Mama's SC Oyster Pie/Dressing

I do not know where this comes from. Because my mother made it for Christmas and Thanksgiving I usually think it is found in The Charleston Receipts Cookbook put out by the Junior League of Charleston, SC, but it isn't. It is very simple and if you have good ingredients, unbeatable. There are many much more involved and elaborate versions of this dish, but I don't know that they add anything to the basic recipe. Some include celery, eggs, onions, anise, milk, cream, potatoes, bacon and various liquors. Use them if you want, but this is the basic, close to the ground real good thing.

Using a two and a half pints of largish Western oysters and the crumbs from an Eli's Tuscan loaf, this served eleven with not a single crumb left . Everyone got a bit.

NEVER go more than two layers of oysters. It won't cook evenly.

If you shuck your own oysters, be careful to remove any shell fragments. This applies to oysters you buy from the store as well. Almost inevitably you will find a fragment of shell in even the most expensive, processed oysters. It is incredibly uncomfortable to grind teeth on a shell shard.

Oysters - couple of pints depending on size of oysters and size of pan you will be using. Buy some extras. If you have more than you can use - an unlikely event - make an omlet.
Unsalted Butter. As much as your arteries will stand. I use close to a half pound.
Bread Crumbs, course and a good quality. Home made is good
Worchestershire Sauce
Tabasco Sauce
Baking dish - I used a 9x13 three quart pyrex this Thanksgiving

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Butter - HEAVILY - the baking dish.
Lay in a layer of oysters, comfortably touching each other. Don't crowd, but don't leave space between them.
Sprinkle bread crumbs to cover and fill voids between oysters. Use too much crumbs and it will be dry. It's better to go light than heavy. The dish is better soggy with butter and oyster juice than dried out.
Worchestershire sauce - sprinkle this all over the bread crumbs. I usually make lines back and forth five or six times.
Tabasco Sauce sprinkle evenly over crumbs approximating a drop per oyster, more or less as your appreciation for Tabasco leads you.
Add thin pats of cold butter, one for each pair of oysters or there abouts.
Repeat this for second layer - finish with crumbs, worchestershire, Tabasco and butter.
Bake in oven until butter melts, oyster plump up and resulting liquid starts to percolate.
That's it. Serve it from the dish it cooked in.