As hundreds gathered in a tent outside the Schlafly Taproom for the VIP party that marks the start of the 20th annual Schlafly Stout & Oyster Festival, founding brewer Stephen Hale pondered the origins of our fondness for the bivalve mollusk.
“Who on God’s earth could possibly think of taking this thing that looks like a stone, somehow smashing it open with whatever implement our great forefathers and foremothers had, and eating it?” Hale asked SLM.
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We weren’t able to answer that question, but to learn a little more about the best ways to eat oysters, how to tell a good oyster from a dud, and more, we sought out the wisdom of two of the star shuckers who have flown into St. Louis for the Stout & Oyster Festival: George Hastings of Baltimore, Maryland, and Rawle Jefferds, an oyster “grower” from Coupeville, Washington.
If you’re at the festival this weekend, Hastings recommends taking a moment to walk up and down the line of shuckers, taking in the scent of fresh oysters. “Make sure your sinuses are all nice and cleared out,” he says. “You can smell a difference.”
This year, Schlafly is shipping close to 100,000 oysters into St. Louis for the Stout & Oyster Festival. These are brought in overnight, so what you’re eating will be the freshest oysters available, but Jefferds and Hastings offered a few tips on identifying quality oysters, whether on the half shell or buying from a store.
If you’re buying oysters in a store, check that the shell is sealed. “If an oyster shell is gapped, he’s thirsty, he’s dry and tired,” Jefferds says. “An oyster is an inner tide organism. When the tide goes out, there’s no feeding, drinking, breathing, anything. He should be good for about two weeks. After that, he starts to go ‘Hey, is the tide in yet?’ And if he opens up, any juice or sea water that was in there is going to spill out.” If an oyster keeps opening up like that, it will dry out. “Eventually, he stays open,” Hastings says. Another test is to tap on the closed oyster. “If it sounds hollow, there’s nothing in there. Nobody’s home, or it’s full of mud,” Hastings says.
On the half shell, dryness is a red flag. “Are the membranes sticking to the shell? These aren’t fresh oysters. But if it’s floating in juice, saturated wet, it looks unctuous. Your eyes will tell you.” Before he eats an oyster, Jefferds picks it up, puts his nose close to it, and sniffs. “It should smell fresh of the sea. What sea doesn’t smell good?” he says.
“Baltimore harbor, sometimes,” Hastings says.
A properly shucked oyster is simple to eat. “Don’t let your mouth touch the shell. Let the oyster come to you,” Hastings says. If you need to, use a fork to nudge your oyster away from the shell.
“You sip, tip and chew it, savor it,” says Jefferds. He recommends taking a few moments to chew well on the oyster, but says there’s no need to overdo it. “First you’re met with the salt, then the oyster and then there’s this umami finish of goodness. And then it’s like ‘Holy shit, what did I just eat?’” he says.
Oysters get their flavor from their surrounding waters, as well as from the plankton they feed on. Shuckers call this “merroir,” similar to the concept of terroir in wine. As the seasons change, so does the flavor of the oysters – Jefferds talks about how in springtime alone, his oysters can move through notes of cucumber, watermelon, cantaloupe and fresh-cut grass.
“Each one is an individual,” Jefferds says. “It’s that moment in what nature has done for that oyster right now. Tomorrow, it won’t taste the same. Every day is a new adventure in the world of oysters.”
You can choose from a variety of condiments and dressings for your oysters at the festival – lemon, horseradish, chili sauce, green sriracha and more. Hale says adding a drop or two of lemon or chili sauce will be useful for a newcomer, but he is adamant about how he likes to enjoy his oysters. “Tabasco – no. Lemon – no. Horseradish – no. Good oysters: slurp it, have some beer,” he says.
“A lot of people come up to me and say ‘what do you put on your oysters?’ I say ‘my lips,’” Hastings says. The shuckers agree that there’s no harm in adding a few drops of lemon, for example. “But don’t bury it,” Jefferds says. “When a guy puts half a teaspoon of horseradish or cocktail sauce, it’s like ‘you don’t like oysters, do you?’ That whole system came up to hide the taste of bad oysters that had been out of the shell for too long.”
Jefferds and Hastings walked us through their shucking styles, but if you want to try this at home, watch Hastings’ YouTube video for instruction on the most common techniques. “That oyster should be pristine,” Jefferds says. “I want to present you with an oyster that was asked to take its shell off.”
Suffice to say, safety comes first when you’re using a blade to pierce and open a tough shell. Most shuckers have literally bled for their craft, and Hastings and Jefferds have the war stories to prove it. Minor injuries don’t stop these veterans. “I’m not going down with the ship,” Jefferds says. “I’ve got oysters to do! You glove up, you Band-Aid, you stuff with towels, and you shuck.” One fellow shucker who cut his hand badly at an event even used superglue to close the wound, according to Jefferds.
“I love eating oysters,” Hale says. “Almost every single oyster you’re going to be enjoying out there this weekend is super fresh, recently harvested.” And with ten different stouts available specially for the festival, there are plenty of flavor combinations to explore this weekend. “It’s all about the camaraderie,” says Hale. “People come back year after year. It’s because of these guys. They’re humorous, they’re personalities.”
For the shuckers, coming to St. Louis for the Schlafly festival is a rare opportunity to convene, and after 20 years, it’s become an annual reunion with old friends. “This is the only chance we all get to have a beer together, once a year,” says Hastings. “We’ve blistered and we’ve bled at this event,” Jefferds say. “And God, I hope they ask me back next year! This is like family here. It’s awesome.”
The 20th Annual Stout & Oyster Festival takes place March 22 from 5–9 p.m. and March 23 from 11 a.m.–9 p.m. at Schlafly Tap Room. Attendance is free. All food and beverage is available for purchase.
