Seafood Oyster Soup

oyster soup

(from Housekeeping in the Blue Grass, by the Paris Ladies of the Presbyterian Church, 1875)

Ingredients:

​

1 can of oysters & liquor​

water​

red pepper​

salt​

4 raw egg yolks​

1 pint of milk​

​

Instructions:

To a can of oysters and liquor, add the can full of water, seasoned with red pepper and salt to taste; cook until nearly done. Add yolks of four eggs beaten, mixed in a pint of milk; put into the oysters, and stir till it thickens.​

Abraham Lincoln loved oysters.

 

[CivilWarTalk]

oyster soup for the city
(from The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of Useful Information for the Housekeeper, by E. F. Haskell, 1861)

Ingredients:

3 quarts oysters (4-5 dozen)​

2 quarts water​

1 teacupful sweet butter​

flour​

fresh crackers or toasted bread​

​

celery, ground horseradish, or pickles, optional on the side​

Instructions:

Have ready two quarts of boiling water, into which put three quarts of fresh oysters and their juice. Let them come to a boil, and skim thoroughly. Have ready a teacupful of sweet butter, with a large table-spoonful of flour worked into it. Add to it sufficient hot soup to melt the butter, and stir the whole into the soup. Let it boil up once, and take it off immediately. The oysters should not be on the fire over fifteen minutes, they only want heating through. Have fresh crackers or toasted bread, if the first, split them, if the latter, cut in small squares. Put them in the tureen, and pour over the soup. Let each person add pepper and salt to suit the taste. Celery, and ground horseradish, are both excellent relishes for oysters. Pickles can also be served with them.​

oyster soup for the country
(from The Housekeeper's Encyclopedia of Useful Information for the Housekeeper, by E. F. Haskell, 1861)

Ingredients:

2 quarts of oysters​

3 pints boiling water​

1 tbsp. sifted flour​

1 teacup of fresh butter​

cream, optional​

​

serve with pepper at the table​

Instructions:

Throw two quarts of oysters into three pints boiling water. Let it boil up, and take off the scum. Have ready a small table spoon of sifted flour, worked in a teacup of fresh butter; stir this into the soup, and as soon as it boils, remove it from the fire. If the soup is preferred quite thick, add a teacupful of crackers rolled very fine. Serve with toasted bread or crackers. Many persons are fond of cream in oysters. If used, heat it over water, and stir it in the soup when dishing; a pint of very rich cream will make three-fourths of the butter superfluous. Pepper should be added at table; many persons never use it in oysters. We never use mace or nutmeg; in our method of cooking, we aim to preserve the principal flavor of every dish, and consider when this is accomplished, the perfection of cooking is attained.​

 

[donna]

Here is another recipe for National Oyster Day. Oyster soup is tasty.