The Oyster Guide for Chefs: Does Cup Size Matter?
Aphrodite sauntered off an oyster shell, and humankind has been smitten ever since. When it comes to making your diners fall in love with your restaurant, a little of nature’s favorite aphrodisiac never hurt. Consider this your Kumamoto-Sutra: an all-bases-covered oyster guide for the professional chef who feels shy around the sea’s sexiest (and most sustainable) bivalve.
Oysters: Where you From, Baby?
In terms of flavor, oysters from the West Coast of the United States can be generically categorized as sweet, and those from the East Coast as mild—and there are plenty of experts who disagree with even that general distinction. While East Coast oysters typically taste brinier than their West Coast counterparts due to the Atlantic’s higher salinity, an oyster that lies exposed during low tide in Southern Puget Sound can also exhibit brininess. And while many describe oysters from the West Coast as creamy, some insist that this is a misnomer, and should only apply to the one true creamsicle, the Kumamoto. In reality it boils down to marine territory, which affects flavor profiles that vary from harbor to harbor and even week to week. The salinity and temperature of that water, along with what kinds of algae and minerals the oysters filter and where the oysters grow—a grassy delta, river-fed inlet, or calm, shallow bay—all affect what your diner gulps off the half shell.
Hence, flavor profiles for oysters rival wines in their complexity—cucumber and melon flavors; a smoky or seaweed finish; and mineral, copper, or pine notes. “To say that all East Coast oysters are briny would be like saying that all red wines are dry,” says Chef Sandy Ingber, a.k.a. the Bishop of Bivalves, of Manhattan’s Grand Central Oyster Bar. And as with wine, marine territory and different cultivation methods affect everything from the lightness or darkness of an oyster’s meat to its texture, flavor, the hue of its shell, cup size, and depth of the cup.
Does Size Matter?
From the time oyster seedlings latch onto a bit of shell to the time it takes them to reach cocktail size (1 1/2 inches for Washington’s gem, the Olympia, all the way up to about four inches), a lot can happen. Some Gulf oysters reach full size in nine months whereas it takes five years for the tiny Olympia to mature. In that time, oysters filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The delicacy of the meat can vary from tender to firm for any size shell, depending on its cultivation. Some oysters are favored for their large size, as are Blue Points from Long Island, New York. Others are prized for being petite, like Shibumi oysters from Southern Puget Sound, Washington. When it comes to size, it’s a matter of finding the right fit for your patron. Some oyster connoisseurs and growers alike skip the argument altogether and place a higher premium on an oyster’s maturity. Costly Raspberry Point oysters, for example, are prized for the six or seven years it takes them to reach their cocktail size of 3 inches. Oysters that develop over a longer period of time have greater depth of flavor. As with men and wine, so with oysters: age matters.
Wild Child or Cultivated Lady?
There are four varieties of farming techniques and a number of methods used to process oysters in the United States. Wild oysters are generally costlier than cultivated oysters. And if you’ve every heard that oysters should only be eaten in months containing the letter ”R,” it’s because wild oysters spawn during the warmest months of the year. Nowadays, you can pick up plenty of varieties of cultivated oysters year-round in Northern waters.
All wild oysters are either beach- or bottom-cultured, although farmers also employ this method of cultivation. Beach-cultured or intertidal oysters spend part of the day submerged, but during low tide they lie exposed. Due to their life on the beach, their shells can be bleached and weathered. A pounding surf produces strong, knobby, and sturdy shells, which can be flattened or have fluted edges. Their strength means stronger abductor muscles, which yields more meat and maybe even a little chew. Since they stay clamped shut so tightly, they also have longer shelf life. Hama Hama oysters from Washington State and Colville Bay oysters from Prince Edward Island are intertidal oysters.
Bottom-cultured or subtidal oysters spend their whole lives submerged. Malpeque oysters and Raspberry Point oysters both hail from the icy Canadian waters of Prince Edward Island, and are both bottom-cultured. Barnstable oysters from Massachusetts and Hurricane Harbor Oysters from Prince Edward Island are two varieties of oysters whose cultivation is finished on the bottom of the sea floor, giving the oysters a chance to soak up the minerals and nutrients of the sea bed. Glidden Point oysters from Maine mature on the sea floor at a depth of 40 feet at the mouth of the Damariscotta River (famed as one of North America’s cleanest).
Longline oysters cling to suspended lines (farmers dangle the lines either vertically in deep water or just a foot or two above the floor in the intertidal zone). Clinging is like calisthenics for underwater invertebrates, resulting in firm meat and shells. Kumamotos, grown along the West Coast, are longline cultivated, and are famed for their plump, sweet meat.
