Oyster Stew

[Jaymes]

Everybody knows the basics, sure. But is there anything unusual anyone does... just for a change of pace?

What is the perfect Oyster Stew?

How do you make yours?

Celery, yes or no?

Ever a little dusting of herbs or spices, like nutmeg? Curry? Parsley? Poultry seasoning?

[wesza]

The best Oyster Stew is still the basic, as introduced at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station where it became popularized.

My variation was one that I learned from a vernable Brooklyn institution that often served several hundred orders daily.

The restaurant was called, "Joes" located at Brooklyn Ny's City Hall area, and is the only restaurant i've ever been in that has it's own esculator. The place had over 600 seats with a mezzanine area that was filled at lunch time by Jury's from the nearby courts. There were Bus boys who were kept on their toes just refilling water glasses. there was a Pantry up in the front with Cold Dishes and desserts and a jumping Kitchen in the rear. The menus were written daily with over 2 pages loaded with choices. They seved Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Supper daily.

I hated when it closed due to Urban Renewal. here were several attempts to reopen and copy Joes but none were successfull.

Joes Oyster Stew.

"Ingedients"

Shucked Oysters [9]

Butter [1 oz]

Worstershire Sauce [2 dashes]

Tabasco [1 dash]

Celery Seed [1/2 teaspoon]

Black Pepper [2 dashes]

1/2 & 1/2 [1 cup]

"Method"

Start with 2 pans

Fry Saute Pan

Sauce Pan

Heat Sauce Pan with 1/2 & 1/2 to simmer.

Heat Fry Pan , melt butter.

Place Oysters into melted Butter until they start to Plump and Curl.

Immediately put into Sauce pan with simmering 1/2 & 1/2.

mix in the seasonings , allow to simmer about 45/60 seconds then pour into a warm bowl and serve with Oyster Crackers.

Try this made in this manner and i'm sure that you won't be disappointed or be interested in any contrived variations. I've tried it so many other ways and still feel this tastes the best. Real Comfort Food.

Irwin

[budrichard]

My only varient is to shuck the oysters yourself rather than purchasing bulk, this allows you to use fresh oyster liquor and just heat the oyster rather than cooking. I'm not sure of the comparative results but it is a varient we use when we tire of raw oysters. -Dick

[Suzanne F]

. . . it is a varient we use when we tire of raw oysters.

Is such a thing possible?!?!?!

[NVNVGirl]

I just made and had this for the first time in my life on Christmas Eve. This is what I did:

2 jars of fresh oysters in liquor, poach just barely in a little white wine; drain liquor and wine thru coffee filter, rinse oysters and set aside

whole milk

heavy cream 1 pint

2 shallots, minced

1 bay leaf

Sautee shallots and bay leaf in butter, heat cream and add milk to however much you want to make; add oyster liquor and white wine and the shallots, discarding bay leaf; heat all till hot and add oysters till edges just curl. Season with lots of white pepper.

Stir in 2 Tbsp. butter till melted

Ladle into bowls and top with a pat of butter.

I thought it was absolutely fabulous and I will also try these other suggestions. I'm looking forward to comparing them.

Edited December 28, 2003 by NVNVGirl (log)

[Jaymes]

Boy, some good ideas here. White wine and shallots -- sounds heavenly. And straining through a coffee filter -- there's a good idea!

[budrichard]

. . . it is a varient we use when we tire of raw oysters.

Is such a thing possible?!?!?!

We order a 100 Winterpoints just before New Years eve every year from Browne Trading and although it does not seem like a lot of oysters, after a couple of days, we do wish for a change! Oyster Poor Boys ala The Acme Oyster House are also a favorite. -Dick

[Suzanne F]

You know there are any number of us here who would be happy to take some off your hands.

But back to the oyster stew question: imo, some very few dishes are not to be fucked with, and this is one of them. Well, maybe the merest whisper of curry . . . BUT NOT MUCH MORE!

[Flocko]

I did an "Oyster's Rockerfeller Soup", from the Nov issue of Bon Appetit instead of my traditional Oyster Stew for Christmas Eve. It was wonderful.........creamy, with spinach and Pernod.

[Susan in FL]

I made that Oysters Rockerfeller Soup too, and it was delicious... a nice change from the basic. Another change from the basic is an oyster stew with brie. If anybody wants the recipe, I'll try to find it.

