The world is your oyster ... roast

Cook up some juicy fun for any occasion

As we ease into the colder months, folks stop looking for things to do outside, but having your own oyster roast is something that family and friends can have a lot of fun with and stay warm.

Ben Moise, a retired game warden from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, says holding oyster roasts is one of his favorite hobbies. "It's a popular form of outdoor entertaining, very rustic and simple," he says. "If you are standing up and cooking and eating with your fingers, you've got to be having a good time."

According to Airianne Bosch of Anthony's Seafood in Goose Creek, "Any month with an 'R' in it is usually your better month for oysters."

Here are some tips from the experts on having your own oyster roast.

Choosing the oysters

When selecting oysters for a roast, Bosch prefers the bigger ones.

Moise says to look for "a nice, fat appearance, not a thin, watery oyster. The characteristic most people want is saltiness. South Carolina oysters require a little cold weather to make that happen. They need to be exposed to some cold air for them to start firming up."

Take care and be vigilant in choosing your oysters, Bosch says.

"If you look at an oyster and it's open, then it's not any good," she says. "You want to make sure that it's closed."

It's also possible to harvest your own oysters.

"Going out and getting your own oysters is a real adventure, and you are legally able to pick two bushels for personal consumption from personal or state beds as long as you have a saltwater fishing license," Moise says.

"The wildlife department has maps or charts of public and state oyster beds, but the easiest thing to do is to just order them from a seafood company, and you should do that in advance if you're cooking for a larger number of people so they can fulfill the order."

Moise says a South Carolina bushel can feed up to seven people when oysters are the principal item on the menu. That's equivalent to a 55-pound bag. Gulf single oysters come in a 40-pound box, with a box serving about five.

How to roast oysters

There are several ways to roast oysters.

"A lot of people like to go outside and build a fire and put a piece of tin on it," says Betty Lee of Ladson Seafood. "Wash your oysters and put your oysters on the tin. Cover the oysters with a croker sack - that's what the oysters come in - and let them cook. The oysters will open up and when they start opening, they're ready to eat."

She says you don't have to be too far away from your house because the fire shouldn't get too big.

"People like to have (oyster roasts) when there's real cold weather, and they'll stay warm by the fire and eat oysters."

Moise says he and his wife enjoy having an oyster feast for two inside. "Get a pizza pan with turned-up sides and put the oysters a single layer deep, at the highest (oven) temperature you've got," he says. "Ours gets up to about 550 degrees.

"The oysters have a cupped side and a flat side. You want to put the cupped side of the oysters down to hold as much juice as you can. After you put them in the oven, it takes about 5 or 6 minutes until they're smiling at you."

If you're eating inside, Moise suggests spreading newspapers across the kitchen table before you dig in.

Lee says any occasion is a good occasion for a small oyster roast. "You don't have to have a particular reason," she says. "Everybody can get together for no certain reason except for when you have the taste for them."

Lee, who was born and raised in Charleston, has been eating oysters all her life. "I had my first oyster roast when I was just but a little girl. I can't even remember it, but I do know the oysters were good. I've been eating good oysters all my life."

On the side

There's an array of sauces on the market that go well with oysters, or you can mix up your own special concoction.

--Betty Lee of Ladson Seafood says you might want to try a dipping sauce to spice things up. "Usually, what I've done is take ketchup and hot sauce, mix it together and dip my oysters in that. You can season the oysters with salt and pepper. That's all you need," she says. "We always just eat oysters by themselves, never with anything else."

--Retired game warden Ben Moise has a list of options for dipping.

"Sometimes I dip them in butter and there are dipping sauces made with lemon juice and salt or fresh-squeezed lime juice and black pepper," he says. "There is a (homemade) sauce called Disinfectant, made with hot pepper vinegar mixed with Tabasco and brown vinegar. That's a particularly coastal North Carolina concoction. There are ketchup-based cocktail sauces like this special Charleston sauce made with Heinz ketchup, Texas Pete, Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce, horseradish and brown vinegar."

When it's time to start eating, you'll need a few things to help you get to the good part.

First, you have to have an oyster knife, also called a shucker, says Moise. "And you need some type of protection for your hands. We supply fisherman gloves, rubber inside nylon gloves, because oyster shells are sharp.

"Oyster juice is very hot and could burn you when it runs out on your hand when they hit the table and you just open it up with your knife," he adds. "People get surgical gloves to go under cotton gloves so their hands don't get wet and gummy with oyster juice."

Pay it forward

After your oyster roast, you can help keep the oyster population thriving by recycling your empty shells. The shells provide a great surface for attracting juvenile oysters.

Every summer, oysters spawn and release free-swimming larvae, called spat, that are carried along by the tides and currents and eventually seek a surface to which they can attach and start building their shells.

According to information at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources' Marine Resources Division Web site, oysters will spend the remainder of their life cycle where they have attached, unless they're disturbed.

Retired DNR game warden Ben Moise says, "A lot of the coastal oyster beds are under lease to commercial people, and they are required to replant a certain number of oyster shells every year to replenish the banks. People can't go and just pull everything up and not put something back."

Help from individuals is needed, too, and the donations from small oyster roasts really add up. In February, recycling program officials estimated that by the end of the 2006-07 season in May, more than 10,000 bushels of shells would be donated.

DNR has large bins at 16 drop-off locations where the public can turn in empty oyster shells for replanting by the agency. For a list of locations with directions and maps, go to saltwaterfishing.sc.gov/oyster.html or call DNR at 953-9300.