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How to Cook Oysters

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 "true oysters" are the members of the family Ostreidae, and this includes the edible oysters, which mainly belong to the genera Ostrea, Crassostrea, Ostreola or Saccostrea. Examples are the Edible Oyster, Ostrea edulis, the Olympia Oyster Ostreola conchaphila, and the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica.

They can be canned, eaten raw or cooked. When caught, like all shellfish they have an extremely short shelf-life. They should be fresh when consumed or serious illness can result. Additionally, oysters can host various illness-causing pathogens. Therefore, consumption of raw oysters should be done with caution. Researchers in Oregon have invented a self-shucking oyster.

Scalloped Oysters
One hundred oysters, a baker's loaf crumbed, four eggs boiled hard; salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Chop the eggs very fine and mix with the crumbs, which season highly with cayenne and salt. Cover the bottom of a deep pie-dish with the eggs and crumbs; then with a fork, place layer of osyters with two or three small pieces of butter, and so continue until all are in, reserving sufficient crumbs for the cover For those who like it, a little mace may be added. Bake in a quick oven three-quarters of an hour. Serve hot.

Panned Oysters
Take fifty large oysters, remove every particle of shell which may adhere to them, put them in to a colander and pour over a little water to rinse them. After letting them drain, put them into a stewpan with a quarter of a pound of butter, salt' black and red pepper to taste. Put them over a clear fire, and stir while cooking. As soon as they commence to shrink remove them from the fire, and send to table hot in a well (covered) heated dish.

• Breaded Fried Oysters

• Stewed Oysters

To Pickle Oysters
Drain off the liquor from one hundred oysters, wash them and put to them a table-spoonful of salt and a tea-cup of vinegar; let them simmer over the fire about ten minutes, taking off the scum as it rises; then take out the oystres and put to their own liquor a tablespoonful of whole black pepper and a teaspoonful of mace and cloves; let it boil five minutes, skim and pour it over the oysters in a jar.

To Spice Oysters
One hundred oysters, one dozen cloves, two dozen allspice, mace, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste.
Strain the liquor through a sieve, put it in a saucepan, and add the oysters, spice, pepper, salt, and half a pint of cider vinegar. Place them over a slow fire, and as soon as they boil take them off. Pour them into a large bowl and set them away to cool. When cold cover them close.

Oysters Kilpatrick
Oysters Kilpatrick can be made in one of 2 ways. To begin you need to make the Kilpatrick sauce which is 1 part Tomato Sauce to 1 part Worcestershire Sauce which is throughly mixed together. The next step is to finely dice bacon into small pieces which is then placed over the raw oysters. Once the bacon pieces are placed over the oystesr quite generously, then pour the Kilpatrick sauce over the top of the oysters and bacon. Now the oysters can be placed in a oven proof frying pan with a stable base for the yosters and baked at a moderate temperate (180 degrees Celcius) until the oysters are firm to the touch and bacon is crispy. The oysters can also be placed in a tray under a grill with a high heat until firm and bacon is crispy. Serve the Kilpatrick oysters with either lemon wedges or additional Kilpatrick sauce.

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the Wikibooks article "How To Cook Oysters".