Oysters


 

Thom Tomlinson

TVWBB Member
I'm actually looking for a bit more than a recipe. I know how to grill oysters, shuck 'em and eat 'em raw, and about a dozen other ways to eat 'em. Has anyone had good experience with oysters and the beloved WSM?

I'm picking up a bushel tomorrow and plan to cook them Saturday.
 
Not on the WSM, but on a kettle. It would be similar (and easier!) on the WSM.

Shuck them. Save the concave shells. Marinate them in a mix of half evoo and half lemon juice with a little salt, and spices/herbs of your choice. (You can make different bowls of the base with different flavoring combos if you like--a simple curry is nice, a mignonette pepper blend is good--be creative!). Marinate 30 min or so. Put each oyster back on a half-shell. Drip a little of its marinade on it. Smoke at 225 or so till cooked, about 40-65 min (this depends on oyster size).

I used apple or lemon wood.
 
OK, I'm just downright envious.

I live in Cactus Central and remember the days of fresh oysters. This has me completely salivating!!!

Thom -- I hope this comes out for your eating guests. A bushel would be difficult (not impossible) for one!
 
Thom,

I have not tried oysters on WSM yet - but will share my favorite recipe for oysters and with your experience, you can modify as you wish and probably do on your grill.

I take oysters on the half shell and arrange them on a broiler pan and top each oyster with about 1/2 teaspoon of blue cheese and then drizzle Absolute Citron vodka over them, and broil until the edges start to curl. Delicious! I call them Blue Oysters!

Ray
 
Ray I love the idea about the vodka! Any excuse to buy a bottle of Absolute...
As for the bushel Jimbo, I may pick up two. If I start smoking with only a bushel my friends will never see an oyster! My son wants to "help" me with the oyters. Loosely translated, he wants to be there when they get done so he can taste them (and try to sneek a few off the smoker).
 
y I love the idea about the vodka! Any excuse to buy a bottle of Absolute


Chef Thom,

The Absolute Citron is a must. I tried these once with Smirnoff vodka and freshly squeezed lemon juice and they were definitely not as good. Also, a side benefit is that the Absolute Citron over ice is a nice "accompaniment".

Ray
 
A load of oysters went down last night!! They were from Louisianna and were as tasty as any I've had recently.

We placed the oysters on a sheet pan, covered them with a wet towel and placed them in a 325F grill over indirect heat. After about 20 minutes we opened them up and placed one of four sauce/marinades in the shell with the oyster. They then went to the smoker which had recently received a dose of alder wood (250F).

Decorum prevents me from saying D#%n they were good!

The sauce/marindaes:

2 parts Yam Good Sauce (Sweet barbecue sauce made with Yams - da!) + 1 part Q sauce (my vinegar based Q sauce)

1 part evoo + 1 Part lemon juice + basil

1 part evoo + 1 Part lemon juice + rosemary

1 part evoo + seasoned vinegar (seasoned for one year with cayenne peppers and garlic) + basil + rosemary + cilantro

The first and last ones were the favs of my guests. There were close to 150 oysters. Six adults ate all but about 20 of the oysters. We'll finish them off today as an appetizer before our suprise guest meal tonight (a friend is grilling a whole tenderloin).
 
Nice feast! You put on quite the spread for your guests.

I really like the sound of that last sauce. Did you start with distilled vinegar or cider?
 
That one was with distilled. I will on occasion use apple cider vinegar but prefer distilled white vinegar. I have an old scotch bottle (the bottle is round) filled with vinegar and habaneras. The bottled has been 'aging' for three years this July! I plan to make a Q sauce using the vinegar to celebrate its reaching three ;-)
 
Now, if I had only had the foresight last year to start a pepper vinegar. Well, another year won't go by with that mistake!

Thanks for recipe & motivation.
 
Jimbo--

Don't let the lack of foresight stop you. If your making a flavored vinegar using an already made vinegar as a base there's a limit to how far aging will go, and it's not very long. There's only so much flavor extraction possible. When you make vinegar from scratch from wine or fruit juice aging is important. Depending on what I'm going to add to it I use cider, white wine, red wine, or rice vinegar when making a flavored vinegar.
 

 

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