Understanding Oyster Flavor
Key Takeaways:
- Experiment with the Liquor: If an oyster is too salty for your taste, tip a bit of the liquor out before you slurp. Be careful not to pour it all out, but reducing the brine can reveal nuanced flavors.
- The Sweetest Part of an Oyster is the Adductor Muscle: Older oysters usually have bigger ones than the younglings.
- Meat Color Hints at Flavor: Gray tends to mean skinny and salty, white tends to mean sweet and plump.
Like any food, the more oysters you eat, the better you'll understand the flavor. "Well, that was salty!" is not an uncommon reaction after first eating a raw oyster. Yes, oysters are salty, and they taste of the sea, which makes sense. But they also taste like unexpected things, like mushrooms, melon, carrot, seaweed and butter. Sometimes, when approaching something so foreign, it helps to have a framework. Here's a method (borrowed very heavily from Rowan Jacobsen) that we use frequently in our pairing classes and tastings. Like any framework, it's a great starting place: Where you go with it is up to you.
Oyster Flavor Primer
1. Salinity is the most obvious thing about oysters. Oysters are salty, yes, but there's nuance: how much salt they have in them at any given point will vary with growing location, with season, and from oyster to oyster (skinnier oysters tend to be saltier).
The salt content of the ocean is about 35 parts per thousand (ppt). The highest we've ever recorded at Hama Hama is 31 ppt, and the lowest is 13 ppt, when Louie took the sample from a current of river water after a January drencher. Our average at Hama Hama is 25 ppt. In some places, like the Gulf of Mexico, the salinity can dip as low as 5 ppt during a storm. If you ever find yourself eating super low salinity oysters, we highly recommend you buy yourself a sleeve of saltines, some hot sauce, and a container of horseradish.
Most of the salt in an oyster is in the liquor. When an oyster is super skinny and there's lots of room in the shell for seawater, they're very salty. When the oysters are so plump they're nearly bursting out of their shells, they're less salty. If you don't like a super salty oyster, go ahead and pour the liquor out before you slurp it. This is sacrilege, we know, but hear us out... the salty flavor can mask the more nuanced flavors of the oyster itself.
In fact, this is precisely why oysters in France are traditionally served with the adductor muscle attached to the bottom shell... that way, you can tip the liquor out without losing the oyster. Then, when you let the oyster sit for a while, it will eventually release more liquid. They are, after all, creatures of water. A Frenchman once described this to us as "second water" - which is a descriptive but not very beautiful translation. Just be sure to use that handy fork to release the adductor muscle before you try to slurp the oyster.
2. Body can refer to the mouthfeel of the oyster... was it crunchy, soft, or skinny? But it can also be more abstract, similar to wine: did the oyster linger on your palate? or was it a brief experience? Body is determined by shell shape, season, age, and species. In Puget Sound and Hood Canal, oysters tend to be skinny in the late summer to fall after they've spawned, nicely balanced in the winter, plump in the spring, and soft in the summer (during the spawning season).
This picture was taken in February, when the cold water Summerstones (left) were still hibernating but the Sea Cows (right) were plump and sweet.
3. Finish is the most elusive component of an oyster's flavor. It's determined by growing location, growing method, species, age, and season. Sometimes, you don't even really "taste" the oyster until after you've swallowed it. This is one of the reasons why oysters pair so interestingly with wines... you often have time to take a sip of wine before you even taste the oyster, so you can really influence and expand an oyster's flavor with the right wine pairing.
Growing location is perhaps the most famous of these factors. The biophysical properties of an estuary ... the nutrients, temperature, salinity, chemistry... will influence what kinds of algae grow there, thereby determining the oyster's diet. But the upstream environment also plays a role. Yes, oysters eat algae and plankton, but they can also consume tiny bits of organic material, of bark, grass, or leaf floating down a river.
On left, two Hama Hamas, a beach grown oyster with gray, fluted shells. On right, two Blue Pools, a tumbled oyster with rounded, often colorful shells.
Growing method influences an oyster's shape and flavor. When we tumble an oyster, for instance, we grow it up off the bottom where it has access to an entirely different community of algae. Tumbled oysters also spend more of their time feeding, so they have access to different kinds and quantities of food, and will fatten and spawn at different times of the year.
