Angels on Horseback
Oysters in bacon, grilled hot and eaten on toast. The other half of the Victorian savoury pair, and much older than its devilish twin.
Photograph credit: Angels on horseback by Lana · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia
Where This Goes Wrong
Dry the oysters. Wet ones steam the bacon soft.
Fierce heat, ten minutes. A cooked-through oyster is a wasted one.
Keep the liquor — it is the seasoning.
Making Angels on Horseback
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Lift the oysters from their liquor and pat them thoroughly dry on kitchen paper. Strain the liquor and keep it.
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Stretch each bacon rasher thin with the back of a knife and cut it in half across.
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Dust the oysters with the cayenne and pepper, wrap each in a piece of bacon and secure with a cocktail stick.
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Set them on a rack over a tray, seam down, and brush with the oil.
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Grill under a fierce heat 10 minutes, turning once, until the bacon is crisp and blistered.
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Butter the toast (optional) and cut it into fingers.
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Set an angel on each finger, spoon over a little of the reserved liquor, scatter with parsley and serve with lemon.
Related guide: Ingredient substitutions.
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Why the Method Works
Fast and hot is the whole method, because an oyster cooked through shrinks to a grey button and loses everything that made it worth eating. Eight to ten minutes under a fierce grill is enough to crisp thin bacon and leave the oyster plump and barely set at the edges. Pat the oysters dry before wrapping: the liquor they sit in will steam inside the bacon and stop it ever crisping. Keep the liquor and sharpen it with lemon to spoon over at the end.
After You've Cooked It
None. Shuck, wrap and grill within the hour.
What to Serve Alongside
- Hot buttered toast
- A cold stout
- Lemon
Angels on Horseback Nutrition Facts
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Dairy-free when served without the butter. Gluten-free when served without the bread.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .