We had over 500 oyster lovers Saturday and the temp. was just nice for the roast. Thank everyonel for been there, we all had a great time and there was plenty of oysters left on the tables at closing.
For those not familiar with oysters, raw and roasted.
Most if not all of these oysters sold locally are grown in cages or bags. They grow in the water colum, surface or about 6-8" off the bottom, the oysters that are used as raw oysters are grown more or less on the surface and are "cleaner" inside and out and saltier than the ones grown near the bottom. You can tell just by looking at an oyster shell where they have been all their life. In general, raw oysters are harder to open than roasted but a roasted oyster that did not get enough heat will be just as hard to open. Now I am going to "get in the weeds" a little, I like them all but I my opinion a raw oyster that was taken from the surface is much more salty and tastier than one taken from close to the bottom if taken from the same general location but that is ONLY my opinion. Thanks again!
I'll go a little deeper and say that oysters that are near the surface that get a regular "sun cycle" are tastier. Also VA oysters from higher up in the bay are less salty than oysters from the lower bay and western shores.
In NC the same thing applies to oysters grown nearer the inner banks , swan quarter and the Neuse and the Pamlico river and those further out in the sound.
I will recommend you try smoking oysters. Our neighbor turned us onto them ( actually all he did was smoke them and the smell drew us over there to ask what it was). Simply open the oysters put them on a tray and mix up butter a stick of butter 2 tsp of your favorite hot sauce 1 tsp of garlic and mix and add to each oyster then smoke for 1 hr at 225 degrees using light wood like apple or cherry. Take out and serve immediately
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