Farmers give suspended tray oysters, such as Beausoleils from New Brunswick, lots of love and affection. The mollusks do nothing but laze around on their shell backsides, drinking the cool, refreshing cocktail of deep, cold waters, giving them their characteristic mild, clean flavor and shells that are uniform knockouts, sort of like the Paris Hiltons of the mollusk world. The only problem is that this sedentary lifestyle results in brittle, weak shells—tough luck for shuckers.
Rack and bag oysters grow in bags in the intertidal zone. By elevating the bags off of the bottom of the ocean via a rack, the oysters can better feed and grow. The bags also protect young oysters from predators such as starfish, crabs, and birds. The shells of rack and bag oysters, including the prized Hog Island Sweetwater variety from California, can also prove tricky for shuckers. As a result of their idle lives, shells don’t harden to the point of a beach- or bottom-cultivated oyster.
Tumbling can help whip both brittle rack and bag and suspended tray oysters into shape; it’s done with some oysters to increase their growth period, thus allowing flavors to mature. Like boot camp for bivalves, tumbling involves putting the oysters through a giant rolling canister every month or so. This process works like a manicure for overgrown, delicate shells by breaking off any new growth. Depending on how often the process is employed, it can also result in a distinctively smooth shell, which you can find in varieties such as Kusshi from Vancouver Island and Shibumi oysters from Washington State.
Among these techniques, there are a variety of combinations of cultivation methods that farmers can use. Maine’s popular North Haven oyster is transferred from bag to bottom, that is, it’s moved from the rack and bag method to a sea bed to finish the last three years of growth.
Menu Development: Making a Mix Tape for Your Diner
Each day, Chef de Cuisine Josh Even writes up six different oysters on the tiny whiteboard pegged next to the raw bar at the John Dory Oyster Bar in New York City: three east, three west. Within this framework, he tries to avoid repetitive flavor profiles. “If I order Saint Simons, then I won’t order Beasoleils, because they’re so similar,” he says. Even, who grew up on Long Island and counts oyster hatcheries as neighbors, carries certain oysters “in part, because they’re so near and dear.” At John Dory Oyster Bar, he also looks out for beginners, keeping “one or two [oysters] on the menu for the squeamish, hopefully to create new fans.” Choices like Beausoleil and Hog Island please oyster aficionados and newbies alike. “Connoisseurs love them, but they are also accessible,” he says. He has also dedicated time to developing a relationship with his purveyor, Blue Island Shellfish, who he trusts to fill him in on the hottest thing on ice each day. And it doesn’t hurt to have an oyster with an eye-catching name on the menu, like Blue Island’s Naked Cowboy, which also happens to be a popular local favorite.
Ingber stocks his daily menu of 30 oysters at Grand Central Oyster Bar with roughly a third West Coast and to two-thirds East Coast, because he feels that East Coast oysters offer a lot more variety in terms of flavor. “Most West Coast oysters have fairly similar flavors. You have hints of this and that, but there is a fairly distinct sweet Pacific flavor.” When it comes to building a menu, Ingber knows that most diners coming through his restaurant don’t know or care that Hog Island Sweetwater oysters are purified with salt water that has been sterilized with ultra-violet light, or whether an oyster has been dive-caught or hand-harvested with tongs. For the young chef just starting out behind the raw bar, Ingber advises, “First and foremost, an oyster has to sell. Name recognition is important. Not every diner is educated. A lot of people come into New York and they don’t know a lot about oysters, but they’ve heard of Blue Points.”
For purchasing, Ingber says a lot depends on how much you’re using. “Go directly to the farms, if you can. Or find a wholesaler who has a lot of oysters, where you can see a lot of movement, not somebody who carries just two or three.” He recommends Norm Bloom & Son on Long Island Sound for their huge Blue Points. Chef de Cuisine Arthur Ringel of Hank’s Oyster Bar in Washington, DC, recommends building relationships with lots of purveyors to ensure variety. Boutique oysters are the bee’s knees for patrons at Hank’s Oyster Bar, so Ringel moves up and down both coasts as the seasons change. For variety, he likes smaller farms like Dragon Creek and New Point in Virginia, or North Point on Prince Edward Island. Since lots of small farmers take summers off to focus on their cold winter harvest, he might even go so far as New Zealand for a mollusk. That way, he says with pleasure, “I can get a true winter oyster in July!”
