Get you some slurpin’ good oysters this season

Hooray for the “R” months and the oysters they bring us. Oysters are among my favorite seafood delights. 

You might say that oysters are one of those foods that should just be savored…without putting too much analytical thought into the juicy-goo of it.

 

A wild and zany guy named Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) of Dublin, Ireland, once suggested: “He was a bold man who first ate an oyster.”

 

Jonathan Swift

Some historians suggest the quotation attributed to Swift was “cleverly borrowed from King James I” (1566-1625), who once said: “He was a very valiant man who first adventured on eating of oysters.”

Jeremy and Carol Stevens of Simply Oysters & Seafood in London, England, tell us that oysters have been around since the days when dinosaurs roamed – some 200 million years ago. 

“Archaeological evidence shows traces of scorch marks on ancient oyster shells consistent with fire,” according to the Stevenses. “This suggests that humans placed oysters on the embers of a fire or heated stones, and then cooked them for a few minutes until the oyster shells popped open.” 

“Jonathan Swift overcame his fear of oysters to become an enthusiastic advocate of oysters,” they said. “In Swift’s most famous book, ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ (1726), the main character became shipwrecked at Lilliput, where he collected and ate oysters on the beach.” 

“Swift even penned instructions on how to boil oysters: ‘Take oysters, wash their shells clean, then put the oysters into an earthen pot, then put the pot into a kettle of water, and let them boil. Your oysters are boiled in their own liquor and not mixed with water.”

Swift also wrote an amusing short poem about oysters that begins:

Masters come buy,

So plump and so fresh

So sweet in their Flesh,

No Colchester Oyster,

Is sweeter and moister,

Your Stomach they settle,

And rouse up your Mettle.

Swift was quite fond of poking fun at the British people. They believe the Colchester Oyster has no rival. The Colchester Native Oysters come from Mersea Island in Essex County, England, and are dredged from the River Blackwater and the River Colne.

Swift and all other Irishmen believe the best oysters are those found near Galway, a harbor city on Ireland’s west coast, which sits where the River Corrib meets the Atlantic Ocean.

Christopher Joyce, science correspondent with National Public Radio, said the first “oyster dinner” by humans may have occurred in caves at Pinnacle Point on the southern coast of South Africa. He cited research conducted by Dr. Curtis Marean, an anthropologist at Arizona State University. 

Dr. Curtis Marean

Stuart Walton, a science writer in Brighton, England, said Dr. Marean’s findings may mean that oysters “actually saved mankind and hastened our evolution from beast to man.”

“Was the first human to eat an oyster fearless or starving? Neither,” Walton said. “Any revulsion for, or fear of oysters, is a modern construct from people who wear shirts, skirts and suits. The reality is that our ancestors would have gorged themselves on oysters every chance they got.” 

“The oyster is one of nature’s most bountiful foods, rich in minerals, protein, vitamin D, zinc, iron and copper as well as possessing high levels of vitamin C, phosphorus, niacin and riboflavin. But it doesn’t stop there. They’re also rich in beneficial antioxidants, healthy cholesterol and omega-3 fatty acids. Besides, oysters are easy to harvest and so soft that they’re easy to eat for all age groups.”

 

The Greeks and Romans considered oysters to be a delicacy. In Greek mythology, Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, emerged from a foamy sea on an oyster shell. The Greeks became the first to cultivate oysters by scattering “broken pottery pieces where oysters grew to get the oyster babies to attach.” 

During the 19th century, oysters were sold at every street corner in London. Oysters were also very popular with bars since they were seen as a cheap food to serve alongside liquor and beer. Such establishments came to be known as “oyster saloons,” and the popularity soon extended to America’s large northern cities.

 

Like many 19th century groceries, the Dughi Store in Raleigh featured an oyster saloon.

In the most of the South, the term became “oyster house,” said Robert F. Moss of Charleston, S.C., an author of numerous books on Southern food and drink.

 

“Being on the coast with an active port, Charleston was the heart of oyster-eating in the Carolinas before the Civil War,” Moss said. “Hundreds of bushels of oysters came into Charleston from Beaufort, N.C.”