

What are oysters today? Basically, an appetizer; and, in this cold, raw seafood era, a cold, raw one. But for most of American history, they were one of the main things we ate--and cooked.

And not just on the coasts, but everywhere. Deep in the Midwest, many people ordered a barrel of oysters at the beginning of December and worked on it all month, refrigerating it by simply sticking it outdoors. For Christmas dinner, there might be oyster stuffing in the turkey, oyster stew beside it and maybe even oyster sauce on top of it.

The most influential mid-19th century magazine, Godey’s Lady’s Book, once ran a sentimental story about a family that dealt with its financial problems by having a potluck Christmas dinner. Their benevolent Uncle Ellis promised, “And I ... will get as many first-rate Baltimore oysters as you can eat, and Auntie must cook them, for there is no oyster soup like hers.”

Maybe there aren’t so many Americans who pride themselves on their oyster soup these days. But for a long time, this country was frankly crazy for oysters.

In the 1830s, an enterprising Baltimore merchant sent out “oyster expresses,” wagons loaded with oysters that traveled all the way to Pittsburgh as fast as the roads of the time permitted. Originally shipped oysters were mostly pickled in vinegar, but soon there was an oyster-canning industry. And as transport improved, live oysters in the shell were sent farther and farther inland.

During the Gold Rush, when a sort of oyster scramble called Hangtown Fry was the epitome of luxury dining, canned oysters couldn’t satisfy California’s hunger, so Washington oystermen started shipping their bivalves to San Francisco in 1851. As a result, at one time there was more gold per capita in Oysterville, Wash., than anyplace on the West Coast outside San Francisco.

Oysters were shipped by rail long before slaughtered beef was, and it was the railways that satisfied the Midwest’s oyster mania.

“I marvel every time I open a 19th century cookbook,” says Jan Longone, curator of American culinary history at the University of Michigan. “Wherever the towns are, people are eating oysters. In the first cookbook published in Kansas, in 1874, one of the chapters is on things you need to run a proper household, and one of them was an oyster service for 12.”

An oyster service would include not only tiny oyster forks but oyster plates for all hands--special plates with four to six oyster-shaped depressions in them. Oyster plates, which enjoyed their greatest craze in the 1880s and 1890s, were mostly for home entertaining; restaurants didn’t like them because they didn’t stack well.

As for restaurants, on the East Coast, oysters had long since outgrown the carts and stalls they’d usually been sold from in England. The first oyster restaurant opened in New York in 1763, and within 50 years oyster houses and oyster bars had replaced traditional taverns and coffeehouses as centers of conviviality. In fact, it could be hard to tell the difference between a bar and an oyster house, because oyster houses sold beer and the usual “free lunch” at a bar was oysters. Oyster houses were particularly known for the sort of boisterous male revelry called “roistering,” leading to countless oyster/roister puns.

“In many cities, such as Chicago and St. Louis,” says Seattle-based seafood marketer Jon Rowley, “oyster restaurants were the most common type of restaurant. They were social epicenters. Some included lunch rooms, tap rooms, formal dining rooms and even dance rooms.”

The more typical oyster house was located below street level in a busy part of town. It advertised itself by hanging an “oyster balloon” out front--a ball-shaped structure covered with red cloth, which would have a candle in it after dark. As you walked down the steps from the street, you entered a luxurious world of paintings, gilt mirrors and drapery.

Most of the oysters being eaten at these places, like most oysters throughout history, were raw, but Americans also had a strong taste for cooked oysters. In many parts of the country, political rallies were expected to feature oysters roasted in the shell. Abraham Lincoln threw oyster roasts when he was running for office in the 1850s, and he sometimes shoveled the oysters off the grill himself.

Apart from roasted oysters, Americans inherited a number of recipes from England, including fried oysters, oyster soup, oyster pie and scalloped oysters. The last involved layering oysters in a pan with bread crumbs, moistening them with milk and baking them (until the 1840s, the “scallop pans” scalloped oysters were baked in were actual scallop shells).

Europeans were crazy about oysters in the 19th century too, but Americans had a much better supply--in 1850, the Chesapeake Bay alone produced 75,000 tons, equivalent to more than 6 pounds of oysters for every man, woman and child in the country. Oysters were both a gourmet treat and a democratic snack that anybody could afford. And they were always on hand. “In the 19th century, oysters were probably the most available food in the country,” Rowley says.

Reflecting this abundance, the number of oyster recipes in American cookbooks grew from decade to decade. In 1903, Philadelphia food writer Sarah Tyson Rorer published a book containing nothing but oyster dishes--41 of them. Oysters were big even in Los Angeles, which nobody thinks of as a great oyster town. The “Los Angeles Times Cook Book No. 4” (1912) gives 23 oyster recipes.

So Americans made oyster gumbo, and they put oysters in Welsh rabbit. They made them into croquettes, served them on toast and broiled them with elaborate toppings, the most famous being oysters Rockefeller. A hundred years ago, Gage & Tollner Oyster House in Brooklyn sold oysters fried three ways, stewed five ways and broiled six ways, not to mention made into patties, fritters, fricassee and bisque.

