Oysters — Part 7

Stewart Island oysters are famous in the markets of Australia and New Zealand.

They are large, symmetrical and of rare flavour. Queen Charlotte Sound in the middle of New Zealand furnishes oysters with a decided coppery flavour, very popular where they are known, but something of a trial to newcomers unaccustomed to this taste.

The biggest edible oysters in the world are found at Port Lincoln in South Australia. They are as large as a dinner plate, and of the same shape. I have seen them more than a foot across. It is a new sensation when a friend asks you to lunch at Adelaide, to have one oyster set before you, fried in butter with egg and breadcrumbs. But it is a pleasant sensation, for the flavour and delicacy of the Port Lincoln mammoth oysters are proverbial in that land of luxuries.

Your true oyster connoisseur, nowadays, as always, will hold to the dogma that an oyster should be eaten raw; that no sauce nor seasoning is equal to its own "sawt-sea liccor." Yet the number of oyster dishes devised by ingenious cookery experts is legion. Here is one from a famous musician who divided his time between his piano and his saucepans, and always ate his oysters in silence and with one hand over his eyes, that his meditations might not be disturbed:

The Breton Way of Cooking Oysters. Having selected some oysters of the largest size drain off the liquor in a fine cloth, and when dry dredge them lightly with flour. Then cut up two or three large onions very small, put in a saucepan a bit of butter, and when it melts put in your onions. After they have been there two or three minutes add the oysters, and simmer them gently, seasoning with salt and pepper as they are in progress. When slightly browned take them off the fire, suffer a few drops of vinegar to moisten them, and then . . .

Another devotee gives this "final receipt" for oyster patties:

With plenty of cream let veal sweetbreads divide the honour with succulent shell fish, giving an equal portion of each, and sprinkling sliced truffles over the compound before you fill your paste. I refrain from saying more.