The reality TV show I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
is justifiably popular in the UK. Set in Australia, the contestants live in a
basic camp and we viewers see edited versions of their conversations and other
interactions. To boost their diet of rice and beans, selected individuals compete
in “Bushtucker Trials” that involve something very unpleasant, like having
large numbers of cockroaches, mealworms etc. thrown over them in a confined
space (see below). Until the last series, the trials most popular with the
viewing public were those involving the eating of animal body parts and also
live insects. The latter torture has now been banned as it is perceived by some
as being cruel; yet eating live animals is encouraged elsewhere – take the case
of oysters.
Oysters are bivalve molluscs that produce a feeding current
using enormous numbers of tiny hairs, or cilia, that are present on the gills.
This current has a dual function as it evolved from the respiratory current, particles
trapped on the surface of the gill then being transferred to the mouth by other
tracts of cilia. To aid retention, oysters, like other bivalves, produce mucus,
or slime, on the gills and particles captured are thus bundled up into packages
from which nutritious material can be selected by an ingenious sorting mechanism
using the lips (labial palps) around the mouth.
The two shell valves are joined by a hinge and a muscle runs
from one shell valve to the other and this serves to close the oyster if it is
exposed to the atmosphere, when attacked, or not feeling. Sea water is trapped when
the shell valves are closed and this prevents damage to the soft body tissues.
When we buy oysters, they have frequently been out of water for hours, so the content
of the water is changed by the addition of mucus and excreta, although not at
levels that poison the mollusc.
The classic way to open oysters is to shuck them and this is
shown in the video [1]. Note that both the hinge and adductor muscle (between
the shell valves) are cut, but no reference is made to the oyster being alive and
that the water + excreta are referred to as the liquor. The flavour of the
liquor is an important part of eating oysters and there are debates over whether
one should chew the animals or crush them against the palate using the tongue.
Fortunately, the molluscs are often served on a bed of ice so, at least, their
metabolism is reduced, even if they are sometimes sprayed with dilute acid
(lemon juice).
For those who do not like the idea of eating live animals,
there are many recipes for cooking, and preserving, oysters and that is not a surprise,
when they were such a common food, and not the luxuries that they have become
today. Cooking also serves to kill bacteria that might otherwise cause intestinal
disorders in those eating them: something that may have been common when
oysters were collected from areas where there was a high level of pollution.
Lovell [2] gives many recipes for cooking oysters and they
can be listed. Some involved rapid killing of the molluscs, others did not:
Oyster soup (7 recipes)
Oyster sauce (4 recipes)
Oyster atlets – with sweetbreads
Curried oyster atlets
Curried oysters
Stewed ousters (6 recipes)
Dutch oysters – coated in breadcrumbs
and fried
Fried oysters (6 recipes)
Oyster ragout (2 recipes)
Grilled oysters
Oysters broiled the Dutch way
Roast oysters (3 recipes)
Ostras รก la Pollada
Boiled oysters
Oyster sausages (2 recipes)
Minced oysters
Oyster forcemeat
Oysters and chestnuts
Oyster steak
Scalloped oysters (3 recipes)
Oyster fritters
Oyster loaf
Oysters and macaroni
Oyster pie (3 recipes)
Oyster and eel pie
Oyster and parsnip pie
Pickled oysters (4 recipes)
Oyster powder (2 recipes)
Oysters on toast (2 recipes)
Oyster ketchup
Oysters au gratin
An impressive list, and gourmets among you should refer to
Lovell [2] for descriptions of how to prepare oysters for each dish. Its length is a
reflection on the importance of these molluscs in the diet of many European nations
(and beyond) in earlier centuries.
Arguably, the most interesting way of preparing oysters is
described thus by Lovell [2]:
The oldest way of cooking an
oyster, of which we have any mention, is that recorded by Evelyn, who, in the
year 1672, saw Richardson, “the famous fire-eater”, perform wondrous feats, one
of which was, “taking a live coal on his tongue, he put on it a raw oyster; the
coal was blown on with bellows, till it flam’d and sparkl’d in his mouth, and
so remained till the oyster gaped, and was quite boil’d.” Who ate the oyster
thus cooked, we are not informed.
Anyone fancy trying that?
[2] M.S.Lovell (1884) The Edible Mollusca of Great
Britain and Ireland, with Recipes for Cooking them (Second Edition).
London, L.Reeve & Co.
