Oyster Knives
When you can’t get a locally made Dale German knife, these are the knives we recommend.
Oyster Knives
When you can’t get a locally made Dale German knife, these are the knives we recommend.
We love the Frenchman style knife. It looks sharp and is sharp. This knife is great for shucking a few dozen at home. It’s not a workhorse, it would much prefer to sip an espresso and puff on a cig but it will get small jobs done with class and ease. This is our favorite at home knife.
These knives are more of a “cutter” less of a “pry-er”. They get bad reviews on Amazon because people tend to snap the blades by prying open the shells. Remember to keep it gentle and sexy and you’ll be fine. If you like to muscle oysters open skip this style knife.
Another brand, Melocean makes a Set of two that are the same style as the Laguiole. These are a good option as well, because we all know it’s more fun to shuck with a partner than it is alone.
These knifes can take a rough ride. We use these in shucking competitions because they are built strong and less likely to break on you during important moments, like a hot date. Not as sexy as the frenchman but Bostonians have their charm.
The long blade is good for keeping your hands distant from sharp shell edges. Believe it or not, we cut our hands more on the shells than the blades.
New Haven Style
R Murphy is another great knife company that mostly specializes in wood working tools. The scooped tip knife is great for beginners to learn to scrape the oyster free from the cupped shell and the green handle is very comfortable. Level up to the wood handle or shuck with a pal at parties.
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HOW TO SHUCK AN OYSTER
HOW TO SHUCK AN OYSTER
TONG
A blog about oysters by Dylan Salmon.
TONG
A blog about oysters by Dylan Salmon.
empress selects & their 21 year old female grower
Oyster Farmer Bailey Coffin
It has been a while since I wrote a blog post and I have been recently inspired by a new oyster we have been shucking. The oyster is called Empress Select and when we first received them a few weeks ago I was immediately struck by their presence. Deep green, beautifully fluted and sturdy shells bear the mark only mother nature can achieve, I knew just by looking at them that these oysters spent most if not all of their lives uncaged, on the bottom of a healthy waterway. Upon shucking and tasting one we were delighted by the round brine and full sweet oysters inside.
I inquired our supplier at War Shore Oyster Co. today about this oyster as I could not find much online. They told me that these oysters are grown by 21 year old Bailey Coffin (pictured). To say oyster farming is a hard job would be an understatement and to find out that such a young person was growing these oysters was very inspiring to me. She grows her oysters out near Freeport, Maine which is set on Casco Bay.
Bottom-planted on the Harraseeket River, these oysters develop a rich brine, full of notes of dashi broth with good minerality and a hint of sea life. Tender and sweet with crisp adductor muscles the overall presence of these oysters reminds me of salty, fresh asparagus.
We are HUGE fans over here at Dylan’s Oyster Cellar and will keep buying these and selling them to you all as long as Bailey keeps growing them. My hat is off to her for working and thriving in such a competitive, cold and hard business. One of my favorite things about oysters is the human relationship that is behind each variety and how unique that is. Thank you to all of our fantastic oyster farmers!
Happy shucking,
Dylan
Honeysuckle Oysters & our trip to Martha’s Vineyard
Irene and I took a trip to Martha’s Vineyard last weekend for an oys-tour and seafood feast. Click on the pictures below to see a slide show of some of the highlights. We were super happy for good weather that day and grateful to Dave for offering to fly us up there.
The highlights of the trip were the lobster, the oysters and the people. I realized something while up there too, and that is how great the community is around seafood, a food that unites like minded folks, and highlights the human interaction with the food they raise.
An great example of this union is represented by our rediscovering of the Honeysuckle oyster. A bit of a back story first, we have been buying and selling Martha’s Vineyard oysters for almost a decade and I am very familiar with Katama Bays and the Honeysuckles from a pure taste and appearance standpoint. But it is quite different to go to the place and meet the people who work with these foods than it is to buy and sell from afar. What I discovered was a close nit community around seafood, one which admires and shows off the best of what they have to offer in an honest and unpretentious way.
We were sent to Net Result fish market by a friend of a friend in the oyster trade when we arrived on the island. While the market was nice we were timid and only ate some lobster rolls and left, not inquiring about oysters. Once in the parking lot though, I saw a gal loading oyster boxes into a pickup with a logo on the side that read: SHUCK SHACK. I was obviously drawn to them and approached the strangers inquiring about their business. I said my name is Dylan and I am from Baltimore, on the island for a day looking for oysters and the driver cut me off right there. He said, “I went to Boys Latin!” (my highschool’s rival school)…So that’s how I met Peety and we visited his spot and had oysters at the Shuck Shack. It is just as it sounds, a shack on a boardwalk by the water. We clurped a dozen Honeysuckles and half a dozen local raw clams. Peety talked our ear off and threw some free swag at us. It really made me begin thinking about how cool the oyster world is. He also told us we should go back to Net Result for oysters to take home, and said to drop his name to facilitate it.
