Hi.

Today, I'm going to be making

one of the first sandwich recipes ever published

in an American cookbook,

and it's pretty interesting.

The recipe is actually from this book,

"The Virginia Housewife" by Mary Randolph.

This is America's first published regional cookbook,

and it came out in 1824.

I mean, not this one, obviously.

This is a reprint.

In this book, you'll find all the hits,

like how to grill a calf's head,

how to broil and roast a shad.

What's a shad?

Oh. It's a fish similar to a herring.

How to make a nice biscuit, not a mean one, a nice one.

But on page 69 is the recipe that we are looking for,

oyster loaves.

Well, you know, Mary Randolph, it seems,

adapted this oyster loaf recipe

from an earlier published recipe in England

from a book called "The Lady's Assistant."

I'm interested in Mary Randolph's version

because it is the precursor

to the modern day oyster po'boy.

So historical recipes, let's do it!

There's not exactly a recipe to follow,

but it seems like I need oysters, cream, butter, and bread.

So we're just gonna open up the oysters.

Oh wait. Oh my God.

Oh ho ho! I did it.

And according to the recipe,

I need to take a little round loaf of bread.

That's what this is.

I'm gonna cut off the top, and scoop out all of the crumbs,

kind of like I'm making a bread bowl,

but not entirely a bread bowl.

Next, I'm gonna put the oysters into a stew pan

with the crumbs that came out of the loaves.

I'm adding some water and a good sum of butter.

How much is a sum of butter?

I'm gonna cook them for about 10 to 15 minutes,

and then I'm going to put a spoonful of good cream.

I love these adjectives.

Once it's cooked, we're just gonna fill the loaves.

We're going to put a little bit of the breadcrumbs on top

and put them in the oven to crisp up.

And ta-da!

And there it is, a historical 1824 oyster loaf.

I have no idea how this is gonna taste.

If I was gonna rate my confidence level right now in this,

it would be five, because it doesn't look terrible,

but I don't know.

My first historical recipe.

It's been a...

oh god.

We do not have structural integrity here.

This actually tastes pretty fricking good.

I feel like maybe it needs a little salt.

I'll just get a little salt.

It looked terrible.

Talk about an unappetizing cooking process.

But in retrospect,

what I'm eating is like butter and cream with oyster,

so why wouldn't it be good?

I'm gonna try to eat it like a sandwich.

Oh!

That felt wrong.

I like it.

I was reading a little bit more about it.

People would stop off at inns and be like,

"Hey, I need something quick.

I'm heading to the next town."

And they'd be like, "Sure.

Would you like an oyster loaf?

And people would be like, "Yeah."

So this is kind of like the equivalent

of like getting Doritos at the gas station.

I don't think I necessarily executed all of this correctly.

I imagine that I definitely needed a smaller loaf.

It technically did say "little round loaves."

Final thoughts are, I think this actually was delicious.

Probably will never make it again, but you never know.

I do think, though, I kind of want to try this again

because it was really fun to do, but that's about it.

Thank you so much, and I will see you guys later.

(upbeat music)