On Christmas Eve my sister said to me “I have a gift for you, but you might not like it.” She then gave me a cold jar of oysters and a bag of oyster crackers.
The oysters in the jar were gray and slimy. “Thank you,” I said. “I’ve never made oyster soup, but I can try.”
On Christmas Day I was invited to a friend’s house, so today was the day for making oyster soup. I found a recipe in the Mennonite Community Cookbook. To prep, I watch a YouTube video on how to make oyster soup.
Oysters are, or were, traditional Christmas fare. In one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, Pa bravely brings home the oysters after nearly dying in a blizzard and eating the Christmas candy to survive.
The recipe in the Mennonite Community Cookbook makes six servings. There’s only me and my parents at home. “We don’t want leftovers.” Mom warns, “It could go bad. My parents knew a man who died from food poisoning caused by leftover fish soup.”
I’m pretty certain most leftover fish is safe for a few days, but oysters do seem to have a particularly, well, fishy, record. In the olden days, didn’t people die from “eating bad oysters”? Plus, there’s the ominous warning about “only eat oysters in the months with an ‘r’ in them.”
“Okay,” I said, “Let’s invite a few guests so we don’t have leftovers.” My brother’s family lives nearby and it turns out that three of his older children love oyster soup, so we have now have six for dinner.
Sarah, my teenage niece, comes early to help me prepare the soup. “I like oyster soup, but I’ve never seen them before they were cooked before. Boy, they’re slimy.”
I show Sarah a trick I learned on the YouTube video. “Hold the oyster by the tough part here and then cut up the rest of the oyster. The tough bits go into the blender, and we’ll blend it up with the liquid from the jar.”
In the cooking pot, the bacon, potatoes, and onions simmer together. I pour in warm milk and add butter and flour mixed together. When everything is hot, I add the chopped up oyster parts. In a few minutes, the chowder is ready.
Everyone sits at the table, and after praying, we start eating oyster soup. The chowder has a mild oyster favor and the oyster crackers float on the top.
“This is much better than the oyster soup we used to make growing up,” says Mom. “We would leave the oysters whole, and they had a gritty, sandy texture.”
“Finish up the soup,” we tell Beriah and Shiloh, Sarah’s brothers, and they happily oblige. For dessert there’s leftover Christmas cookies, ice cream, and clementines. After lunch, we play Bonazana before I take Beriah, Sarah, and Shiloh home.
It’s been a good day after Christmas, thanks mostly to a jar of unsought oysters. The oysters picked me, I did not pick the oysters.
Sometimes life is like that.
Oyster Chowder (from the Mennonite Community Cookbook)
- 3 slices bacon or salt pork (chopped)
- 2 cups raw diced potatoes
- 2 onions, diced
- 1 pint oysters (chopped)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 quart hot milk
- 1 tablespoon butter (softened)
- 1 tablespoon flour
Fry bacon or pork until brown. Add diced potatoes, onions, salt, and pepper. Cover with boiling water and simmer until tender.
Mix flour and butter to make a paste (I used a fork.) Add flour/butter paste and hot milk to soup. Then add oysters, including liquor and cook about 3 minutes or until edges begin to curl.
Serve with crackers. Serves 6.
I’m glad you liked the soup ! It sounds so good , I might have to try it myself.
I bought the oysters at Singing Springs where they sell them every year at a special Christmas sale . They also sell fresh made fried oyster sandwiches ,they are also on my list to try. Jesse says just not to try them on the family.😉
Maybe if they hear their cousins like oysters, your children will try them! Would fried oyster sandwiches taste like fish stick sandwiches?
Thanks again for the special Christmas treat.
My late grandfather periodically went to Delaware and bought gallons of oysters, which he peddled. He could eat a raw, slimy oyster; swallowed it whole. I refused to eat them because I thought they still had their guts inside. But I loved the broth from oyster soup.
Interesting! I won’t like to swallow oysters whole either, but I’ve heard of people eating them that way.
I used to weep into my oyster soup that mom made me eat as a child. I still
Don’t like them but my Virginia Beach raised husband loves them !
Oyster soup seasoned with salty tear water! (As a child, I wept over anything green on my plate, I’m quite certain I won’t have liked oyster soup).