After more traveling on the island and feasting on more seafood, we rounded back to the market to pick up 200 oysters at the market before we flew home. While there I chatted up the owner, Mike Holtman about Peety (both agreed he is a character) Honeysuckles and Katama bay. Mike told me about how the farmer of the Honeysuckles worked for the Katama Bay farmers and split off to start his own operation.
The oysters he raises are super well manicured, clean and profoundly sweet and salty. One of the most refreshing and clean oysters I’ve tasted, and they command a price to match their quality. I am currently pursuing all avenues to find out how to get more. The 200 we flew back with sold out the next day.
Happy shucking y’all and safe travels over the holiday weekend. If you are by the water as you travel don’t be afraid to talk to any grizzled oyster or salty water people, you never know where it might take you!
Dylan
Jacks Point - ME
January 27, 2021
Grown at Norumbega Farms, these surface cultured oysters have heavily fluted, thick, white grey and black shells housing a crisp, buttery meat with a full brine that doesn’t overwhelm with any sharp salinity. Available tonight for carryout, or dine in/outdoor!
These oysters are sooo good and it is hard to have just a few. The first impression is that it is going to be just salt and nothing else but that quickly gives way to a rich mineral umami taste and smooth sweet finish.
Jacks Points are grown by Eric Peters of Norumbega Farms (one of the best growers in Maine) as the signature oyster for War Shore Oyster Company. Owner, Brad Blymier and I have worked together for years in the oyster world, most recently in a supplier/buyer relationship and I sat down with him to pick his brain about Maine oysters a while back. The gist is that there are so many farms up there selling their products direct to oyster bars like Eventide in Portland, but few outside of that bubble had ever heard of let alone tasted any of them. Brad has been changing that, supplying us direct with the same, extreme high quality oysters here in MD.
War Shore also works with a lot of local farms (Battle Creek, Pungoteague, etc.) but their Maine connection has me really excited about the future of oyster farming not just in Maine but up and down the eastern seaboard.
Happy Shucking!
Dylan
Maine oyster farming boom
The Damariscotta River, and why I love its oysters…
The Damariscotta River in Maine has a long history of growing oysters up and down its lengths. Names like Pemaquid, Norumbega and Glidden Point have long been sought after oysters among aficionados and chefs alike due to their strong shells, crisp salty flavor and the allure/mystiqe that surrounds an industry that grows food in some of the coldest waters one can grow food in. The Damariscotta is very deep and combined with strong tidal surges makes for not only excellent oysters, but very chilly waters.
The consistency of these oysters has always been very high as well, owing to the quality of the river’s water and the people who farm it. Recently we have noticed more and more oyster names popping up from the same waters and all of them are of that same consistency, quality and salty goodness we all love from a Dam oyster.
With names like Whaleback, Otter Cove, Moondancer and Sugarloaf, these new farms are taking the newer farming methods and applying them to these legendary waters with huge success.
One of my favorites from this new list of farms is Jacks Point (pictured) which we have on the ice as often as possible.
Brad Blymier and Eric Peters (red hat) on the river, doing what they love, talking oysters.
Look at these Jacks Point shells!
January 2021 — Duxburys - Duxbury Bay, MA
I was so impressed with Duxbury oysters when I first tried them that I bought the book about oyster farming in Duxbury Bay, ‘Shucked’ by Erin Buyers Murray. Buy from Greedy Reads. The author decides to quit her job in the city and go work on the water for a winter. The job at Island Creek Oyster Farm in Duxbury Bay turns out to be much harder, colder and more brutal than she expected, although she ends up enjoying the experience.
This story of a person leaving their comfortable life to experience the process of bringing an oyster from the farm to a table inspired me a lot and helped nudge me down the path I am on today.
We got a new order of Duxburys in and they are exactly how I remember that first one. Beautifully fluted, thick, gray and white-striped shells give way to little pillows of sweet meat inside. The first flavor is pure, sharp ocean salt, followed quickly by artichoke and vegetal sweetness washed down with briny umami. Always a favorite at our bar, we got a fresh delivery of these amazing treats this week of 1/13/2021. Order online either pre-shucked by the half-dozen, or as bags of 25 Shuck at Home. Click Order Now above to try these beaut’s tonight!
