Fried Oysters
A historical recipe from Margaret Brown's French Cookery Book, by Margaret Brown (1886).
A historical recipe
Margaret Brown's French Cookery Book, by Margaret Brown (1886). Project Gutenberg eBook #44915.
From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards. Its words name: raw egg, food kept without cooking or cold storage. Check current food-safety guidance before following this.
Source and licence
From Margaret Brown's French Cookery Book, by Margaret Brown (1886). Digitised by Project Gutenberg, eBook #44915 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44915). Public domain in the USA; its status may differ elsewhere.
Read the original Public domain in the USA
What was changed: As printed, from the book's text; Project Gutenberg's header and licence removed. Ingredient lines were read out of the text by a program. A historical recipe, not current advice.
France. Associated with France by the book is about French cookery (its title: French Cookery Book); the recipe itself names no place (confidence 0.4). "Associated with" means only that the evidence named here links this recipe to that place. A recipe isn't labelled as representing an entire country because a source associates it with one, and regional origins are kept where the source gives them.
- Raw egg. Raw or lightly cooked egg carries a risk, above all for children, older people, anyone pregnant or unwell.
- Storage. The keeping times and places here are from before refrigeration. Follow current storage guidance.
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Ingredients
Method
- For this purpose each and every oyster should be as large, plump, and fat--fresh, of course, not salt--as you can procure.
- Any small ones will serve for sauces, croquettes, soups, etc.
- Drain off their juice, put them in a bowl, cover them with ice water, let stand a few minutes, then place them in a colander and drain them.
- Dry between two thin, soft towels, without pressing them, and lay upon a moulding-board, slightly coated with cracker-dust, finely sifted.
- Beat up to a thick rich custard as many eggs and an equal measure of cream as you need for moistening all the oysters, adding, at the last, a saltspoonful of salt for every three eggs.
- Have ready a sufficiency of finely-sifted bread crumbs prepared by rubbing the heart of a stale loaf of white bread in a towel and pressing it through a sieve.
- Dip the oysters, one by one, into the beaten egg and roll them in the crumbs till covered in every part.
- By no means flatten them, but keep them as round and plump as possible;
- lay them on napkins and keep in a cool place for half an hour;
- again dip, roll in crumbs, and set aside for another half hour.
- Now lay them on the wire stand, not quite touching each other.
- Set the stand into a deep frying-pan nearly full of whatever frying mixture you use, which must be boiling hot, and fry quickly to a deep yellow color, but do not brown them, or they will be tough and greasy.
- Lift the stand out of the pan, drain quickly, and serve the oysters on a hot, white napkin, placed on a hot platter, and garnish with sprigs of parsley or water cress, stuffed olives, and small bits of lemon.
- The daintiest condiment of all is the French mayonnaise sauce served with lettuce.