Oysters: myths and facts, or Who are eaten alive?

Food preparation

Winter salad with fish is very easy to prepare. But the end result is an original snack. To begin with, you should peel the onion and cut it, of course, into half rings. Place a frying pan on the fire and pour a little vegetable oil into it. It should heat up well. After this, put the chopped onion in the frying pan. The product must be fried until translucent, stirring constantly.

The almost finished onion should be transferred to a cauldron. If you don’t have such a device in your kitchen, you can use a multicooker bowl. Here the winter salad with fish will be stewed. A multicooker can perfectly replace a cauldron. The taste of the finished product will not deteriorate.

Fresh carrots should be peeled, washed well, and then chopped. This is best done using a blender. If this is not possible, then you can grate the vegetable on a fine grater. You need to put a frying pan on the fire and pour a little vegetable oil into it. After this, you can lay out the carrots and fry them lightly. The almost finished product needs to be transferred into a multicooker bowl or into a cauldron with onions.

The beets also need to be peeled, washed and chopped. This can be done using a blender or grater. Chopped beets also need to be fried in vegetable oil and transferred to a cauldron or multicooker bowl with carrots and onions.

Tomatoes need to be peeled. This can be done by placing them in boiling water for a few minutes and then in cold water. The tomato pulp should be crushed in a blender. If desired, you can rub the resulting mass through a sieve. The seeds and skin of the tomato go to waste. The resulting sauce should be poured into the vegetables.

Before cooking, fish must be cleaned, removing the entrails and head, and then washed. Now you can start cooking. Winter salad with fish and vegetables is almost ready.

Oysters

Oysters are bivalve mollusks, a popular fishery item in many maritime countries. Some people find these slippery creatures disgusting and categorically refuse to taste them, while others believe that oysters are a delicacy that has many beneficial properties and which only true gourmets can appreciate...

We present to your attention interesting facts about oysters, about this delicacy, the history of which goes back thousands of years and which people endow with miraculous properties.

Oysters live in warm waters, settling in large colonies on rocks or large stones located at a depth of up to seventy meters. Often, saving rocky places, mollusks are very closely located to each other, standing upright or merging in several pieces.

Even the ancient Romans, about five thousand years ago, included oysters in their diet, considering them not only tasty, but also very healthy. They knew that their taste and growth rate depended on the salt content of the water. Oysters grow quickly in salt water, but their meat is very tough. And in places with less salinity, for example, where freshwater rivers flow into the sea, oysters taste better. But there are few such places, so the Romans soaked oysters collected from the salt sea in containers with fresh water.

Roman emperors, considering oysters a powerful means of enhancing sexual performance, were willing to pay huge amounts of money for mollusks: as much gold as the oyster weighs.

The world-famous 18th century hero-lover Casanova, who ate 50 oysters a day to increase his love fervor, adhered to the same theory.

Modern scientists confirm that oyster meat is indeed a strong aphrodisiac that increases the production of the sex hormone testosterone.

In the Middle Ages, oysters were also sold without shells. It is clear that “naked” mollusks were of worse quality, but more of them were included in the holds of ships transporting oysters. This was very beneficial for carriers who did not particularly care about the quality of the goods.

A few centuries ago, in many maritime powers (for example, England and France), oysters were the main dish of the poor, who could not afford to buy meat. This led to the massive harvest of these mollusks, and their population decreased sharply. This, in turn, led to a sharp jump in their prices, and oysters, which had become so rare, immediately began to be considered a delicacy, moving from the dinner table of the poor to the tables of the rich.

Oyster

Louis XIV, who ruled France in the 17th century, believed that oysters should be eaten boiled and fried, and they should be cooked together with the shells.

Nature has endowed oysters with the ability to change their gender if the life situation requires it. As a rule, these mollusks are born as “boys”, and when they reach “childbearing age”, they become “girls”.

Oyster meat is a storehouse of useful substances (phosphorus, iodine, calcium, copper, zinc, iron) and vitamins (B1, B2, B12 and PP). Doctors say that it is enough to eat six oysters a day to replenish the body's reserves with the necessary microelements.

Those who want to lose weight should include oysters in their diet, since oysters are a low-calorie food.

An oyster egg can survive and turn into a real full-fledged oyster not only in natural conditions, but also in distilled water devoid of calcium. In this case, the valves of the grown oyster will consist of almost pure calcium.

How can you tell if an oyster is alive or not? Gourmets say that you need to put a drop of lemon juice on it. If she flinched, then she was alive.

Oysters are eaten raw, which means they must be very fresh. This can be determined by the shell: if the valves are very tightly closed, the oyster is fresh, and if there is a gap in them, it is rotten.

