The French eat oysters raw, serving them with lemon or wine vinegar.
On the Christmas or New Year's table in France, there will definitely be a dish with oysters. Wild and farmed, flat and deep, green and pearlescent, of various sizes from zero to five – the editorial team of RFI decided to sort through all these varieties. And also to understand how to open and prepare such a tasty bivalve mollusk.
“Waiter, a hundred oysters!” – that's how Balzac ordered his lunch. Henry IV is said to have eaten about twenty dozen in one sitting. But even today, the French have not lost their taste for oysters. Oyster farms produce about 100 thousand tons of mollusks per year, 98% of which are consumed by the French themselves, and about half of all French oysters end up on the table during the New Year holidays. December is the best time to get acquainted with all the varieties and learn how to serve them.
The island of Oléron is one of the most famous places in France (and therefore in the world) for oyster production. Here, after the oysters have grown to the required size, they are placed in artificial ponds – “claires.” Hence the name “fines de claire” (with a fine taste, from claires). But even before that, all oyster farmers, like Nicolas Verhoeven from the Huîtres Fonteneau farm, go to sea to select oysters for sorting. He brings bags of metal wire to the shore, and then the workers of the oyster farm calibrate and rearrange the shells.
Those that receive number 4 will be placed back in the sea to grow to caliber 3, number 3 will try to gain weight and become number 2, and number 1 no longer needs to grow – it will be placed in shallower waters, where there is less food. Only a few oysters will reach zero caliber (and even caliber denoted by two zeros). But they will all go to market in December: fish shops, as well as oyster bars – one of the main gastronomic trends of this year, opening all over France – require more and more oysters.
Hard to sort out the numbers? You just need to remember that the larger the oyster, the smaller its number. Zero, the largest, are quite rare. Fifth are the smallest. But don't rush to chase large ones. Small oysters also deserve a place on the table. For example, they are good as an aperitif.
But besides numbers, you also need to understand the different types. Of all the hundred (and even more) varieties of oysters living in seas, oceans, as well as lakes and rivers (yes, there are also freshwater oysters), true connoisseurs distinguish only two species. These are Crassostrea gigas (so-called deep) and Ostrea edulis (flat). It is these oysters that are bred by French farms in Normandy, Brittany, Charente, but also in the Mediterranean basin and other regions. They are also found in the wild. Whether they are flat or deep can be immediately understood by the shape of the box or basket in which they are sold: the former will be in round containers, and the latter in rectangular ones.
The difference between flat and deep also lies in origin and in the quantity found on French markets. Flat oysters are native Europeans; it was their great-grandmothers that adorned the tables of Roman emperors. It is the remains of their shells that archaeologists find in primitive caves: primitive man also loved to snack on oysters. And it was some flat oyster that decided the fate of Socrates, subjected to ostracism. The word “ostracism” itself comes from the word “oyster”: shells were used for voting.
But nowadays, flat oysters make up no more than 2% of all goods on the market: most European oysters died from an epizootic in 1967. They were replaced from the Pacific Ocean, from Japan, by deep oysters, which are called “fine,” “fine de claire,” or “spéciale.” “Fine” have a more iodized, salty taste, “spéciale” are more fleshy, their taste is rather sweet-nutty.
Understanding oyster calibers and their names is not enough. These are only the first steps in a huge world inhabited by oysters. Between the Belgian and Italian borders of France, you can encounter a whole palette of flavors. That means you need to go on a tasting journey, and perhaps hire yourself out to the owner of some oyster farm to turn over bags in the sea (this needs to be done almost daily).
The “oyster roads” laid out by tourism offices offer routes through oyster places. One road will lead you to Cancale, where flat oysters “pied de cheval” (horse's hoof) are found, reaching a weight of 500 g. Another will take you to Corsica, where in the Diana ponds lives the “nustrale” oyster with a characteristic pearly color and crunchy texture. It has lived here since 2500 BC.
At Christmas and during the New Year holidays, the oyster becomes the queen, if not of the ball, then at least of the table. To the point that fake oysters appear on the market, and real ones become objects of theft. Despite the fact that the gendarmerie conducts raids and oyster farm owners install video surveillance cameras, tens of tons of oysters disappear every year (10,000 tons in 2015 alone). The Gillardeau family, whose oysters are famous worldwide for their quality, began engraving shells with a laser. And recently, a young startup released an electronic spy oyster. It is placed among real mollusks; when moved, it “wakes up” and sends a signal to its owner's phone.
"People have loved oysters since the times when they were not far removed from monkeys, as evidenced by the fossilized remains of prehistoric kitchens," asserts American writer M.F.K. Fisher, author of "The Sentimental Biography of the Oyster." A creature without a head but with eyelashes, the oyster is elegant. It even has a mantle, very important to itself—this is the outer structure of its body—but also important to us. It is the oyster's mantle that we sprinkle with lemon or touch with the tip of a knife to check the freshness of the mollusk. The oyster is shy: touch it, and it draws in the edge of its garment.
Alternating between male and female, the oyster changes orientation every season. In summer it becomes milky—this is the breeding period. Hence the legend about months with the letter "r" and that oysters can only be eaten in months whose names contain that letter. Oyster farmers thus tried to deter eaters from oysters during the "milky" period and preserve future stock. Now this rule no longer applies. Baby oysters are the result of natural reproduction of wild specimens, while the oysters that end up on our plates are raised from these "babies" on farms. Eat as much as you like!
True, humans are not the only creatures in the world that love oysters. They are also enjoyed by the starfish, capable of breaking open a shell, as well as the sea bream or the oyster drill, which literally drills the oyster out of its shell. If a wild oyster manages to avoid all these troubles, it can live peacefully up to 15 years (we eat mollusks at about three years old, that is, quite young). Not surprisingly, this silent creature, living alone in the depths of the ocean, inspires poets. French poet Léon-Paul Fargue wrote of the oyster: "I adore oysters: it feels like kissing the sea itself on the lips."
The French eat oysters raw, serving them with lemon or wine vinegar with finely chopped shallot. Connoisseurs will prefer to grind pepper over the oyster once, while true purists will swallow it plain, "nature." Oyster openers (there is such a profession in France) advise against placing them directly on crushed ice, as it will prevent the flavor from opening up. It is better to place oysters on seaweed branches. They should be opened just before serving, but they can be bought several days in advance. After oysters have been placed in a box (the date is indicated on the box itself), they can be stored for up to ten days (in the refrigerator, covered with a damp towel).
An opened oyster should contain water. You can keep it or pour it out; the oyster will create new water. To open an oyster yourself, arm yourself with a short, thick knife with a sharp tip, as well as a chainmail glove—it will protect you from cuts.