00:00Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with Oysters for Beginners.
00:08That's right, I'm going to show you how to open and serve oysters like a pro, even if
00:12you've never done them before in your life.
00:14And this is actually something I struggled with for a long time, before I learned this
00:18easy game-changing technique.
00:21But before we get to that, let me show you the one tool you must have to make all this
00:25possible.
00:26And that would of course be an oyster knife, which usually has a nice big fat handle attached
00:31to a relatively short, very dull blade.
00:35But we still need to be careful, since even though these edges aren't sharp, the very
00:38point at the end sort of is.
00:41And by the way, these come in two styles.
00:43Ones with a perfectly straight blade, and then ones like this that have a little bit
00:46of a curve at the end, which is the type I prefer.
00:50And then before we harmony oysters, let me show you the key movement to this technique,
00:54which is once we place the tip of the knife in the right spot on the oyster, we're going
00:58to pivot the knife back and forth like this, keeping that blade perfectly flat.
01:02Okay, what we're not going to do, until the appropriate time, is twist the knife like
01:07this, and at no point in the operation will we be moving the knife up and down, trying
01:12to pry it open like this.
01:13Oh no, this is the movement, until we push it in far enough to do anything else.
01:19So let's go ahead and grab an oyster and try this out.
01:22And what we want to do is place this on a towel, with the flat side of the oyster up.
01:26Right, that's the top, and that rounder cup-shaped shell is the bottom.
01:31And then the key spot we're looking for is this little notch at the point of the oyster,
01:36where the two shells come together, which is exactly where we're going to place the
01:39tip of our knife to start.
01:41And then we'll fold the towel over like this, and with our knife positioned so it's curving
01:45up, we will place the tip of the knife right in that little notch, and once we find that
01:50spot, we'll start using that back and forth motion I just showed you, and slowly but surely,
01:55that tip's going to work its way in, and once we've penetrated about 3-8ths of an inch,
02:00at that point, and only at that point, can we twist the knife back and forth, and you
02:05will feel that hinge pop as the top shell separates.
02:08And that's it, the hardest part is over.
02:10Oh, and please note those particles of shell that are produced when we do this.
02:14Alright, that stuff's also going to be on the knife, so make sure you keep wiping that
02:18on your towel, so it doesn't get in the oyster, and then what we'll do is turn our knife so
02:22the tip is curving down, and we will slide it in the opening, and basically scrape it
02:28flat across that top shell, which is going to separate it from the oyster, and it should
02:32pop right off, and then once we have what we call in the business, an oyster on the
02:37half shell, we'll want to make sure we remove any little bits of the shell that might be
02:40on there, but as you're doing this, do not tip the shell, like I just did, since that
02:46juice is precious, not to mention very delicious, and we don't want to even waste one drop,
02:52so please be very careful of that, and once we've made sure there's no little bits of
02:56shell on the oyster, we only have one thing left to do, which is cut through that muscle
03:00in the bottom of the shell, which is very obvious and easy to find, and with our knife
03:05curved in the same direction as the shell, we'll simply slide that along the bottom until
03:10that's released, at which point, for presentation's sake, I do like to flip the oyster, again
03:16being very careful not to spill any of those precious juices, and while that's optional,
03:21depending on the oyster, that generally looks nicer, so you decide, but anyway, that's one,
03:28let's go ahead and try another one, and for this one, I won't use such slow, exaggerated
03:32movements, although when we start one, it is worth spending a few seconds to make sure
03:37we're finding that perfect spot to put the knife in, and then once the tip of our knife
03:41is in the deepest part of that notch, we will swing our knife back and forth a few times,
03:47applying a firm, steady pressure, and once that tip's in far enough, we will twist, and
03:52that hinge will pop, at which point, just like the first one, we'll turn our knife over,
03:57and slide it under the top shell, and again, make sure you clean your knife off on the