The biggest oyster

By the way, it was the rotting, but still alive, Portuguese oysters that became the founders of the colony that grew near the French island of Re. In 1868, oysters were transported from Portugal on the ship Morlaisien. A strong storm began, and the captain decided to wait out the bad weather, hiding in a quiet bay near the island of Re. After a while, the oysters began to spoil, emitting a foul smell. The captain realized that there was no point in carrying them further, and ordered the entire cargo to be thrown into the sea. But the oysters turned out to be tenacious. Some not only survived, but also took root in these places, displacing the indigenous inhabitants of these waters - the flat oysters Ostrea edulis. Now this species is found only in Croatia.

Oysters usually grow up to 10-12 centimeters, but sometimes they can be huge. Recently, a live oyster weighing more than 2 kilograms and 33 centimeters long was caught off the coast of Denmark. Scientists believe that this giant oyster is at least 20 years old, and those who found it are already wondering how much money gourmets will pay for it.

How to store

Prepared winter salad with fish should be stored in canned form. Therefore, it is worth preparing glass containers and lids in advance. It is better to take small jars so that the snack is enough for one time.

While the salad is preparing, you can prepare the containers. The jars must be washed well and then sterilized. The same needs to be done with the lids.

The prepared vegetable salad with fish should be placed in jars and rolled up well. After this, hermetically sealed containers must be placed with their lids down and left there until they cool completely. The original one should be stored with vegetables at a temperature not exceeding 8 °C. This is a must. Otherwise, the seaming will not stand. The ideal place to store salad would be the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

Fish salad is an excellent alternative to boring meat side dishes, suitable for both a celebration and an everyday family meal.

To determine the degree of freshness and safety of the product, lightly press the pulp with your finger. With good raw materials, the flesh will elastically return to its shape. If the fish is spoiled, there will be a dent.

Greens, various cereals and legumes go well with fish. Vegetables are also quite popular - tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and carrots are included in every second fish salad. As you can see, putting together a simple salad with fish in any format and a couple of simple ingredients is not a difficult task. Any housewife who chooses fish salad will surprise her guests.

How to eat oysters in a restaurant and how to choose them

It is best to order oysters in a restaurant; they are always cooked correctly, they are served fresh, and there is no danger of getting food poisoning. Some people eat oysters at home, but more often on holidays.

How to choose oysters

Usually, oysters, like other products, can be selected by quality and appearance. Opening a mollusk shell can cause difficulties. In such a sensitive matter, it is worth relying on the experience of specialists.

How to serve oysters

This seafood delicacy should be served on a large flat plate or tray with crushed ice. The oysters will be fresh with ice within half an hour. You will have to eat oysters in this short time. Lemon should be served with seafood. Citric acid will add a tasty combination to the dish and make it safe to eat oysters. Citrus is cut into slices and placed on a plate next to the oysters. As an addition to the oysters, you can serve wine essence, sour Tabasco or the chef’s signature sauce. You can add black bread to serve.

How to eat oysters

Oysters served must be fresh. Drip lemon juice onto the body of the seafood delicacy; if you notice a slight contraction, it means the product is alive and can be eaten. Served with oysters as utensils - forks with wide and short teeth. Once you add juice to the clam, take the shell of the shell with your hand and a fork in your right hand. Bringing your hands with the shell close to your mouth, use a fork to help the delicacy go into your mouth. You can also avoid using a fork and simply empty the oyster shell by suction. This must be done silently from the narrow side of the sash. Now you can enjoy the taste of the delicate product. By the way, the pulp is not chewed, it is swallowed immediately. The juice that appeared after adding the lemon is poured out.

What's the best way to wash down oysters?

Wash down the oysters with chilled champagne or dry wine. Oysters in the restaurant are served as an appetizer, so you don’t wash it down with strong alcohol and don’t eat a lot. In oyster bars, shellfish are served as the main course. The delicacy is washed down with light beer and lime.

Now everyone can order oysters in a restaurant and treat themselves to a delicious exotic dish. We invite you to watch a video on how to eat oysters.

9 12 095 0

What do oysters taste like? It's quite difficult to describe. But it makes sense to try them. For some, one time is not enough to try it, but others immediately join the gourmets.

You will need:

When is the best time to use

All year round. Previously it was believed that in summer these mollusks were unsuitable for serving. There was even a belief that they should not be eaten when the letter r does not appear in the name of the month. Just all the summer ones fell under this rule.

Why did they say this? In the summer heat it is more difficult to bring an oyster to the table unspoiled. But now there are refrigerators, there are no transport problems.

