Merryell Williams' Book of Recipes (Peniarth MS 513D) - [2] Oyster Sausages

Merryell Williams' Book of Recipes

Peniarth MS 513D

This is a volume of cooking and medicinal recipes which were collected by Merryell Williams of the Ystumcolwyn Estate, Montgomeryshire, towards the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century. The manuscript is in English. Within its covers we are given a glimpse of the types of meals created in the kitchens of mid Wales' nobility during this period.

Images of the original manuscript are freely available on the National Library of Wales website.

I have done my best to provide an accurate, but readable transcription. Common abbreviations have been expanded, letters like thorn and yogh have been replaced with their modern equivalents, and some minor punctuation has been added.

Copyright © 2022 by Daniel Myers, MedievalCookery.com

[2] Oyster Sausages.  Take a quart of large Oysters & Parboyle them and then let it be Cold. Then chop them with sage and sweet herbs very fine, then grate the yolks of hard Eaggs, and 4 or 5 Anchovies & a litle grated bread, peper, nutmeg, and a few Cloves beaten very small then work it up together, with 2 pound of the best suet, shreded very fine.

Here we have another weird oyster recipe.  The first thing I did was check The Compleat Housewife, but that would have just been too easy.

There is a recipe for oyster sausages in Modern Cookery for Private Families (Eliza Acton, 1859), but it surprisingly calls for cayenne and does not include sage.

OYSTER SAUSAGES. Beard, rinse well in their strained liquor, and mince but not finely, three dozens and a half of plump native oysters, and mix them with ten ounces of fine bread-crumbs, and ten of beef-suet chopped extremely small ; add a saltspoonful of salt, and one of pepper, or less than half the quantity of cayenne, twice as much pounded mace, and the third of a small nutmeg grated : moisten the whole with two unbeaten eggs, or with the yolks only of three, and a dessertspoonful of the whites. When these ingredients have been well worked together, and are perfectly blended, set the mixture in a cool place for two or three hours before it is used ; make it into the form of small sausages or sausage-cakes, flour and fry them in butter of a fine light brown; throw them into boiling water for three minutes, drain, and let them become cold, dip them into egg and bread-crumbs, and broil them gently until they are lightly coloured. A small bit should be cooked and tasted before the whole is put aside, that the seasoning may be heightened if required. The sausages thus made are extremely good : the lingers should be well floured in making them up.

 

I found several early and modern recipes for oyster sausages that were much simpler than the one above, but the majority of those were made for pork and oysters.

Most interestingly, I couldn't find any other recipes for oyster sausages that included sage. 

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