Raw Oysters

[Guittarman03]

Might be a dumb question, but are you supposed to eat the brown creamy stuff inside of Pacific oysters?  I don't think I've ever seen it in Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico oysters.  The jar (no preservatives, just oysters and water) said something about edible portion in the serving size info, but not much else.  I just ate 1/2 a pound, whole w/o cleaning out that stuff.  Hopefully it's not gonna kill me. 

[Carnál]

Might be a dumb question, but are you supposed to eat the brown creamy stuff inside of Pacific oysters?  I don't think I've ever seen it in Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico oysters.  The jar (no preservatives, just oysters and water) said something about edible portion in the serving size info, but not much else.  I just ate 1/2 a pound, whole w/o cleaning out that stuff.  Hopefully it's not gonna kill me. 

Those are pasteurized, aren't they?

[Guittarman03]

Good question.  I don't think so, b/c the jar says "raw edible portion."  Also I got on their website and it doesn't say anything about being pasteurized.  It says they are shucked, packaged, and shipped at 45 degrees F usually all on the same day.  The company is Ekone Oysters, at Willapa Bay.  www.ekoneoysters.com.  Still not sure if it's good to eat the insides.

[Carnál]

Good question.  I don't think so, b/c the jar says "raw edible portion."  Also I got on their website and it doesn't say anything about being pasteurized.  It says they are shucked, packaged, and shipped at 45 degrees F usually all on the same day.  The company is Ekone Oysters, at Willapa Bay.  www.ekoneoysters.com.  Still not sure if it's good to eat the insides.

    I don't know about Vegas, but where I live products like that are pasteurized.  It looks like yours are probably not.  By the way, your link didn't work.  Maybe you want to edit it, or you can get to their site from clicking your cursor here.  I would eat the whole thing.

[yon yonson]

hey, i've had raw oysters before and like em alot. but i want to start eating them more often. living in central texas isnt the best place for finding fresh oysters. does anyone get oysters from whole foods? i've found that whole foods has pretty much the same sources of fish regardless of where the store is. i mean i live somewhat near the gulf but i dont know if i want to eat a filter feeder from those tar-filled waters...

[goodsamaritan]

Just bought live oysters yesterday.
Absolutely delicious in the shell.
Much better than the bagged oysters I usually get.

[Josh]

There was some brown/cream stuff inside one of the oysters I got the other day. It seemed to be silt, so I chucked the oyster.

Not sure if you can eat it or not though.

[goodsamaritan]

http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/09/05/how-to-open-live-oysters/


How to open live oysters
Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 8:03 pm Posted in General Health, Nutrition, Parenting, Resources 0 Comments

Hah. Now I know how to open live oysters. My son’s request for live oysters paid off. 2 days ago we got live oysters and my cousin tried grilling them to open. I observed that it was hot stuff, hard stuff and it was cooking the oysters… not good… very bad technique.

After our first experiment with live oysters from Farmers Market my son asked me if I got a tummy ache, were the oysters safe? No, no tummy ache, oysters are safe to eat. This time I went to market and asked the market man to let me taste an oyster. He demonstrated and taught me how to open live oysters:

   1. Use your small knife and chip away at the edge of an oyster exposing its gap, opening.
   2. Use your small knife and jam it in and twist it to open the oyster.

Very very easy!

How to eat the live oyster.

You can leave it in the half shell and serve, some are still alive, you can see them moving.

You can slurp the half shell with your mouth like kissing it to suck at the juices and eventually eat the flesh of the oyster.

Oysters are very filling this way.  The bagged oysters have something lost in them.

You can also get a slice of lemon or calamansi and squeeze it on an oyster to disinfect it if you fear bacteria.

You can also use authentic vinegar like our sukang tuba (vinegar from coconuts) as the oysters can be dipped in for a minute and it will be “cooked” or disinfected by the vinegar.

Do not use those commercial fake manufactured vinegars.

http://www.myhealthblog.org/2009/09/05/how-to-open-live-oysters/

[TylerDurden]

Hi GS, please post that info on how to open raw oysters in the culinary creations/recipes forum(and make it a sticky topic). I'd thought I'd already posted re this but it wasn't in that forum, seemingly, so your contribution would be useful. I'll, later on, add another post to yours describing how to deal with live crabs, live mussels and live lobsters.

[William]

You can leave it in the half shell and serve, some are still alive, you can see them moving.

I don't remember seeing one move, but you know that it is alive and therefore fit to eat because they fight to keep the shell closed. If it opens easily, it's dead - don't eat it.

Oyster supply is seasonal where I live, and always in the shell. Only available in the months with an r in them, supposedly because warm water oysters can be diseased here.

[yon yonson]

so i just went to an oyster bar for my dad's birthday. had a dozen raw oysters from the gulf of mexico... i felt fine for a few hours after eating them. then things got interesting. projectile vomit, diarrhea, etc. big fun. i felt fine after getting everything out of there and feel fine this morning. it's the first time i've thrown up after eating raw animal food. not sure what it was exactly. apparently the gulf is pretty polluted...

anyways, this isn't supposed to discourage people from eating oysters, i most definitely will keep eating them, but just be careful of your sources i guess. i could tell after i ate the first one that they didn't taste nearly as palatable as the ones i've gotten from washington or the east coast

[RawZi]

    I should have told you, if I'd known you were about to eat it, that gulf seafood can be dangerous.  It's the only seafood that I ever got sick after (to my recollection) and I have a friend who gulf seafood is the only flesh that's ever made sick (it was very sick by the way).  The gulf DOES have bad pollution. 

    As an aside, I have thrown up from (raw) bivalves before, but I wouldn't call it sick what happened before.  I just threw up water (hadn't drank any) and felt fine after (and before).

    The only thing that made me projectile vomit was adrenals.  Actually it happened twice with adrenals.  I still think I need them, but have to get straight how to take them first.  I had eaten them plain.  Maybe I need to mix them with something?

   

[William]

   The gulf DOES have bad pollution. 

Seen from the Yucatan in 1983, the Caribbean is the usual beautiful clear blue of tropic sea, while on the other side of the peninsula, the Gulf water was milky.

[RawZi]

Seen from the Yucatan in 1983, the Caribbean is the usual beautiful clear blue of tropic sea, while on the other side of the peninsula, the Gulf water was milky.

    Thank you.  I have heard that one part is particularly bad.  I'm just going to avoid it for now.  I don't like to get sick.