1897 Recipe For Oyster Salad (Fixed)

G’day,

Sorry folks. The original email had the first part of this newsletter missing. Let’s try that again.

Today we talk oyster salad out of the 1897 cookbook New salads for dinners, luncheons, suppers and receptions by Sarah Tyson Rorer.

Mrs. Rorer was a prominent early cookbook author and widely considered to be America’s first dietitian. She was known for her “healthy” recipes, though, by today’s health standards, she did seem to have a particular partiality to mayonnaise. Not that we’re judging. Mayonnaise=LIFE.

When we get to the turn of the 20th century, we see a lot of similarities with the type of food we eat today. However, it’s always fascinating when recipes jump out of the page of a cookbook and strike you as inherently not of this age.

This oyster salad is a good example. It’s rare in Western food culture now to eat oysters in any other way than on the half shell. Usually they are raw, but sometimes they can be broiled, barbecued, etc.

And it’s probably fair to say that there aren’t many people reading this newsletter that have recently had poached oyster salad mixed with mayonnaise, served on a lettuce leaf, and garnished with oyster crab.

Oh, and in case you are wondering, an “oyster crab” is a small crab often found in oysters. It’s also known as a pea crab. We throw them out these days before the oysters get to your table, but in 1897, they were salad garnish material.

Here’s the recipe. Let us know your thoughts in our handy comment section we just enabled for better community engagement. Hooray!