I’m sure many of us remember reading in our school history books that in Victorian times oysters were so plentiful that they were the food of the poor… I adore oysters but they are really so expensive I haven’t had any for a very long time! So when I came across a recipe in Eliza Acton’s Modern Cookery published in 1845 it gave me a little jolt of memory, taking me back into my junior school classroom… a hundred oysters, not just any old oysters, but large sea-oysters!
Eliza does credit the recipe to the Magazine of Domestic Economy, and confesses that she hasn’t actually tried it. She adds “Some of our readers as may have partaken of the true Oriental preparation, will be able to judge of its correctness”… and then somewhat worryingly because I would have thought this fairly crucial, “We should suppose it necessary to beard the oysters.”
The recipe starts: “Let a hundred of large sea-oysters to be opened into a basin without losing one drop of their liquor.” I like the way she says ‘one drop’! That’s my sort of cooking, don’t waste anything! The recipe continues with a lump of fresh butter in a good-sized saucepan along with a large onion sliced, adding more butter and some currie powder! Yes, Eliza is making oyster curry… doesn’t that sound yummy? She adds water, grated coconut, tamarind and when it has all come together some pieces of vegetable marrow and a couple of tomatoes. Then, just before serving add coconut milk (I guess she means the water from the nut, not what we would think of s coconut milk) the oysters and a squirt of lemon. It is to be served with a corresponding dish of rice.
Eliza finishes this by declaring “The dish is considered at madras the ne plus ultra of Indian cookery.”
Lois Elsden 