When we think of oysters, we imagine this great bivalve that spits out big shiny pearls. Unfortunately, pearls come from varieties that are not edible. The oysters that are edible are either wild or farmed. Most oysters that are consumed are cultivated – Louisiana alone has about 1.6 million acres of public oyster grounds. This means that eating oysters only during the “r” months – September through April – is no longer a thing because when oysters reach their peak size, they are pulled from the water and stored below 40 degrees.
Oysters are extremely sustainable. They can filter and clean water at over 1 gallon per hour. Even after being harvested, they don’t have a negative impact on the environment. They create reefs and their shells create a habitat for other marine life.
Related Guides
- How to Gather Your Own Shellfish
- How to Store, Clean, Cook and Serve Bivalves Like a Pro
- 3 Delicious Ways to Cook Oysters at Home
Buying Oysters in a Shell
The first thing to do when choosing fresh oysters is to make sure they are still alive. If its shell is open and the oyster is dry, it’s a good indication it is dead or dying. If you tap the shell and it doesn’t close immediately, that is another indicator and you should throw it out.
Smell the oysters and their shells. If it doesn’t smell like the sweet briny sea, it may not be fresh. If it has a fishy smell, then it is not fresh and probably dying.
Another thing to keep in mind is that when you open the oyster, it should have liquor surrounding it. That is the natural “juice” that the oyster lives with. It should also be fresh and briny smelling and tasting.
When you bring the oysters home, the first thing you should do is clean them. Run them under cold water and scrub the dirt and any other foreign objects from them. This is especially necessary if you are going to be serving them in their shells. Prior to shucking and cooking the oysters, it’s a good idea to let them sit in salted cold water for a period of time so they will expel the sand. They won’t get all of the sand out, but they will remove the majority of it.
Tools Needed to Shuck Oysters
- Flat surface such as a countertop or a sturdy table
- A clean hand towel
- An oyster shucking knife
How to Shuck Oysters
- Take your hand towel and fold it in half, lengthwise so it is parallel to you.
- Grab an oyster and place it belly down at the end of the towel with the point, or hinge, facing outward. This will depend on whether or not you are right- or left-handed so place it at the end where your dominant hand is.
- Fold the remaining towel over to cover the shell but not the hinge section. Place your non-dominant hand over the shell and towel. Take your other hand, place your shucking knife into the hinge.
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Place the tip of the knife into the natural separation point. Apply a little bit of pressure and wiggle the knife into the hinge. It may take a few tries but once you have the blade secure, you can wiggle the knife a bit more. You know you have successfully opened the shell when you feel a bit of a “pop.”
- Once you have the hinge popped open, slide the blade against the top shell to cut the adductor muscle from the shell. The adductor muscle is what the oyster uses to open and close its shell.
You should be able to remove the top shell with no trouble. Now, take the knife and slide it under the oyster to cut the bottom of the adductor muscle, freeing the oyster from both shells. Flip the oyster over in the shell.- Prepare the shucked oyster however you like and eat.
Tips When Shucking Oysters
- To expel sand from inside your oysters, place them in clean cold salt water for 15 minutes. Repeat this two more times.
- You can use a towel or thick gardening glove to shuck an oyster, as long as you have adequate protection from the ridged shell and knife blade.
- Often times you will find a baby crab inside. They are harmless, just remove them. They get in there to feed.
- You won’t find a pearl inside but you may find bits of what looks like the beginning of a pearl.
Types of Oysters
There are an infinite amount of oysters but only certain ones are edible. In North America, there are 5 regions oysters can come from:
- Atlantic and East Coast Oysters are the largest of the North American oyster. They are briny and metallic tasting but with a meaty savory flavor.
- Olympia-West Coast Oysters are smaller, creamy-textured oysters with a metallic finish. One of the popular oysters is the non-native Kumamoto.
- Pacific-West Coast Oysters are sweeter and less salty than Atlantic oysters. They also tend to have a more cucumber or vegetable taste to them.
- Kumamoto Oysters are from Japan but are also grown in the Olympia area of the Pacific Ocean. They are briny and fruity – they don’t like the cold water as much as they do the slightly warmer water found in Japan.
- European Flat Oysters originated in Brittany along the Belon River and is now grown in New England, California, and Washington State. They have a sweetness to them that is less briny and has a copper, or metallic, finish to them. The shells are flat and will turn white once it’s cooked.
Oysters all share some commonalities and often are found in several locations around the U.S. but they will all have their own flavor profile. For example, some East Coast oysters can be found from the Northern Atlantic down to the Southern Atlantic and crossing over to the Gulf of Mexico. But they all have different flavors and levels of brininess, sweetness, texture, and color.
The other thing to note is that each region has more than one variety or species of oysters. They are farmed and cultivated and picked at their peak so they can be enjoyed year-round.