04:01towel before you do that, and speaking of remembering, once that top shell's removed,
04:07do not, under any circumstances, forget to cut through that muscle on the bottom of the
04:11shell, otherwise, your guests are going to pick up an oyster, and tip it into their mouth,
04:16and it's going to be stuck, and they're going to have oyster juices running down their chin,
04:20which I will admit's a little bit funny, but very bad customer service, so do not forget
04:25that last, very important step, and again, you don't have to, but I do like to flip these
04:31over, since the underside always tends to look a little bit better to my eye, and that's
04:36it, I'm going to go ahead and slurp that one down, without anything on it, like the oyster
04:40purists recommend, although having said that, let me go ahead and show you how to make the
04:45classic raw oyster condiment, which is called menu nut sauce, and for that, we will take
04:51a shallot, and we will slice a little bit off the top, at which point, we'll cut it
04:56in half, right through the center of the root end, at which point, we'll peel the skin
05:00off, as well as any of the outer layers that seem a little tough, and once that's been
05:05prepped as shown, we will take a sharp knife, and we will slice straight down, going in
05:11about two thirds to three quarters of the way, and we'll make as many cuts as we can,
05:15as close together as we can, and once we've sliced all the way to the other side, we will
05:21turn and slice across, again as thinly as we can, and as you can see, that's going to
05:27produce a very fine mince, and by the way, some people like to make some extra horizontal
05:31cuts before doing this, but don't bother, it's not necessary, alright, I find just two
05:36sets of cuts is more than adequate, plus after the initial mincing, we can always give it
05:42an extra few chops to get it even finer, since for this sauce, I think the finer the better,
05:48and that's it, once that's prepped, what we'll do is pour some champagne vinegar into a bowl,
05:53or the vinegar of your choice, alright, some people like to use red wine vinegar, so you'll
05:58have to decide, I mean, you are after all the Anthony Von Beyer, of making sure your
06:03mignonette sauce is fire, but no matter what you use, we'll add our mince shallots to that,
06:08along with the last ingredient, some freshly ground black pepper, and by the way, in case
06:13you're wondering, Tony Von Beyer was an old roommate of mine, who was actually a professional
06:18oyster shucker, and the best I've ever seen, but anyway, once our pepper's in, we will
06:23take a freakishly small metal spoon, and give this all a stir, at which point it's
06:28ready to use, although I do like to let it sit in the fridge a little bit, before we
06:31use it, and yes, you can make that well in advance, and that's it, we will place our
06:37shucked oysters on some ice, with some of our sauce alongside, and possibly a little
06:42piece of lemon, even though I never use it, alright, some people like it, or use bowl,
06:48but I just go with the mignonette, and we'll place down a little spoon to use for that,
06:52along with a cocktail fork, in case some of your guests aren't slurpers, but I am a
06:58slurper, so I'm going to get rid of the fork, and I'm going to spoon on some of the mignonette,
07:03and go in for the official taste, and we don't need much, I usually only use a few drops,
07:09oh and pro tip, once you sauce, try not to drop, there we go, and that my friends, if
07:17you enjoy oysters, and if you're still watching, I have to assume you do, is one of the greatest
07:22culinary experiences of all time, right, that shockingly simple vinegar sauce, just perfectly
07:28amplifies all that beautiful brininess from the oyster, which if you've never had one,
07:33basically tastes like the essence of the sea, oh and I shouldn't tell you this, but some
07:38people like to eat this with a little bit of cocktail sauce, which I'm not a fan of,
07:42or just a few drops of hot sauce, which I'm actually fine with, and do it that way once
07:47in a while, but while I may stray occasionally, I always come back to the mignonette, but
07:53no matter which you serve yours with, shucking oysters is much easier than people think,
07:57and whether you do these for a fancy holiday occasion, or just because a local market had
08:02oysters on special, this is a very simple technique anyone can master, which is why
08:08I really do hope you give this a try soon, so please follow the links below for the ingredient
08:13amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual, and as always, enjoy!
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