Culinary Oyster

Oysters can be eaten half shelled, raw, smoked, boiled, baked, fried, roasted, stewed, canned, pickled, steamed, broiled (grilled) or used in a variety of drinks. Preparation can be as simple as opening the shell, while cooking can be as spare as adding butter and/or salt, or can be very elaborate.

Uncooked Oyster Diplayed on Plate

Oysters are low in food energy; one dozen raw oysters contain approximately 110 calories (0.460 kJ), and are rich in zinc, iron, calcium, and vitamin A.

Unlike most shellfish, oysters can have a fairly long shelf-life: up to around two weeks; however, they should be consumed when fresh, as their taste reflects their age. Precautions should be taken when consuming them. Purists insist on eating oysters raw, with no dressing save perhaps lemon juice, vinegar, or cocktail sauce. Raw oysters are regarded like wines in that they have complex flavors that vary greatly among varieties and regions: some taste sweet, others salty or with a mineral flavor, or even like melon. The texture is soft and fleshy, but crisp to the tooth.

Oysters are generally an expensive food in places where they are not harvested, and often they are eaten only on special occasions, such as Christmas. Whether oysters are predominantly eaten raw or cooked is a matter of personal preference. In the United States today, oysters are most often cooked before consumption, but there is also a high demand for raw oysters on the half-shell (shooters) typically served at oyster bars. Canned smoked oysters are also widely available as preserves with a long shelf life.

Fresh oysters must be alive just before consumption.

There is a simple criterion: oysters must be tightly closed; oysters that are already open are dead and must be discarded. To confirm if an open oyster is dead, tap the shell. A live oyster will close and is safe to eat, a dead oyster can also be closed however it will make a distinct noise when tapped and are called "clackers."

Open an oysters requires skill, for live oysters, outside of the water, shut themselves tightly with a powerful muscle sealing their fluids. The generally used method for opening oysters is to use a special knife (called an oyster knife, a variant of a shucking knife), with a short and thick blade about 2 inches long, inserting the blade (with some moderate force and vibration if necessary) at the hinge in the rear of the shell, and sliding it upward to cut the adductor muscle (which holds the shell closed). Inexperienced shuckers tend to apply excessive force, which may result in injuries if they slip. Always use a heavy glove; if you don't cut yourself with the knife you can just as easily cut yourself on the oyster shell itself which can be razor sharp. A good demonstration of this technique is available here. There is also a second way in, referred to as the "sidedoor", which is about halfway along one side where the lips of the oyster widen so there is a slight indentation where a knife may successfully be inserted. This is generally a better way to open an oyster when it is a "crumbler" (i.e. one with a particularly soft shell either due to drills or the amount of calcium in the water). Either way, however, is tricky when an oyster's shell is in such a condition.

An alternative to opening raw oysters before consumption is to cook them in the shell – the heat kills the oysters and they open by themselves. Cooked oysters are slightly sweet-tasting and considered savory, and the varieties are mostly equivalent.

oysters spawn in the warmer months, from roughly May to August in the Northern Hemisphere, and their flavor when eaten raw can be somewhat watery and bland during spawning season; additionally their meats are much reduced in size. Oysters are eaten best during the cold months of the year.

Oysters from the Tropicspawn throughout the year, but are delicious cooked or raw to the oyster connoisseur.

To avoid spawning, sterile oysters are now cultured by crossbreeding tetraploid and diploid oysters. Because the resulting triploid oyster cannot propagate, the oyster spawning season does not occur.

Oysters are sometimes cited as an aphrodisiac. It is disputed whether this is true. According to the [Telegraph of London] a team of "American and Italian researchers analysed bivalve molluscs - a group of shellfish that includes oysters - and found they were rich in rare amino acids that trigger increased levels of sex hormones." If there is such an effect, it may be due to the soft, moist texture and appearance of the oyster; it may also be due to their high zinc content.

Reference: Wikipedia.com, The Free Online Encyclopedia

What is an Oyster?

The name oyster is used for a number of different groups of mollusks which grow for the most part in marine or brackish water. The shell, usually highly calcified, surrounds a soft body and strong adductor muscles are used to hold the shell closed. Some of these groups are highly prized as food, both raw and cooked.


Physical characteristics

Oysters are filter-feeders that draw water in over their gills. Suspended food plankton and particles are trapped in the gills and transported to the mouth, where they are eaten. Feeding activity is greatest in oysters when water temperatures are above 50°F (10°C). Healthy oysters consume algae and other water-borne nutrients, each one filtering up to five litres of water per hour.

Oysters breathe much like fish, using both gills and mantle. The mantle is lined with many small, thin-walled blood vessels which extract oxygen from the water and expel carbon dioxide. A small, three-chambered heart, lying under the abductor muscle, pumps colorless blood, with its supply of oxygen, to all parts of the body. At the same time two kidneys located on the underside of the muscle purify the blood of any waste products they have collected.

There is no way of determining male oysters from females by examining their shells. While oysters have separate sexes, they may change sex one or more times during their life span. The gonads, organs responsible for producing both eggs and sperm, surround the digestive organs and are made up of sex cells, branching tubules and connective tissue.

Oysters usually mature by one year of age. They are protandric, which means that during their first year they spawn as males (releasing sperm into the water). As they grow larger over the next two or three years and develop greater energy reserves, they release eggs, as females. Bay oysters are usually prepared to spawn by the end of June. An increase in water temperature prompts a few initial oysters to spawn. This triggers a spawning 'chain reaction', which clouds the water with millions of eggs and sperm. A single female oyster can produce up to 100 million eggs annually. The eggs become fertilized in the water and develop into larvae, which eventually find suitable sites on which to settle, such as another oyster's shell. Attached oyster larvae are called 'spat'. Spat are oysters 25 mm or less in length.

Some oysters in the tropics grow on mangrove roots and are exposed at low tide making them easy to collect. Tourists are often astounded when they are told that "oysters grow on trees."

Reference: Wikipedia.com, the free online encyclopedia.

Now, what we are interested in is the Culinary Oyster (food), more about this on my next post.

Welcome to Talaba Blog -The Culinary Oysters

Highly delicious and a very good delicacy, this blog of mine is all about the Oyster, the edible oysters that is. This blog will feature information about the oysters that we love to eat, recipes, as well as information on where you can get this favorite delicacy.

A typical oyster (Crassostrea gigas)

More about Oysters? Just check on my Archive on the right side of the screen.