Christmas and
Thanksgiving with my family always includes Scalloped Oysters: baked
oysters with milk, butter, crackers like Beaumont Inn's recipe. My mother absolutely loves oysters:
fried, grilled, scalloped, raw-not so much, but never had
Galveston Bay oysters until she moved to Texas.
My only taste (more of a swallow) of an oyster was outside of Savannah, Georgia at some renowned fresh seafood place with my coworkers. I did not get the point since all I tasted was the cracker and the cocktail sauce, and that little live creature disappeared down my throat, and those that bit into it hated it. Maybe if it was from the right reef, I would enjoy them?
Each appellation (reef)
in Galveston Bay has its on variety of oyster and all are the same
species, Crassostrea
virginica (aka Gulf Coast oyster, eastern oyster, american
oyster). It filter feeds on a veggie diet of plankton and algae
from 3-6 gallons of saltwater per hour.
Like wine, so goes the oyster. It
depends on where it grows and feeds on. When classifying the umami
taste of oysters judged them by briny, crisp, pungent, creamy, sweet,
earthy, metallic, or nutty. Galveston Bay oysters are grown in high
salinity waters with crinkled bill, that are double the size and
firmness as east coast oysters. Careful
on the raw ones because they may ingest pollutants.
Ask your local
restaurant which reef your oyster comes from (like Tommy's
of Clear Lake City or The Reef of Houston), and see if you can
taste the difference.
East Bay Reefs (Appellations)
- Stephenson Point
- Drum Village #1
- Pepper Grove, (bright and salty)
- Elm Grove
- Hannah
- Whitehead
- Bull Hill
- Tom Tom
- Sheldon
- South Redfish
Trinity Bay Reefs
- Possum Pass
- Hawkins Camp
- Smith Pass
- Hodges
- Lonesome
- Lone Oak (creamy, briny sweetness)
- Old Yellow
- Lost
- Found # 1
Galveston Bay Reefs near
Dickinson Bay
- Todd's Dump
- Resignation
Matagorda Bay Reefs
San Antonio Bay Reefs (Texas Gulf
Coast Oysters)
- Chicken Foot
- Panther
Copano Bay Reefs (Aransas Bay
oyster reefs nearly all killed in 1960s from a parasite)
Public commercial oyster season, and
recreational harvest (2 bushels of 3 inch or larger per day) runs
from November 1 to April 30.
- 22,760 acres of public reefs to harvest in Texas
- 2,321 acres of private oyster leases in Galveston Bay
If the water gets below 40°F, they
close their shells until the water warms up. They can survival in
waters up to 86°F with a salinity range of 10 to 30 parts per
thousand, and can tolerate salinities 2 ppt and more than 40 ppt.
Spawning occurs when waters are above
68° F. The egg develops into free-swimming larvae for 3 weeks that
change into a small oyster called a spat. Spat will attach themselves
to many types of hard material (cultch)
but prefer mollusk shells and grow 1 inch in 3 months or 3 inches
(legal market size) in 15-20 months.
Oysters can reach sexual maturity in 4
weeks after attachment, maturing as males and changing to females
after spawning. Changes of sexes continues throughout life
(protandric).
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