From the middle of the 19th century on, the craze for the chafing dish (sometimes called, in would-be French, the “a la blaise”) created a need for new oyster dishes. “Men could use the chafing dish too,” Jan Longone points out. “Chafing dish cooking was permitted to them, like barbecuing. There were a number of chafing dish books for men, and oyster recipes are quite prominent in them.”

The great oyster infatuation finally subsided during Prohibition. Oyster bars mostly disappeared--the drinkers started going to speak-easies, but the nondrinkers still considered oyster bars too much like saloons. Then there were well-publicized typhoid infections in the ‘20s, due to the primitive methods of storing oysters, and for some decades there were reduced oyster crops because of pollution.

But the oyster is still here, still ready to party, and this is its traditional season.

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Oyster Balls (Boulettes d’Huitres)

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 25 minutes

These are something like crab cakes, but ball-shaped, because the sausage meat holds together. An old New Orleans recipe from “The Picayune Creole Cook Book,” 1900.

1 1/3 cups chopped oysters, drained well

1/2 pound pork sausage, casings removed

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 1/4 cups toasted bread crumbs, divided

7 cups oil

Lemon wedges and hot sauce, for serving

Mix the oysters, sausage, egg and 1/2 cup of the bread crumbs. Roll the mixture into balls the size of a walnut and dredge them in the remaining 3/4 cup of bread crumbs.

Heat the oil in an 11-inch cast-iron skillet to 375 degrees. Carefully place the balls in the hot oil, several at a time, and cook until deep golden brown, about 4 minutes. Remove and drain the balls on a paper-towel lined baking sheet.

Serve with lemon wedges and hot sauce.

About 16 balls. Each ball: 99 calories; 208 mg sodium; 25 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 0.16 gram fiber.

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Escalloped Oysters

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 45 minutes

This recipe, from Mrs. A. Silver of San Fernando in the 1912 “Los Angeles Times Cook Book #4,” adds corn kernels to the usual version.

1 cup frozen corn kernels

Salt, pepper

3 tablespoons butter, broken into small bits

1 cup oysters, drained, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 cup cracker crumbs (about 22 saltines)

1 cup milk

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Cover the bottom of a 3-cup oval baking dish with the corn kernels. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and 1/3 of the butter, then 1/2 of the oysters and 1/2 of the cracker crumbs. Sprinkle this with salt, pepper and 1/3 of the butter, the remaining oysters and cracker crumbs, and finally the last 1/3 of the butter. Add milk to just cover.

Bake until the casserole is firm to the touch, 25 minutes. Place under the broiler to brown the top for 2 minutes before serving.

4 to 6 servings. Each of 6 servings: 158 calories; 285 mg sodium; 28 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 5 grams saturated fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 0.89 gram fiber.

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Oyster Rarebit

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

From “The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book” (1896) by Fannie Farmer

1 cup oysters, drained, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup milk, room temperature

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Dash cayenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 slices white bread

2 eggs

Dash paprika, for garnish

Bring a small saucepan of water to a simmer. Add the oysters and cook 1 minute; drain, and set aside.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook, whisking constantly, 2 minutes; it will clump together. Slowly whisk in the milk, stirring until smooth. Add the cheese, cayenne and salt. Stir until the cheese melts, 2 to 3 minutes.

Toast the bread, remove the crusts and cut into triangles.

Meanwhile, lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Temper the eggs by slowly whisking in 1/2 cup of the hot cheese mixture. Return the mixture to the pot and cook on very low heat, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.

To serve, divide the oysters between 2 soup bowls. Spoon the cheese sauce around the oysters. Sprinkle each serving with paprika. Place the toast triangles around each bowl.

2 servings. Each serving: 697 calories; 930 mg sodium; 330 mg cholesterol; 39 grams fat; 22 grams saturated fat; 49 grams carbohydrates; 37 grams protein; 1.14 grams fiber.

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Oysters Delmonico

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

This belongs to the same family as oysters Rockefeller; the oysters are baked on the half shell with a topping. From “The Gourmet Cookbook,” Vol. II, 1957.

4 slices bacon, diced

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon butter, divided

2 shallots, minced

1/4 cup minced red bell pepper

1/4 cup minced green bell pepper

Dash salt

Dash cayenne pepper

1/4 cup bread crumbs

2 pounds rock salt

12 oysters on the half shell

1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

Fry the bacon in a small skillet over medium heat until crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Drain the bacon on paper towels, crumble and set aside.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat, add the shallots and bell peppers and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Season with salt and cayenne to taste.

In a separate skillet, melt the remaining teaspoon of butter over low heat, add the bread crumbs, and stir to combine. Remove from the heat.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Fill a jellyroll pan with the rock salt so it is about 1/2-inch deep.

Arrange the oysters on the pan. Cover them with the bacon and the vegetable mixture, sprinkle with lemon juice and top with the bread crumbs. Bake the oysters until heated through, 8 minutes, then place the pan under the broiler to lightly brown the bread crumbs, 1 minute.

12 oysters. Each oyster: 83 calories; 153 mg sodium; 33 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.17 gram fiber.