Staff Education: Every Don Juan Starts Off a Virgin
At Grand Central Oyster Bar, two shifts means two staff meetings per day, a byproduct of a menu that changes daily by 10 percent to 15 percent. Ingber keeps it simple: name, flavor profile, and size. A lot of reinforcement and review are the keys.
Oysters don’t appear on printed menus at the John Dory Oyster Bar, so servers must name and identify them for diners. During staff meetings, Even and servers discuss each oyster and frequently taste them. “Sometimes the oysters are spot on and compare exactly to the last time we tasted,” says Even. “[Or] maybe it’s a little brinier this time; maybe the Skookums have more tannin, or are more unctuous … if we’ve got a repeat oyster we may quiz a server who’s been around for awhile.” Keeping a log of tasting notes is perhaps the best way to make lasting use of the cost involved with server tastings. Even says his meetings also encourage enthusiasm in his staff. “We treat all oysters like a special. We sit down and people scream out what they taste … it’s like a wine class; if you’re tasting an oyster, you’re not going to be wrong.”
At Hank’s Oyster Bar, servers taste oysters every day, although Ringel rotates servers and oysters to collect a variety of opinions. He also has farmers come into the restaurant to talk to the staff about their harvest. Staff education even includes field trips. Last summer, Chef-owner Jamie Leeds took the staff down to Dragon Creek Oysters on the Chesapeake Bay. Together with grower Bruce Wood, the staff planted oyster seeds. Next summer, you’ll be able to find Hank’s exclusive Hayden’s Reef oyster (named after Leed’s son) on the menu.
Storage and Handling: How to Put the Moves on Your Oyster
Oysters shouldn’t be served raw after more than a couple of days in your walk-in. “ You’ve got to consider where they’re coming from. If they’re from the West Coast, then they’ve already been out of the water for one or two days,” warns Even. Since they’re living creatures, don’t cover them with plastic, but with a damp cloth. And even if they’re being prepped for the oven, they should always be stored over ice. Clean them thoroughly before shucking with a soft plastic brush, like a mushroom brush, to protect the integrity of the shell.
You’ll also want to train your team to watch out for the boring sponge, a marine predator that can invade an oyster shell and leave the lip porous and shale-like—harmless to humans, although visually unappealing and a pain in the wrist. Affected oysters should be sent back to the purveyor. To avoid eating profit, make sure your staff knows how to spot a bored oyster (hint: they won’t be checking their watches—we’re talking a different kind of bored). They look pock-marked and layered, almost like phyllo dough.
Shucking All Night Long
The vibe may be hopping at the John Dory Oyster Bar, but there is definitely not a whole lot of shaking going on. Before putting anyone behind the raw bar to shuck 600 to 1,000 oysters a day, Even makes sure his shucker has enough practice not to shake an oyster. But what on earth does that mean?
Shaking, or piercing the flesh of that pearly (and costly) oyster is like burping on a first date—not good. A suave, experienced shucker knows that if you accidentally shiv the oyster’s liver, you’ll have a cloudy mess to show for it. And a deft hand is needed to quickly and carefully dust off the bits of crumbled shell once the oyster’s laid bare. Even recommends starting off slow; speed will follow accuracy.
Ingber employs four full-time shuckers who speed through 4,000 to 6,000 oysters every day. Each shucker takes a while to train, and they’re not easy to find. “We promote from within,” says Ingber, who says that in the past he tried everything from headhunters to Craigslist in his search for seasoned shuckers. Ingber starts rookies off on Blue Points: their large size makes for an easy grip. In addition to shell size, deep cups and super-hard shells make your shucker’s life a little easier.
Reciprocating Affection: Learn to Love Back
The oyster is ultra-nutritional, and they’re critical to marine health. Oysters help filter water in our coasts, harbors, and bays. And they’re recyclable, making them a perfect fit for the 21st century. Even collaborates with Sixpoint Brewery by collecting and handing off heaps of oyster shells that go into their briny Sixpoint Craft Ales John Dory Beer. Ringel recycles oyster shells to feed back to the reef in Chesapeake Bay via the Oyster Recovery Partnership of Maryland. And the Peconic Pearl oyster was recently launched at the Grand Central Oyster Bar, where 15 percent of proceeds go toward conservation, education, and research via the Noank Aquaculture Cooperative in Peconic Bay, Long Island.
Environmental (and rumored romantic) benefits aside, oysters are a meaty topic. For any chef who wants to go diving for more information, try Rowan Jacobsen’s Oyster Guide, or download Oysterpedia, the new iphone app from Manhattan’s Mermaid Inn.