Happy Shucking!
December 2020 — Chelsea Gems - Eld Inlet, WA
Grown by Shina Wysocki & Kyle Lentz in the Puget Sound are of Washington State, these deep-cupped and meaty little oysters are true expressions of their region, full of mineral flavors (flint & slate), vegetal notes (grass & cucumber) and the classic Pacific oysters’ buttery body. The owners of the farm are both from oyster farming families in the region but their emphasis on sustainable aquaculture sets them apart. Their grow out technique and local community support add to the appreciation of their product.
We just got more of these oysters in last week, and are awaiting our next shipment this week. When I was shucking them I was reminded of how unique and special these oysters are. These oysters are what I like to call a “Boutique Oyster” and by that I mean, they are grown by a small farm that takes a lot of time and gives a lot of attention to their oyster grow-out and harvest.
These little nuggets are gown using a tidal tumbling system that uses the strong tidal surges of the Puget Sound to tumble the bags of oysters twice a day, as they grow.
This tumbling action (think of a rock tumbler, but slower) not only smooths the shell and cleans the oyster of bio-fouling allowing them to eat freely and grow more uniformly, but it also breaks off the growing lip of the oysters shells. The oysters response to this is to repair that break and as this happens twice a day, over time they tend to “cup-up”. This makes the oyster shell form deep cups and a spiral shape, akin to the cornucopia. For a better understanding of the tidal tumbling grow out method, watch this video: https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs2R2mAY4uE&feature=emb_title
We will be selling these oysters in-house, shucked TOGO or or to take home and shuck yourself all week.
November 2020 —Sanctuary Salts - Assateague, MD
These are one of my favorite Maryland oysters, salty and crisp due to their seaside location, these oysters contrast the usual bayside-grown Maryland oysters you may be used to. Grown by Chuck Coleman at Johnson Bay Oyster Co. who says, “I grow my oyster on the surface, in bags with floats. Each oyster is hand sorted, washed and selected per client. The tide tumbles the oyster twice a day to perfection.” This grow-out method (although more labor intensive) produces a deeper cupped, smoother and thicker shelled oyster full of ocean brine and plump meat. Thanks Chuck!
He goes on to say,
“I have ocean water coming in and out every day, providing me all the salt I could ask for. The oyster is named Sanctuary Salt because the farm is located in the middle of a wildlife sanctuary here on the shore. My east view is the bayside of Assateague.”
These guys are doing it right, and you can taste the love they put into their oyster cultivation. I love them with a squeeze of lemon and a dollop of horseradish, with some cocktail sauce, or just straight up, naked! I always say to try one without any sauce first just to get a taste of the oyster. That’s the beauty of buying a bag to take home, you can get to know the oyster that much better.
When you shuck your own oyster and slurp it right out of the shell, the connection to our past as hunter-gatherers comes faintly back into view, our connection to the land and sea is remembered, and we begin to regain a lost, intimate relationship with our food. Shucking takes a bit of work, and can be dangerous, but that makes the reward that much sweeter, or in this case, saltier!
Thanks for reading oyster lovers! This is the first in a series of our new “Tong Oyster Blog” posts, highlighting the oysters we are selling TOGO for you to enjoy at home, in the park or by the fire, wherever YOU want. I will be including a new oyster featured each week and going over why I love that variety enough to feature it. We will also be going over tools, techniques and recipes as we go.
Speaking of tools, the knife featured below is a new favorite of mine, given to my by my brother. It is made by Laguiole and is certainly a looker of a knife. https://www.amazon.com/Baladeo-BALDUB097-BRK-Laguiole-Oyster-Knife/dp/B001US24YG While not crazy expensive, it is attractive enough to not be my usual work knife (more on that to come), but rather one I would pull out to impress and show off my shucking skills with some friends. The blade is in the “Frenchman” style, which means it is designed to cut rather than pry and is blunt along the one edge (like a pairing knife). The French shuck their oysters in a unique way, usually coming in from the side rather than the hinge. They also leave the oyster attached to the bottom shell when they serve them as a mark of freshness. However you want to serve them this knife is a pretty addition to any collection.
I hope you all order some Sanctuary Salts this week, order online by clicking “Order Online” above and schedule your pickup time there. As I said check back every week for our featured oyster and you can enjoy what I have Tonged up! Much love and happy shucking.