Grandma’s New Year’s Eve Prescription: Oyster Stew

Nora Elsie Hoffman Macbeth: 1899-1994

For my Grandma Nora, the New Year couldn’t start properly without a good helping of oyster stew the night before. My mom picked up the tradition, and every year we’d be shopping for canned oysters at the rural Minnesota supermarkets near our home. Amazingly, they were always available, so I suspect that this tradition was fairly common in the area.

Grandma Nora as a young woman

My Grandma Nora’s parents were both of German descent. I believe she acquired the recipe and the tradition from one of them. According to my Google research, oyster stew was only a holiday tradition in the northern areas of Germany, possibly due to the closer proximity to the sea. Lena Funk’s father emigrated from northern Germany, so perhaps the oyster stew was a little piece of the Old Country he brought with him.

Apparently more people serve oyster stew on Christmas Eve rather than New Year’s Eve. However, the tradition makes more sense to me as a propitious way to begin a new year since the oysters are believed to promote libido and fertility. It’s very similar to the southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas for the same reason.

I’m not sure if my grandmother was trying to promote healthy libidos or not. I know that she was rather superstitious, and claimed that consuming oyster stew on New Year’s Eve brought good fortune in the coming year.

Another genealogist who had the same New Year’s Eve tradition found an authentic German recipe for the stew or soup that sounds close to the one my grandmother and mother used (I used Google Translate to convert it into English):

Austernsuppe (Oyster Soup)

Portionen: 4

Oyster soup ingredients

24 oysters (with juice)

40 grams of butter

3/4 cup(s) whole milk (hot)

Sweet paprika

Salt

Pepper

For oyster soup, cook the shelled oysters in the hot butter with the oyster juice.

As soon as the oyster crusts begin to curl, add hot milk, season with salt and pepper and heat through.

Serve the oyster soup in soup bowls sprinkled with sweet paprika.

My grandmother used more milk than this, and less butter. Fresh oysters were hard to find in Minnesota at the best of times, and in winter during the 1970s was nearly impossible. We used canned oysters. I recall that she added carrots and onions, and occasionally potatoes. Here is a recipe that is more similar to hers:

New Year’s Oyster Stew

4 servings

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup minced onion

1/4 cup diced celery

1/4 cup diced carrot

1/2 teaspoon mild paprika

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

8 ounces bottled fresh oysters with liqueur

4 cups nonfat milk

1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder

1 cup half-and-half

Combine water, onion, celery, carrot, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper in a small pot. Cover and simmer over low heat until vegetables are tender. If necessary, add more water. Strain oysters and pour the liqueur into the pot with the vegetables. Chop oysters into 1/2-inch pieces and set aside.

In another pot, stir together the liquid milk, dry milk and half-and-half. Heat at medium-low temperature until warm. Stir in the vegetable mixture and increase the temperature slightly. Cook 1 minute and add the oysters. Heat at medium heat until hot. Serve immediately.

My family’s soup was served with saltines, or even more appropriately, oyster crackers. I remember how my brother and I loved the oyster crackers. It was a fairly bland dish, which was probably why I enjoyed it as a child.

Sadly, I didn’t carry on this tradition. I only made the soup once or twice when my own children were young. I’m not the biggest fan of canned oysters, and my children weren’t impressed. Perhaps I should try again with fresh oysters.

Sources:

Recipe courtesy of https://www.ichkoche.at/austernsuppe-rezept-179466

https://www.dglobe.com/news/celebrating-christmas-german-style

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-lz1f31history182839-oyster-stew-holiday-tradition--2008dec31-story.html#: