Today we are going to learn about boiling fowls with oysters. Oysters were very popular in the nineteenth century, especially in coastal regions. Fowl, however, was not as cheap as it is today. Unless the man went out and hunted a bird for supper, beef was actually more common on the nineteenth century dinner table if the family could afford to buy any meat at all.

I found this recipe online, although it originally came from Godey's Lady's Book magazine in the January 1861 issue. It was a reader-contributed recipe.

From the online article:

This is perhaps the only recipe of either past or present time which we have seen call for cooking a bird in a double boiler. The technique was used on smaller cuts of beef or poultry to produce the substance known as "meat tea," often used as a therapeutic agent in cases of illness or injury. It is difficult to see how a bird, even a "young' and presumably small one, can be cooked through with this procedure in the amount of time given. It would seem just as quick and a great deal safer to simply roast the creature, stuffed as indicated and with sauce made as directed with the pan juices.



1 young fowl
Oysters (enough to fill the cavity of the fowl)
White Sauce (if desired)


Take a young fowl, fill the inside with oysters, put it into a jar, and plunge the jar in a kettle or saucepan of water. Boil it for one hour and a half. There will be a quantity of gravy from the juices of the fowl and oysters in the jar; make it into a white sauce, with the addition of egg, cream, or a little flour and butter; add oysters to it, or serve up plain with the fowl...the dish loses nothing of its delicacy and simplicity.