History of Oyster Dressing

While Native Americans may have combined oysters with grains and herbs we do not find evidence they used this combination to stuff fowl. "Classic American" oyster stuffing appears to have been a gift from our European forefathers. Culinary evidence suggests the French originated oyster dressings in conjunction with modern cuisine [17th century]. This practice was adopted by the English and neighboring countries.

Oyster dressing is a favorite of New Englanders that dates back to the 18th century in America as oysters were predominantly found along the eastern coast of North America. Oysters had been used with or without bread crumbs for stuffing poultry or fish over 335 years. The tradition of oyster dressing was brought over from British colonists that settled in America. In Britain, oysters were added to stuffing that was more traditionally used in fowl (chicken), fish, calves head, leg of mutton, hares (rabbit) and pigs.

Oysters used to be more plentiful and the most commonly eaten shellfish in America. They were cheap and plentiful enough for the working class to afford. Many early American cooks stuffed their turkeys and chicken with oysters since it was an inexpensive source of protein. Turkeys were very expensive and adding the oysters helped ensure there was enough protein to feed a large group. As the express wagons and railroads made it more possible to transport goods in the mid-19th century, the oyster market was able to expand and set off a national oyster addiction. Fresh, raw oysters were commonly served in taverns as oysters were a cheap food to serve with beer and liquor. By 1850, every major town in America had an Oyster saloon also known as oyster bars, oyster house or raw bar.

"As in the case of fungi, the sixteenth-century French cookbooks show no great interest in oysters, again revealing a cultural split between what the humanists were reporting and what the cookbooks specify. The great oyster vogue began in France in the seventeenth century. Now a legion of oysters troop through the cookery works in sauces, ragouts, and stuffings. Oysters are even larded into roasts. The use of oysters reaches its zenith in eighteenth-century England, there they become one of the most important tastes in fashionable food." ---Acquired Taste: The French Origins of Modern Cooking, T. Sarah Peterson [Cornell University Press:Ithaca] 1994(p. 86,88)

American cookbooks confirm oyster suffing recipes were published throughout the eastern seaboard during the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest of these were printed in the southern colonies. Early 19th century New England cookbooks did not suggest using oysters in fowl dressings. By the middle of the 19th century oyster dressings were ubiquitious. Today, oyster stuffing is generally associated with southern/cajun cuisine. Presumably there is a connection between this and the French immigration patterns. There is little doubt that Cajun/Creole Louisana cooks love their oysters!

1651: Paris - "58. Capon with Oysters. After your Capon is dressed, and barded with lard, and with butter'd paper over it, rost it, and as it rosteth, put under it a dripping pan. After you have well cleansed your Oysters, you shall whiten them, if they are old. When they are well cleansed and whitened, pass them in the pan with what is fallen from your Capon, and season them with mushrums, onion stuck, and a bundle of herbs. After they are well fried, you shall take out the bundle of herbs, and the rest you shall put it in the body of the Capon, which you shall shove with a few capers, then serve."
---The French Cook, Francois Pierre, La Varenne, Englished by I.D.G. 1653, Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [Southover Press:East Sussex] 2001 (p. 56)

[1683:Netherlands]
"To stuff a Capon or Hen with Oysters and to roast [them].
Take a good Capon cleaned on the inside then Oysters and some finely crushed Rusk, Pepper, Mace, Nutmeg-powder and a thin little slice or three fresh Lemons, mix together, fill [the bird] with this. When it is oaosted one uses for a sauce nothing but the fat from the pan. It is found to be good [that way]."
---The Sensible Cook, translated and edited by Peter G. Rose [Syracuse University Press:Syracuse NY] 1989 (p. 58)
[NOTE: The recipes in this book were also used in New Netherlands, later renamed New York.]

1685: London - "To boil the aforesaid Fowls otherways, with Muscles, Oysters, or Cockles; or fried Wickles in Butter, and after stewed with Butter, white Wine, Nutmeg, a slic't Orange, and gravy. Either boil the Fowl or roast them, boil them by themselves in water and alat, scum them clean, and put to them mace, sweet hergs, and onions chopped together, some white-wine, pepper, and sugar, if you please, and a few cloves stuck in the fowls, some grated or strained bread with some of the broth, and give it a warm; dish up the fowls on fine sippets, or French bread, and carve the breast, broth it, and pour on your shell-fish runt it over with beaten butter, and slic't lemon or orange."
---The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May, facsimile 1685 editon [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 90)

1723 - By the 1720’s in England fish were being stuffed and baked. The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary had a stuffing recipe for fish: eggs, cives [chives], parsley, Truffles and Mushrooms, optional mix with bread crumbs soaked in milk. This was an expensive dish. In the same cook book was a recipe for stuffing for fowl: veal sweet-breads, marrow, oysters, and anchovies plus herbs and spices. To stuff a fowl: “raise up the skin on the Breasts of your Fowls; stuff the hollow with this Farce [stuffing], and stick [tie up] them up again.” Note the stuffing was placed underneath the skin not inside the body cavity.
--- The Cook’s and Confectioner’s Dictionary (1723, London)

[1769: London] "To stew a Turkey brown. When you have drawn the craw out of your turkey, cut it up the back and take out the entrails that the turkey may appear whole, and take all the bones out of the body very carefully. The rump, legs and wings are to be left whole. Then take the crumb of a penny loaf, and chop half a hundred of oysters very small with half a pound of beef marrow, a little lemon peel cut fine, and pepper and salt. Mix them well up together with the yolks of four eggs, and stuff your turkey with it, sew it up and lard it down each side with bacon. Half roast it, then put it into a tossing pan with two quarts of veal gravy, and cover it close up. When it has stewed on hour, add a spoonful of mushroom catchup, half an anchovy, a slice or two of lemon, a little Chyan pepper and a bunch of sweet herbs. Cover them colse up atain and stew it half an hour longer. Then take it up and skim the fat off the gravy and strain it, thicken it with flour and butter. Let it boil a few minutes, and pour it hot upon your turkey. Lay round it oyster patties and serve it up."
---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 62)

1796 – American Cookery by Amelia Simmons, Meats – To smother a Fowl in Oysters: “Fill the bird with dry oysters, and sew up and boil in water just sufficient to cover the bird, salt and season to your taste – when done tender, put it into a deep dish and pour over it a pint of stewed oysters, well buttered and peppered, garnish a turkey with sprigs of parsley or leaves of celery: a fowl is best with a parsley sauce.