[NVNVGirl]

Oh my goodness, Susan! I love all these different recipes for oyster stew. To tell you the truth, I'd never even heard of it till we ran into a friend of ours in a restaurant and while we were waiting for our table and having a drink she showed up and we got into a conversation on where to buy good fresh oysters in the desert. Turns out that she and her mom's Christmas Even tradition has always been oyster stew. My dh chimes in with "oh gosh, my mom used to make that and I just loved it"....well...egg all over my face, LOL...so I thought...I've got tons of friends on the East Coast (where I imagined this would be prevalant, LOL), so I figured I could do this. I got lots of different recipes and customized it to what I thought we'd like...and OMG....what a delight! I am so torn between having something so delicious on a semi regular basis and saving it for special occasions. I think I will, indeed save it for special occasions...but ....LUCKY me, I can experiment while dh is gone and come up with just the best combination of ingredients...I'm open to most anything that's been tried and true

[Busboy]

The best Oyster Stew is still the basic, as introduced at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station where it became popularized.

Close, but no cigar.

The best is the Pan Roast from the Oyster bar at Grand Central.

Think I'll make it tomorrow, now that y'all mention it.

[Jaymes]

Another change from the basic is an oyster stew with brie. If anybody wants the recipe, I'll try to find it.

Boy, I'd like it. Just got a good deal on a wheel of brie, and would like to give that soup a go.

I also make oyster chowder from time to time. Thank you lord for oysters.

[essvee]

Shuck oysters. Strain and save liquor. Dust oysters with seasoned flour. Saute 30 sec in some clarified butter. Add a bit of chopped crystalized ginger. Splash with sherry. Cover oysters with half liquor, half heavy cream. Heat through and serve with pat of butter floating on top.

[Busboy]

When I posted last night at 3AM I was too tired post the recipe for the pan roast I love so much -- I'd gotten on-line at 1AM when the fire trucks woke me and two hours and two beers later I was finally ready to get back to sleep.

Anyway, here it is, followed by my annotations

8 freshly opened oysters

2tbsp (1/4 stick) butter

1tbsp chili sauce

1tsp worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup oyster liquor

1/2 tsp paprika

dash of celery salt

dash dry white wine

1/2 cup cream

1 slice dry toast

place all ingredients except cream, toast and 1 tsp of butter in double boiler.

stir until oysters begin to curl

add cream and continue stirring briskly just to a boil. DO NOT BOIL

pour pan roast into soup plate over slice of dry toast

top with remainin butter and sprinkle with paprika

My Annotations:

I use the oysters you get in jars for this (horror) and prefer the "selects" to the highest grade because there is more liquor in the jar and, to some extent, the liquor is the key. One 8-ounce jar yields about a dozen oysters and 1/4 cup liquor, a nice quantity for making two soups instead of one. The fresh oysters don't seem to give enough juice, and since they're cooked, the freshness difference is more or less irrelevant. Increase the other ingredients by about 1/3.

If you are at a gourmet shop selling oysters that have been shucked, in their liquor, ask them to pile on the liquor. They will find this strange, but be firm.

When initially warming the oysters, undercook. During the warm cream stage, you can stop cooking more or less whenever the little guys feel right to your taste, no point in overdoing it in the first step.

I usually crouton-ize a couple of slices of baguette rather than using sandwich toast. Whatever you think gives the best crunch.

The chili sauce is the key to this dish. It is that Heinz stuff in the funny little bottle. This is the only thing I have ever seen it used for. Do not think in terms of taco sauce or anything having to do with the dish "chili con carne." Trust me.

Eat (drink?) the broth first, and most of the oysters, until it is almost done. This is delicious. Leave yourself half-crunchy, half-soggy croutons at the bottom of the bowl, slide the remaining oysters and as much of the remaining broth as possible on top, and crunch into it. Life will be very, very good.

[NVNVGirl]

Busboy, I'm so glad you came back and posted your recipe...I was wondering about it after you said it was so great! I have a question which might be totally stupid, but I just made oyster stew for the very first time on Christmas Eve and had been told to get the "Selects"....however, the grocery I went to had only one type in the jar....(I'm in S. CA, also, and our grocery workers are on strike still, so it's not easy to find some things here at the moment). And the ones I got had no label saying what grade they were at all. I got lucky I guess, b/c they were EXCELLENT, but for the next time ( I definitely want to try a couple of these recipes here and see which one suits our taste best), what should I be looking for? The ones I bought were in maybe a 4 oz jar? Does that sound right? I got 2 jars and it was just right for 2 of us...lots of the broth left over tho

Oh, and BTW, I've used that Heinz chili sauce in a LOT of things! It's kinda weird,but sometimes, it's just exactly what ya need!