It just needs to be stored at temperatures up to 3º C. The nutrients existing in it will allow it not to spoil for up to 10 days.

And shellfish breed in the summer. During this period, there is milk in the sink. It could add a bitter taste to oyster meat. Today, on farms, this process can be delayed or eliminated altogether.

The taste will not depend on the time of year. Since wild shellfish are already rare, farmers are able to monitor their growth. The surrounding salt-filled water is also under control.

By the way, three-year-old oysters most often end up on the table. Therefore, they definitely lived through a couple of hot summer seasons.

Among mollusks it is impossible to do without exceptions. This is a very refined belon variety. The only place where it grows is Brittany. And there in the summer, as the sea temperature rises, the water blooms intensely. Then nasty bits of blooming algae can get into those “cream” among the oysters. In this case, the necessary amount of refinement of taste is lost.

Rules of oyster etiquette

Serving bivalves has its own rules that must be followed:

Place an even, low but wide pile of crushed ice on a large dish. This measure will preserve the viability of seafood for half an hour. This is just enough time to finish the meal.
Place 12 oysters in a circle on top of the crushed ice. According to etiquette, the number of shellfish should be a multiple of 6, and a dozen is the optimal amount, which is enough to satiate the dish.
Lemon is also served with oysters. The citrus is cut into slices and placed in the center of the dish, or between the shells.
The ideal complement to such an exotic dish would be white wine and crispy rye croutons.

This is exactly how serving an oyster dinner should ideally look like.

Health benefits for women and men

Oysters were eaten long before the advent of a special knife and etiquette rules. In Rome, hetaeras consumed this product in an effort to increase their sexual capabilities in order to improve their performance. Casanova also knew a lot about seafood, eating thirty shellfish before dates.

The most important components of the dish are zinc and omega-3 fatty acids. Zinc promotes sexual desire and normalizes sperm composition in men. Its deficiency in the male body provokes the development of prostate adenoma.

For women, zinc is a source of beauty and youth. It is responsible for the condition of hair, nails and skin.

Oysters contain:

zinc;
omega-3 fatty acids;
selenium;
vitamin A;
vitamin E;
vitamin C;
vitamin PP;
B vitamins.
protein;
cholesterol;
potassium;
calcium;
magnesium;

A large amount of vitamins and microelements guarantees the health benefits of eating this dish. Eating them is prohibited if there are contraindications.

Harm and contraindications of seafood

Dead shellfish are harmful to the body. They cannot be used in any form. Therefore, the product should be carefully considered before you start eating. The signs of a spoiled shellfish were discussed above.

There have been cases when people received serious internal injuries when a piece of shell entered the stomach along with a mollusk. Since it is not chewed, it can be difficult to notice the broken shell. This rarely happens if the oyster is injured during transportation.

The dish will harm the body if:

consume it in large quantities;
there are problems with the gastrointestinal tract;
there is individual intolerance;
seafood allergy;
doctors diagnosed gout.

Important!

Oysters are contraindicated during pregnancy and lactation.

Calorie content

Oysters are considered a dietary dish; their calorie content is 60 kcal per 100 grams of product. This means that the dish is ideal for dietary nutrition. Nutritionists recommend consuming them after training. This will strengthen your muscles and help you lose extra pounds.

The taste of this dish is difficult to compare with other dishes. He is unique. It's worth trying it at least once.

In order to feel the taste of oysters, you must follow one rule: this dish is not usually eaten as a snack. The only thing that needs to be consumed with them is good dry wine. It is better to choose white wine. Lemon juice helps to reveal the delicate and subtle taste of this dish.

Interesting Facts!

In France, oysters are served with rye bread toast. The taste of the dish will not be affected by this. It is allowed to spread a piece of black bread with butter. But Americans eat them with cheese. They add a little ketchup. How many people - so many opinions.

Some people prefer to eat their dish with red caviar. Experts believe that this completely kills the taste. So does ketchup. Ideally, a combination of dry white wine, lemon and live shellfish. Adding black bread is allowed.

Some people consider oysters tasteless. Others say that they taste like fish soufflé. But such a comparison is not suitable for everyone. True connoisseurs are sure that there are no products that even remotely resemble the excellent taste of this exquisite dish.

Important!

Eat oysters correctly. If you haven't tried them, be sure to do so. Start with one or two things to test the body's reaction and make sure there is no allergic reaction.

By following simple rules of etiquette and safety, you can enjoy the delicate and refined taste of this delicious dish both in a restaurant and at home. Bon appetit!

Useful video

9 12 096 0
What do oysters taste like? It's quite difficult to describe. But it makes sense to try them. For some, one time is not enough to try it, but others immediately join the gourmets.

You will need: