What brand of UK Oysters?

aquaman

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Had my first can of Oysters ever tonight, they were pretty bad, not awful. BUt they were (1) put in sunflower oil and (2) canned in Korea - ha!

I rinsed them out in a sieve and cooked them in tons of coconut oil.

Really can't face the idea of fresh raw oysters.

So - brands and source for good UK Oysters please??
 

charlie

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Oyster cream stew for the win! :)
 

jyb

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Sounds like those Sainsburys oysters. I avoid them as too many uncertainties about their preparation (smoking), storage (chemicals in the can) and ingredients (pufa oil). So I take fresh oysters. Note that uncooked fresh oysters have a much weaker taste than those canned oysters. But honestly a few oysters take like 30 seconds to chew, its like a vitamin pill, so I never considered taste to be of any relevance.
 
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aquaman

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Are Oysters bad if they are fresh but farmed? In UK supermarkets you can hardly buy fish that isn't farmed.

Does Peat say about farmed fish that you get much higher PUFA?
 

marcar72

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aquaman said:
Are Oysters bad if they are fresh but farmed? In UK supermarkets you can hardly buy fish that isn't farmed.

Does Peat say about farmed fish that you get much higher PUFA?

I've read up a bit on it and with oysters alone farmed is better is the general take on it. Unlike farmed fish, farmed oysters don't have to be fed since they're filter feeders. Oyster farming is also a lot more eco friendly than harvesting wild oysters. There are other reasons such as uniformity of shell size and quality among others.

I've recently tried oysters on the half shell (raw/live) :shock: and have had them a few times over the last few weeks. All my local fish monger carries on a regular basis are farmed oysters. (Delaware Bay, Malpeque, and Kumamoto) I think they actually taste a lot better on the half shell. I'm pretty sure I'll be picking up another dozen later on today, but I really should slow down a bit with fresh oysters because they're a tad pricey. :2cents
 
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aquaman

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Thanks, you just smash them down with some salt / lemon?

I need to man-up and try some.
 

marcar72

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aquaman said:
Thanks, you just smash them down with some salt / lemon?

I need to man-up and try some.

First time I used lemon on them. It masks a lot of the natural oyster flavor. There's no need for salt as oysters are naturally salty (briny). Since then I've been having them with no condiments, just in their own "liquor". I get a dozen at a time and eat 6 in a setting twice throughout the day. Read up on them if you're gonna take the dive! As other people put it, it's the closest thing to actually tasting the ocean.
 

jyb

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Lemon is rich in vit C which would increase iron absorption. However, you really don't have to taste the "liquor" (unless it contained the minerals but I don't think so?), by simply pouring tap water over the opened oysters and then removing the body with your thumb, all in one go. You then end up with the oyster content in a glass which, because it has been rinsed, hardly doesn't taste anything and can be chewed in 1 go if you wanted (more if you're having a lot of them).
 

HDD

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I have to have them small, steamed and on a cracker with cocktail sauce. If it is small enough, dipped in melted butter is good, too.
 

charlie

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I had them in the shell tonight, just dipped them in butter, yum!
 

Ari

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I think that eating the oysters with something sour is actually beneficial and will increase the absorption of all minerals, not just iron. There is a reason that people normally pair it with a lemon, and I think that if we 'turned our brains off' we would choose to eat it with the lemon.

The problem with humans right now is that we are smart, but still so very dumb. We are smart enough to overrule our instincts, but dumb enough to still get many important things wrong - things that we would get right if we didn't have higher thinking capabilities.

Anyways, here is Peat on this issue:

[IRON RICH FOODS WITH ORANGE JUICE, COFFEE & MILK] Although orange juice would tend to increase iron absorption, that combination hasn't been studied. It isn't an issue for most people, only someone with an iron overload issue. The copper in oysters is protective against iron excess.

I guess it would be reasonable to extrapolate orange juice out to something like lemon juice etc. I eat all of my meats with something sour, it makes digestion much better, and i've never felt better.
 

Herbie

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Happycat

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I saw a tv cookery programme recently where they were saying that farmed oysters have a milder taste than wild oysters because they have 10 times less zinc.
Interesting..
 

Herbie

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When you say farmed do you mean in some artifical pool indoors or grown on racks in salt water rivers?

I just had these local oysters at Oban, Scotland. They were huge and not strong flavour but the Sydney rock oyster which I am accustomed to has a rich moreish flavour and is grown in natural rivers and estuarys.
 

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