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Rockefeller oysters are a popular American dish made with fresh oysters on the half shell, topped with various ingredients and a buttery sauce. The recipe was allegedly created by Jules Alciatore in 1899 for Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans, and its sauce remains a mystery to this day.
Rockefeller oysters are a popular American dish that is a staple on many restaurant menus across the country. Its main ingredient is fresh oysters on the half shell. Depending on the region and the chef’s preferences, toppings may include spinach, parsley, scallions, cheese, breadcrumbs, and are usually accompanied by a buttery sauce. The dish is traditionally cooked or grilled.
Similar to many famous recipes and dishes, Oysters Rockefeller has an interesting history behind it that has some contradictions. Most accounts confirm that the recipe was created by Jules Alciatore in 1899 for Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans. Alciatore’s father Antoine had founded the restaurant in 1840 after unsuccessful attempts to do so in New York. Alciatore allegedly named the dish Rockefeller Oysters after John D. Rockefeller, the richest American alive at the time, based on the richness of the sauce, which had a butter base. Antoine’s remains the oldest family-owned restaurant still in operation in the United States.
Most accounts of the dish’s history state that Jules Alciatore loved to serve escargots — or French snails — at his restaurant, but there was a shortage and no snails available at the time. He decided that fresh and plentiful local oysters would be a good substitute. The sauce he created for the oyster dish was green and looked like it was made from pureed vegetables. The recipe called for fresh oysters to be served on the half-shell, seasoned with the sauce and breadcrumbs, and then cooked at a high temperature or grilled.
Rockefeller oysters became an instant hit with diners and soon most New Orleans restaurants were trying to duplicate it. Antoine argues that no chef will ever be able to copy the recipe precisely because its creator, Jules Alciatore, reportedly passed it on to his children after his death. He is said to have told them never to tell anyone except family members, who have kept the secret for more than a century.
The biggest mystery of Rockefeller oyster ingredients centers around the salsa verde. Antoine’s current and past chefs insist the sauce doesn’t contain spinach, but they refuse to divulge what gives the sauce its bright green color. A laboratory analysis of the sauce in the mid-1980s revealed that it contained parsley, celery that had been pureed and strained, olive oil, capers, and chives or shallots, all of which cannot be distinguished through laboratory testing. Another theory about the sauce’s green tint may have been achieved through the addition of Pernod, an absinthe-like liquor.
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