Heyo!
This past Father’s Day, my Dad asked me to do something unpleasant; something that I don’t ever do unless a loved one asks nicely. He asked me to shuck oysters.
I opened oysters for years at a seafood restaurant in Austin, Texas—absolutely devastating my supple, 27-year old hands with rough cuts and callouses from gripping thousands of sharp, stony Gulf oysters. Shucking is a job for people who like pain. It hurts the palms, fingers, and wrists. It’s thankless grunt work; the type of repetitive task you’d give to prison inmates if it didn’t involve assigning a knife.
With all the labor required, you’d think all oysters are precious and delicious. But, sometimes, oysters just suck. Oftentimes you get a brittle, weak batch of oysters, usually from your local grocery store conglomerate. Cheap oysters taste as such—bland and somewhat dry. And although Gulf oysters can be great in the Winter, in the Summer they too feel flat and flavorless. Sometimes an oyster just needs to be grilled.
Quality Seafood in Austin took after the oyster houses in New Orleans—namely Drago’s and Acme—and started grilling their oysters after years of only serving them raw. I was part of this new initiative in 2013. The restaurant built a shiny new oyster bar fit with two giant, flat steel grills and built-in cooler space. Two cavernous sinks were installed to be filled with buckets of crushed ice and fresh oysters, and me, the shucker, hunched over them using a flat knife to twist and pry open these ugly rocks. Occasionally I share this video below, filmed years ago, where I go back to my old job and shuck:
Grilled oysters are beautiful, and are a solid alternative to raw ones. Especially in the Summer. In my podunk Pennsylvania hometown good oysters are just non-existent. I much prefer the clean, fresh taste of a West Coast Kumamoto or Shigoku oyster, but those are hard to come by in Amish town. The local Giant Eagle did have briny Malpeque oysters from Prince Edward Island, and though they weren’t of the highest quality, they did the job. Raw, they were salty and briny. Grilled with butter, garlic, and herbs, however, they became rich and fatty bivalve bombs. If you’re not a fan of raw oysters, I highly recommend the grilled variety. My Dad requested raw oysters for Father’s Day, but he instantly became a bigger fan of these garlic butter grilled Malpeques.
Shuck for the ones you love.
Garlic Butter Grilled Malpeque Oysters
Ingredients
2 dozen Malpeque oysters, shucked
2 1/2 sticks of salted butter, cut into two tablespoon chunks
1 head of garlic, diced
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano, chopped
2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
2 cups of grated Pecorino Romano, such as Genuine Fulvi
Step 1:
In a small sauce pot, melt 1 stick of butter over medium heat. Add the garlic, and cook for 2 minutes, or until fragrant. Next, add the thyme, oregano, and parsley. Stir, and continue to add the other chunks of butter until everything is melted and incorporated. Should take about 5 minutes.
Step 2:
Preheat the grill until it is very hot, about 400 degrees. Place each oyster on the grill closely together. Close the lid, and cook for 4 minutes.
Step 3:
Using a spoon, scoop a tablespoon or so of the butter mixture onto each oyster, close the lid and charbroil the oysters for 3-4 minutes. Add more butter as needed (when I cook grilled oysters it almost feels like butter basting.) Sprinkle the oysters with the Pecorino cheese and grill for 1-2 more minutes until bubbly and the cheese is melted. The oysters should look darkly golden.
Carefully transfer the oysters to your platter with a pair of tongs. Serve with grilled bread and lemon wedges.
The Move is always grilled oysters, friend. Hey, if you want to subscribe, that would be rad. I drop posts on Mondays and Thursdays, and occasionally take a Thursday off. After a month passes, each post becomes locked. So, if you upgrade to a paid subscriber, you unlock dozens of posts from the past year. That includes recipes, restaurant reviews, and other stories.
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I absolutely love oysters, but if you’re going to get oysters — and especially if you’re going to eat them raw — you might as well get the best ones you can find. Island Creek Oysters (out of Duxbury, MA) will overnight oysters pretty much anywhere in the US for not too much more than you’d buy them at a restaurant.
I grew up on Gulf oysters (Apalachicola) and while I agree they’re good in the winter, the colder year round waters of New England make for a better oyster 11/12 months!