Fresh oysters are a delicious treat and learning how to shuck oysters is a skill you'll need if you want to enjoy them at home. It is quite easy, once you figure out the force required.
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Instructions
1. Choose Your Tool
An Oyster Shucker (knife) is preferable.
A good oyster knife is specially designed for the task of opening raw oysters. It's the best way as the blade is short but very strong. A lot of the time it will have a hand guard at the base of the blade to protect hands from injury.
However, if you don't have one of these knives handy a flathead screwdriver works well - or even a butter knife.
2. Use something to hold the oysters
There are protective gloves you can buy online especially for oyster shucking, they protect you against the spiny shell of the oyster as well as from the blade you're using to open the oyster.
A cut-resistant glove is not absolutely necessary though, a clean kitchen towel will work or even an oven mitt.
3. Insert tool & slide twist to open the oysters
Insert the tip of the knife between the shells at the hinge point (the hinge of the oyster), or close to it.
Some oysters will naturally be more stubborn than others. Just inserting the knife and simply twisting will pop it open, other oysters you will have to work at it.
Hold the oyster flat side up, usually there is a flat side and a cupped side (top shell). You'll want to try to retain as much of that delicious oyster liquor (filtered sea water- natural juices) as it is full of flavor and will compliment the oyster meat.
4. All that's left is to enjoy!
Pry open shells and put the oysters on the half shell on a tray filled with ice, a bed of ice (bottom shells). Add some lemon wedges and sauces.
Here's a list of the usual sauces people enjoy with oysters:
- Horseradish
- Mignonette Sauce
- Cocktail Sauce
- Hot Sauce (Tabasco)
- Ginger & Lime Relish
- Squeeze of lemon
- Coarse Salt
Another way to get those oysters to pop open is to put them onto a hot grill for a minute.
The steam will get them to pop open, then you can quickly take them off without cooking the oyster. I haven't personally tried this way as I am used to the oyster shucker, but I've heard it works quite well.
How To Shuck Oysters [Video]
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Frequently asked questions: FAQ's
Oyster shuckers are really inexpensive. You can usually buy them from the Oyster House where you buy your oysters from, or buy them online. In fact, even Wal-mart sells them.
It's like an Oyster House really, it's a restaurant type of location where you can go to eat prepared oysters. It's their specialty.
A bushel of oysters (or a sack of oysters) usually holds approximately 100 oysters.
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