ROLLED OYSTERS..."FLABBY S".....IS IT GONE??

[Robin Garr]

I never ate at Mazzonis but I know where it was and I knew they had been a lifelong business here. I love my hometown and wouldn't have a problem at all keeping a tradition alive.

If anyone knows about this recipe, has worked there, etc... let me know and I will keep it alive

To the best of my knowledge, the recipe was a closely held family tradition, and the Mazzoni's kept it secret through many generations. They had opened here in the 1860s or 1870s, I think. They claimed the recipe came from "the old country," but I've traveled in Italy a lot and never saw anything even remotely resembling it. Of course, it's a remarkably diverse country, and I haven't eaten in every single corner of it, but still.

It's basically a tennis-ball-size round, a handful of shucked oysters rolled into a doughball with a thick batter called "pastinga", which may have contained some cornmeal but probably wasn't 100 percent cornmeal, then breaded and deep-fried until the dough was steaming and moistly fluffy, the oysters were just cooked, and the outside dark golden-brown and crunchy.

Serve with cocktail sauce and oyster crackers.

It seems easy enough to back-engineer, and a smart cook ought to be able to figure it out, but I can only repeat that I've tried a lot of the competitors - Linnig's, Cunningham's, quite a few more, and nobody ever builds it in remotely the same way. The devil is in the details, I guess.

"Matt Davis"
If anyone knows about this recipe, has worked there, etc... let me know and I will keep it alive

Rolled Oysters would be a perfect street food. The Knights of Columbus in New Albany have a pretty good version they sell during the Harvest Homecoming every year. They are about the size of a deck of cards with a 2 oz. cup of cocktail sauce for dipping and easy to snack on while walking around!
Tacos and Rolled Oysters, Heck you could do Oyster Po Boys too!
I can't wait to see what you come up with when you get your truck up and running.

Has anyone heard what will happen to the buidling Flabby's occupied? Sure would like to see another Germantown bar.

Has anyone heard what will happen to the buidling Flabby's occupied? Sure would like to see another Germantown bar.

I've heard rumors of it being sold, with conflicting versions of who owns it now. I've heard that intentions are to re-open it as Flabby's, but as I sit here in my house, just down the block, it's still dark, with no indications of when it may (if ever) re-open. Such a shame.

Fishmarket Seafood (local wholesale business) used to sell a frozen product at Krogers, they might still be available. Rolled oysters are good, but not to die for. After about 1.5 they could easily sit like a rock in your stomach, pretty heavy stuff.

I don't understand why both Flabby's & Mazzoni's closed, everytime I was in there they were always busy.

"Matt Davis"
If anyone knows about this recipe, has worked there, etc... let me know and I will keep it alive

Rolled Oysters would be a perfect street food. The Knights of Columbus in New Albany have a pretty good version they sell during the Harvest Homecoming every year. They are about the size of a deck of cards with a 2 oz. cup of cocktail sauce for dipping and easy to snack on while walking around!
Tacos and Rolled Oysters, Heck you could do Oyster Po Boys too!
I can't wait to see what you come up with when you get your truck up and running.

I've had the rolled oysters from the Knights of Columbus and they were GREAT! Every bit as good as Mazzonis (and I loved those).

The wife and I toyed with the idea of doing special standbys in New Albany a couple times a year and offer Harvest Homecoming favorites. I thought it was a good idea, sometimes there are good foods that are only offered once a year and if we could encapsulate that somehow and offer it a couple extra times a year that might catch on.

Heck, if you just made Chicken & Dumplings, Fresh Doughnuts, Apple Dumplings, Rolled Oysters & BBQ Chicken you hit the highlights of the best stuff at the Harvest Homecoming. Of course, Bank St. Chef Josh's Duck Fat Pomme Frites while not really part of Harvest Homecoming, are close enough for me!

Yes we also walked over an idea of having rotating seasonal menus. My wife makes a killer chicken and dumplings and in the winter time who wouldn't want a piping hot bowl of that to stick to your ribs.

We will be doing some type of seasonal specials.