1824: Virginia "To Boil a Turkey With Oyster Sauce. Grate a loaf of bread, chop a score or more of oysters fine, add nutmeg pepper and salt to your taste, mix it up into a light forcemeat to your taste, mix it up into a light forecemat with a quarter of a pound of butter, a spoonful or two of cream, and three eggs; stuff the craw with it, and make the rest into balls and boil them; sew up the turkey, dredge it well with flour, put it in a kettle of cold water, cover it, and set it over the fire; as the scum begins to rise, take it off, let it boil very slowly for half an hour, then take off your kettle and keep it close covered; if it be of a middle size, let it stand in the hot water half an hour, the steam being kept in will stew it enough, make it rise, keep the skin whole, tender, and very white; when you dish it, pour on a little oyster sauce, lay the balls round, and serve it up with the rest of the sauce in a boat."
---The Virginia House-wife, Mary Randolph, with historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 81)

1832 – The Cook’s Own Book: Being A Complete Culinary Encyclopedia, by A Boston Housekeeper. Chicken Stuffing recipe – “Fill your chickens with young oysters cut small, truffles, parsley and spices and roast them.”

1880 – Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book and Marketing Guide by Maria Parloa – Boiled Turkey – “Chop half a head of celery very fine. Mix with it one quart of bread crumbs, two scant table-spoonfuls of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, two heaping table-spoonfuls of butter and two eggs. Stuff the turkey with this; sew up and truss. The stuffing may be made the same as above, only substitute oysters for celery, and serve with oyster sauce.”

1884 - There was no distinction between stuffing for chicken or fish. Some cooks used bread crumbs in turkey and chickens and others used bread crumbs in fish. In an 1844 book A New System of Domestic Cookery 67th London Edition, published in Philadelphia is a recipe for Baked Haddock, Scottish Fashion “stuff with oysters chopped but not too small, and bread crumbs blended with an egg.”

1884 - When Mrs. David A. Lincoln published her 1884 Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book: What to Do and What Not to Do in Cooking, a forerunner of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book, she had a refined oyster stuffing recipe using cracker crumbs specifically for fish. “Oyster Stuffing: One pint of oysters, one cup seasoned and buttered cracker crumbs. Drain and roll each oyster in the crumbs. Fill the fish with the oysters, and sprinkle the remainder of the crumbs over the oysters.” Cracker crumbs today are primarily used in seafood stuffing. Mrs. Lincoln made a distinction between turkey / chicken stuffing and fish stuffing. Turkey/ chicken stuffing did not have oysters.

1885: New Orleans "Oyster Stuffing for Turkey. Take three or four dozen nice plump oysters, wash and beard them, add to them a tumblerful of bread crumbs; chop up a tumblerful of nice beef suet; mix together, and moisten with three eggs; season with salt, pepper, a little butter, a teaspoonful of mace, and some cayenne pepper. Roll force-meat into cakes, and fry them. They are pretty laid around a turkey or chicken."
---La Cuisine Creole: A Collection of Culinary Recipes, second edition [F.F. Hansell & Bro.:New Orleans] 1885 (p. 27)

[1901:New Orleans]
"The Creoles claim that oysters, eggs, chestnuts or truffles are the only elegant dressings for poultry or game, and oysters or egg stuffing for fish...Oyster Stuffing for Poultry (Farci d'Huitres) All depends upon the size of the fowl. For the ordinary-sized fifteen or sixteen-pound turkey, take
3 Dozen Oysters
1 Quart of Stale Bread, Wet and Squeezed
1 Tablespoon of Butter
1 Tablespoon of Parsley
1 Sprig of Thyme
1 Bay Leaf. 3 Tablespoons of Sage
Salt and Pepper to Taste.
Drain the oysters; wet the stale bread with hot water, squeezing thoroughly. Chop fine the liver and gizzard of the fowl, and put a tablespoonful of lard into the frying pan. Mix in the chopped onions and add the chopped liver and gizzard. As it begins to brown, throw in the chopped herbs, and then add the bread which has been mixed well and seasoned with the chopped sage. Mix well. Add to this one tablespoonful of butter and stir, blending all thoroughly. Now add the pint or so of oyster water, and as it is reduced mix in the oysters. Stir for three or four minutes and take off and dress the fowl. This dressing is highly recommended."
---The Picauyne's Creole Cook Book, second edition, facsimile 1901 reprint [Dover Publications:New York] 1971(p. 155-6)
[NOTE: This book contains a separate recipes for "Oyster Dressing."]

1926 - Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1926 edition)

This recipe was for a 4 pound cod.

1 cup cracker crumbs
1 cup melted butter
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
½ tablespoon finely chopped parsley
1 cup oysters
2 tablespoons oyster liquor

“Add seasonings and butter to cracker crumbs. Clean oysters and remove tough muscles; add soft parts to mixture, with two tablespoons oyster liquor to moisten.”