Not going to recommend eating oysters outside of R months but if you see Chincoteague oysters from VA or Blue point from NY you are in for a treat. This time a year I would cook whatever you get but thats my opinion ( I don't eat them in the warmer months). If it were in a colder month, an oyster shooter, baby! https://hoopersisland.com/recipe/oyster-shooters/
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The current situation in Neptune Beach
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I got these for someone that has shuckin' parties every year. They worked great and the price is right.... AmazonSmile: ZYLISS Oyster Tool and Knife Set, Shucker: Home & KitchenComment
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Love raw oysters and clams too.Comment
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I often set some on the Fire box when I have some meat in the chamber. When they pop open, grab your grill glove -drain- shuck -shot of hot sauce -wash it down with Vienna Lager-repeatComment
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We do them on the gas grill as I find its easier to control the heat. We mix some butter and minced garlic and put a small dab in the oyster. Then add a handful of monterey jack cheese (can do different types works too) to the top and we add about 3 jalapenos to the top and when the cheese is melted we are good to go. Make another adult beverage and enjoy. Sorry no pics.Comment
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Here in Charleston we love a basic french mignonette sauce made with shallots and red wine vinegar drizzled over fresh raw oysters:
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons finely minced shallot
Pinch of sugar
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Best to make it a day or two in advanceComment
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Great thread, pics and recipes.
Love raw (and cooked) oysters. My preference is oysters from the North - cold water oysters. No gulf oysters. And just the naked bivalve, natural brine, tear drop of lemon and a kiss of horseradish.....
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Raw oysters were awesome… back when I ate them…
Used to eat them while trout fishing… back 50 years ago…
Then a family friend bout died from them, while on vacation in Alabama… He was on dialysis till he passed…
Oysters filter water… and the water they live in isn’t potable…
We normally eat oysters fried, stewed or roasted…
Roasted is my favorite because of the wood smoke and event atmosphere…
I have the roaster I built 40+ years ago out at the BBQ pit area, although it is more often with fire in it than under it…
I no longer live on the Georgia Coast where I knew the oyster picker personally and frequently had oyster roasts in the cool-water months of September thu March… But we will, on occasion, bring a croker sack back to the mountains, for a roast…
I like them fire roasted till they crack open, then shoveled out on the table.
I keep a bottle of Tabasco in the top pocket of my overhauls…. They should already be salty…
The Tabasco bottle should have the top off for one handed use while walking around to make sure other tables aren’t getting better singles than your table…
The top pocket also holds your oyster knife when not in use…
Never set your favorite oyster knife down, because it will be stolen…Attached FilesLast edited by Washblue; May 22, 2022, 10:47 AM.Comment
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I remember back in the 70’s when we could drive on the beach next to Anastasia State Park in St Augustine. We would surf at a spot called "Blow Hole" and for grinds (lunch) we would drag a clean trash can over the dunes and harvest oysters in Salt Run. Lunch was served on the hood of a ‘68 Chevy Impala with front wheels almost in the Atlantic Ocean. Cracked raw on the hood, dipped in the ocean to clean them, on a saltine with a dab of tabasco, and washed down with a beer! It was very important not to take a nap after that with an incoming tide! 😁😎😛Comment
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The best way is just with lemon and hotsauce...Comment
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I love raw oysters. A few bad experiences with cooked oysters and clams early on made me very apprehensive to try them any more at all, but I eventually tried raw oysters and was hooked (haven't had raw clams but I did eventually try some cooked ones again and they were great). Raw will always be my favorite, but I have dabbled in cooking them. Raw ones can be a texture shock, so if you are serving them to someone who hasn't had them before you may want to go with cooked first.
As far as selection goes, I personally stay away from gulf oysters, or really any oysters farther south than NC (or up to SC in the winter) on the east coast. The "no oysters in the warmer months" thing isn't necessarily true. You don't want them coming from really warm water, but many places the water temp is plenty low enough even in summer to prevent the issues people worry about. Of course this assumes you will have a choice of where they come from, which you CAN order some if you wish but it will likely be more expensive. We went to San Juan Island, WA one year in the summer and went to one of the oyster catchers there to buy some super fresh. The water there in June was still pretty chilly. This is also where I tried cooking them for the first time. In any case, make sure the shells are closed. Oysters actually last a good bit out of the water as long as they are refrigerated. A definite rule is if they smell bad when you open them and/or are dried out then chuck it.
An important note about storing in the fridge: give them plenty of air, don't keep them in a plastic bag, or if you do so that they don't leak in the fridge, open the bag and roll it down so they have plenty of air. Also don't put them in fresh water.
Prepping: make sure you get a *good* shucking knife. Cheap ones break easy and don't allow you to get the leverage to pop the hinge. Others have already mentioned the cut resistant gloves, but even with those I use a towel. You have to put a lot of pressure on them to get in there properly and a slip and a pointy knife tip into a glove still hurts a lot.
Use a stiff brush or a scotch pad to scrub the outsides to remove dirt and bottom of the oven stuff. Make sure to get the hinge area well.
If it is your first time shucking be sure to give yourself a lot of extra time. It still takes me forever to shuck a dozen. If you break one don't sweat it, just roll with it. You can still eat it.
Also, try to keep as much of the juice (known as "liquor") as possible as it has a good briny taste.
End game: raw is easy. Some hot sauce, some cocktail sauce (I prefer the heavy horseradish kind, Kelchner's is the best), maybe some added horseradish on the side (again, gonna plug the Kelchner's as they are one of the few I can actually taste and feel like you're supposed to), and some lemon. Wanna get fancy? Make a mignonette as mentioned before. Personally I like just a little lemon and hot sauce most of the time as I like to taste the different oysters. I will usually eat one or two with nothing or only a little lemon at first to taste the oyster itself. I love salt and one of my favorites is Olde Salt from Virginia. I can eat those all day.
My favorite way to cook them is...surprise surprise...on the grill. Like back on San Juan Island, I did a pretty simple sauce I added to the shell. It was basically a little butter, some white wine (dry, like Pinot grigio), fresh minced garlic, a little shallot, a little salt, and pepper. Loaded a little bit of this in each shell and popped on the grill on medium heat. As they cooked a little spilled out and they got a nice flambe. After maybe 8 mins or so they looked cooked and I pulled them. They were pretty amazing! Just make sure you err on the side of undercooked vs overcooked, just like with all shellfish.
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Well, we made some mussels (cooked) with a garlic and parsley sauce which was excellent and then we served it again the next day with pasta.
Next we are going to do oysters (wild Atlantic) both raw (with some kind of cocktail sauce as many here suggested) and cooked and add some scallops. I hope it all becomes a repeat request in our place.
Thanks for all of the advice.Comment
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We love them raw but on occasion we opt for some chargrilling. We add a little garlic butter, a good handful of monterey jack with a couple jalapenos on top. Leave on the grill until the cheese starts to melt, get another adult beverage and enjoy!Comment
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I like raw oyster, but oysters Rockefeller is 2nd. Try rolled oysters, or regular fried oysters tossed in buffalo sauce in a po-boy. Lots of optionsComment
If so it was PJ that recommended them 
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