Civil War Recipe Tutorial:

OYSTER STUFFING FOR FOWL

Original Recipe:

Mince a quarter of a pound of beef suet (beef marrow is better), the same weight of bread-crumbs, two drachms of parsley-leaves, a drachm and a half of sweet marjoram or lemon-thyme, and the same of grated lemon-peel and onion chopped as fine as possible; a little pepper and salt; pound thoroughly together with the yelk and white of two eggs, and secure it with a skewer, or sew it in with a bit of thread. Take the foregoing composition and add the soft part of a dozen oysters to it: an anchovy, or a little grated ham or tongue, if you like it, is still more relishing. Fill the craw of the fowl but do not cram it so as to disfigure its shape.

Source:

Kitchiner, William, MD: The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual, containing Receipts for Cookery and Directions for Carving, Adapted to the American Public by a Medical Gentleman, J. & J. Harper, New York, 1832

Modern Day Adaptations:

We made the basic recipe, with beef fat (suet) rather than marrow (the soft tissue inside large bones, which idea did not appeal); marjoram, and the oysters. As fresh oysters are hard to come by in west Tennessee, we used canned. A "drachm" is a very small quantity, say half a teaspoon or so, and "yelk" is the way they spelled that yellow thing inside an egg in those days.

Results:

Using the proportions given by Dr. Kitchiner results in a dressing of overpowering oyster-ness. If trying it again we would use either half as many oysters or twice as much of everything else. The beef suet rather melted away, presumably absorbed by the bread (we used about three quarters of a loaf of French bread, cut into cubes) and the lemon peel was undetectable. Even the onion, admittedly a small amount, was overwhelmed. It is quite easy to prepare and oyster fans would no doubt rate it higher than we did, which was no higher than four.