Post
by redzed » Sun Mar 31, 2013 07:23
After poaching in wine with a bit of garlic, fennel and rosemary, I simply drain them and lay them on frog mats and on racks in the smoker, placing them as high as possible from any heat source. I like to smoke them with apple but this last batch I used hickory and cherry and they were fine. I smoke them in the 130 to 140 range for a couple of hours, taking care not to dry out the smaller ones. For smoking you need the really big ones, lot bigger than the ones you eat raw. They shrink big time. After smoking, when still warm, I douse them with some nice olive oil. Oysters don't preserve well, whether they are raw or cooked. You have to eat them fresh, otherwise they have a strong off-flavour. I think that many people get turned off oysters for life because they tried one that was sitting around for a while.
I occasionally eat the odd one raw, but if I do so, I prefer the ones that spend all their time in the ocean. The ones we gather are out of water during low tides and we don't eat them in the summer either. This batch, however, was superb and I'll go and get more in a few days.