Someone with the username Mercy on Food.com posted this in 2004:

"My grandparents enjoyed these oysters at Mazzoni's in Louisville, Kentucky many, many decades ago. The restaurant is no longer there, but my grandparents were fortunate enough to charm this recipe out of the owners. Ever since, these little treasures have become a New Year's Eve tradition in my family. Memaw always formed extra "Mock Oysters" out of the cracker crumbs and batter for the kids who didn't like oysters (me!)."

Ingredients: Servings:6

2 cups oatmeal
5 cups water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 pints oysters, drained, reserve the liquid
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup self-rising flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs, separated
32 ounces saltine crumbs, 2 boxes

Directions:
Prep Time: 1 hr
Total Time: 1 1/4 hr
1 Cook the oatmeal in the 5 cups of water.
2 Add the corn syrup to the oatmeal and remove from heat.
3 Set the oatmeal mixture aside to cool and then add the evaporated milk and the reserved liquid from oysters.
4 Add the baking powder and flour, beat thoroughly, and then add the egg yolks into the oatmeal mixture.
5 Beat the egg whites until stiff and then fold the egg whites into the oat mixture.
6 Add a little more self-rising flour if the oat batter is too watery (it should have the consistency of wet mud).
7 Roll each oyster in cracker crumbs, dip it into the oat batter and then roll in the cracker crumbs a second time.
8 (At this point, the oysters can be placed on wax paper and stored in the freezer until you are ready to fry them, or fried immediately.) To prepare, deep fry until they turn a dark brown color.
9 They may also be pan fried.


I am not sure if this is REALLY the Mazzoni recipe but its what we were able to find online.
If they were friends of the Mazzoni family then its possible they were given an earshot of the recipe.

[Robin Garr]

Someone with the username Mercy on Food.com posted this in 2004:

2 cups oatmeal
5 cups water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 pints oysters, drained, reserve the liquid
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup self-rising flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs, separated
32 ounces saltine crumbs, 2 boxes

Trust me: I'm sure the person who posted this is very nice and well-intended, but I'm 100 percent confident that this weird mix of ingredients is NOT a Mazzoni's rolled oyster.

Someone with the username Mercy on Food.com posted this in 2004:

2 cups oatmeal
5 cups water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
2 pints oysters, drained, reserve the liquid
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup self-rising flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 eggs, separated
32 ounces saltine crumbs, 2 boxes

Trust me: I'm sure the person who posted this is very nice and well-intended, but I'm 100 percent confident that this weird mix of ingredients is NOT a Mazzoni's rolled oyster.

Sometimes it isn't the ingredients but the techniques involved in combining those ingredients

I am sure that you are probably right but hey maybe her memaw was making better oysters than Mazzonis

[Robin Garr]

Sometimes it isn't the ingredients but the techniques involved in combining those ingredients

I am sure that you are probably right but hey maybe her memaw was making better oysters than Mazzonis

Well, the evaporated milk had me wondering, but it's a small enough amount that I figured a little bit might be hidden in the "pastinga." The corn syrup had me wondering even more. And the oatmeal really threw it over the edge. In my experience, oatmeal adds a distinct flavor and texture element that just wouldn't go away no matter how they did it. The pan-frying option was also suspicious.

I don't care for rolled oysters, but have eaten them @ Mazzoni's and Flabby's. I'm pretty sure no oatmeal in there. Maybe the Mazzonis were having a laugh?

Don't know.. Our good friend Bob makes some chocolate chip cookies with oats in them, I didn't taste the oat nor did I see it but, as a whole, the cookies were delicious. We were trying to get him to make enough to sell on the truck but hes not into it

I had a really bad food poisoning experience with fish when I was 12 so I am very particular about the seafood I eat and where it comes from. The last time I actually even tried a piece of fish it was 7 years ago and it was the freshest Opah I had ever seen.

So I would offer to make them if there was enough of a market demand for it and to satisfy some customers but I wouldn't like to make it the heart of what we do. It would be more categorized in our planned Harvest Homecoming favorites.