Edited December 30, 2003 by NVNVGirl (log)

[Jaymes]

Shuck oysters. Strain and save liquor. Dust oysters with seasoned flour. Saute 30 sec in some clarified butter. Add a bit of chopped crystalized ginger. Splash with sherry. Cover oysters with half liquor, half heavy cream. Heat through and serve with pat of butter floating on top.

Wow. Ginger and sherry.... That looks great, too.

[Busboy]

Busboy, I'm so glad you came back and posted your recipe...I was wondering about it after you said it was so great! I have a question which might be totally stupid, but I just made oyster stew for the very first time on Christmas Eve and had been told to get the "Selects"....however, the grocery I went to had only one type in the jar....(I'm in S. CA, also, and our grocery workers are on strike still, so it's not easy to find some things here at the moment). And the ones I got had no label saying what grade they were at all. I got lucky I guess, b/c they were EXCELLENT, but for the next time ( I definitely want to try a couple of these recipes here and see which one suits our taste best), what should I be looking for? The ones I bought were in maybe a 4 oz jar? Does that sound right? I got 2 jars and it was just right for 2 of us...lots of the broth left over tho

Oh, and BTW, I've used that Heinz chili sauce in a LOT of things! It's kinda weird,but sometimes, it's just exactly what ya need!

Your question is far from totally stupid, it's the one we had ourselves when we tried to transfer the "official recipe" to what we could get at the local Safeway (not yet on strike here in DC). I don't know if oyster grading is national or just a local tradition, but here in DC the "select" oysters are a little smaller than the premium (if that's what they're called) and tend to have more liquor per jar. In this case, the better oysters (bigger oysters, less juice) made a lesser product. As long as you feel like the oysters are relatively fresh -- even if they are in a jar -- and there's a good quantity of goop to thin out the cream with, you'll do well. Remember, though (IMHO), the liquor is more important than the oyster itself to a fine pan roast.

I think that, as long as you don't curdle the cream with excessive heat, and you trust your instincts on when the oysters are cooked right, this is a hard recipe to screw up.

Not that I haven't done it.

PS, 2 questions:

What kind of oysters do you get in SoCal?

Were you the Deadhead on a previous string?

[essvee]

Thanks, Jaymes. Used to serve gallons of it, made to order just like that.

[Jaymes]

Revisited this thread tonight. The weather is cold and the months all have an 'r' so have had oyster stew on my mind.

Followed some of the suggestions, and made a most excellent pot. Just went with the basics. But I'm definitely going to be trying some of the variations.

I forget how good this stuff is until I make a batch.

Now I'm all about it.

[KatieLoeb]

The basic oyster stew as I know it is sweated down leeks and shaved fennel, a pinch of Old Bay, dash of Worcestershire, salt, pepper, tons of cream and oysters. Basically a giant bowl of oysters poached in cream with a few flavoring agents added. Rich and delicious and something I can only indulge in once in a great while.

[PopsicleToze]

Everyone's dishes sound great.

One thing we really like is artichoke and oyster stew. They make a great pairing!

Rhonda

[toolprincess]

Revisited this thread tonight. The weather is cold and the months all have an 'r' so have had oyster stew on my mind.

Followed some of the suggestions, and made a most excellent pot. Just went with the basics. But I'm definitely going to be trying some of the variations.

I forget how good this stuff is until I make a batch.

Now I'm all about it.

I've always heard months that "end" in "R" but this makes more sense - I think the prevailing wisdom is only eat oysters in COLD months. We always used to have oyster stew on Christmas eve- just the basic plus a dash of hot sauce or ketchup depending on what you liked in your individual bowl.

[KatieLoeb]

The "months that end in 'R'" nonsense is a hold out from when there was no refrigeration. Not really relevant in a day and age when anything can be jetted off to wherever it needs to be in a few short hours...

[Jaymes]

The "months that end in 'R'" nonsense is a hold out from when there was no refrigeration. Not really relevant in a day and age when anything can be jetted off to wherever it needs to be in a few short hours...

I never did any sort of a definitive fact-finding investigation, but was always told (in the olden days) that you should only eat oysters in months that have an 'r' in their name due not to spoilage so much as having something to do with their reproductive life cycle.

Whether or not that was ever true, and I don't know, the result was that I think of oyster stew as a cold-weather dish. I don't crave it much when the temperatures are hitting the 90's. But when the weather cools, I find myself longing for a nice hot bowl of oysters submerged in cream, a light dusting of white pepper and a puddle of butter floating on the surface.

________________________

Edited January 19, 2011 by Jaymes (log)