There are two common food oysters that we are interested in purchasing, and they are simply known as either flat or cupped. Flat oysters generally live in the colder waters whilst the cupped versions reside in the warmer tropical waters and are known as the hardier and more cultivated of the two. The flavour and texture do vary widely between species to species and as they are filter feeders, they gain their own individual taste depending on their environment.
The oyster is generally slurped raw off the half shell but they do however excel in tastes by being cooked in various oyster recipes. If you do plan to create a large oyster stew or some other delicious oyster recipe that requires simply lots of oyster meat with no particular shape or size, remember to ask the seafood outlet when purchasing if they offer cuts. These are mixed sizes of oyster meats that have been damaged during the opening process at the shucking facility. They can be bought in larger quantities at a time making them much cheaper and they taste exactly the same as your well presented oyster on half shell.
Getting the live oysters home from your seafood outlet the best way is to simply keep them on a bed of ice or in a ventilated box with a damp cloth draped over them. You need to make sure that the oysters are not going to suffocate in the melted ice or just be stored submerged under some water in a cooler or case of sorts, remember these are breathing living creatures that cannot live within fresh water very long, and even if you had saltwater they would deplete the oxygen from that small amount of water very quickly indeed.
Once they are home, clean them up if necessary under some running water and then pat dry with a cloth or lint free towel. Store them again keeping in mind that need to breathe, so place them into a ventilated container or on a plate and have a damp cloth or towel draped over them. You need to store them ideally in the warmest part of the refrigerator, so maybe the crisper in this case. Oysters will store safely in these conditions between five to seven days.
Opening or shucking of the oysters should be done shortly before you are ready to serve. Keep in mind the colder the oyster, the easier they are too open and don't have them sitting out of the refrigerator for very long before shucking as we don't want any nasty bacteria multiplying on them. If you have already opened and need to store them again, this is fine, but I recommend that you do eat them within a day of this process and now store them in the coolest part of the refrigerator.
Oysters can also be frozen in the half shell, just make sure that they are well covered with a plastic film to protect the open surfaces. Make sure when freezing on the half shell that the meats are covered with their liquor and that you allow about a half inch for expansion. Freezing oysters this way generally is safe for up to six months at a time.
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