Different oyster species exhibit different ranges of flavors. Pacific oysters tend to be on the sweet and fruity side of the oyster spectrum, although some growing locations will produce savory, full-flavored Pacific oysters. Virginicas (the East Coast species) tend to be saltier and less fruity than a Pacific. Olympias (native to the West Coast) are renowned for their coppery flavor, although sometimes we're struck by their strong citrus notes. Eat a robust, chewy European Flat (native to Europe) and you'll understand why the French people invented mignonette. The dainty Kumamoto (native to Japan) are famous for a sweet, buttery, mild flavor.
An oyster's flavor develops with age, gaining complexity and depth. We try not to sell any oyster that's under 18 months old.... we like them to go through at least one reproductive cycle before hitting the marketplace. Some of our slower-growing varieties, like the Hama Hama, might be 2.5 to 3 years old before they reach extra small size. Age also plays a role in determining an oyster's size and shape. The sweetest part of an oyster, in our opinion, is the adductor muscle, which tends to be larger on older animals. Oysters are wonderfully snackable, which makes it easy to lose count; if you're curious about oyster calories, we've done the math.
Finally, seasonality is very important. Oyster flavor changes throughout the year... saltier in the skinny seasons, creamy in the summer, sweet and firm in the spring. You can get a good idea how an oyster will taste by looking at it (gray = skinny, white = sweet) but the only real way to learn is to keep tasting. Want to explore oyster flavor? Order our best selling "Farm Sampler" to taste for yourself how growing location can change the flavor of an oyster.
A Practical Note on Condiments and When to Use Them
In our experience at tastings and pairing classes, condiments are most useful once you know what you're missing with them.
If you're working through the salinity-body-finish framework above, try your first oyster plain. Let it tell you what it is. Then, if you want to add something, add it on the second oyster from the same batch and notice what changes.
It can be very fun to play with oyster toppings to see what flavor notes you can highlight in a raw oyster. Acids like lemon and mignonette brighten the finish and cut salinity. Shaved horseradish and finely minced jalapeno add earthy, grassy heat. Finger limes offer citrus with a fun texture. Caviar highlights an oyster’s umami flavor.
Usually, West Coast oysters don’t require additional salt or cocktail sauce, which can mask more than complement the oyster flavor. (But, if cocktail sauce is your jam, go for it!)
Final Thoughts
A “tasting framework” can sound like a lot of fuss for something that takes seconds to eat. It’s just a mental trick to encourage you to stay curious and use your senses. This open-mindedness can enhance the experience of eating oysters. And that’s the main goal: Enjoyment. Pleasure. Eating is a solitary act, but when we talk about flavor with the other oyster eaters at the table, it becomes a communal experience.
But if the most pleasurable way you can think to eat oysters is with a dollop of cocktail sauce and a splash of tabasco, there’s nothing wrong with that!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do some oysters taste so much saltier than others, even from the same farm?
The biggest factor with salinity is the liquor. Skinnier oysters have more room for liquor, which is filtered seawater, so usually taste saltier than plump ones. Condition (ie how plump or skinny an oyster is) can vary between oysters on the same farm, especially in the shoulder seasons like spring and fall.
Is it okay to chew an oyster, or should you swallow it whole?
If you want to taste the oyster, chew it. Don’t overthink it, but simply swallowing it whole is a missed opportunity.
What does it mean when an oyster smells "off"? Is it safe to eat?
A fresh oyster should smell like the ocean: clean, briny, alive. If it smells sulfurous, fishy, or just wrong in a way you can't quite articulate, trust your instincts and set it aside.
That said, oftentimes the bad smell comes from something on the shell (barnacles are a common culprit) or a bit of anoxic mud caked into the hinge that gets disturbed during shucking. If you are shucking through a batch and unhappy with the smell, try giving the shells a thorough freshwater rinse before you open them.
Why do oysters from different regions taste so different if they're the same species?
This is essentially the whole concept of merroir, the shellfish equivalent of terroir in wine. The biophysical properties of an estuary (temperature, salinity, nutrients) determine what kinds of algae grow there, and the algae determine what the oyster eats. The upstream environment adds another layer, as oysters don't just filter algae and plankton; they also pick up tiny bits of organic material from the surrounding watershed. An oyster from Hood Canal and a Tomales Bay oyster are likely both Pacifics, but they're eating entirely different diets in different water, and that shows up on your palate.
How do I know if an oyster is in season?
As a general rule, in the fall and winter West Coast oysters are usually pretty balanced tasting. Springtime oysters are sweet, plump, and sometimes not very salty. Depending on the variety and the year, summer oysters can be creamy and buttery, or they can hold onto the springtime conditions until fall. If you’re curious, give us a call or email!