re: Oyster shucking for newb-any tips?

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Get this oyster knife.

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I prefer oyster knives with knobs before the blade to help prevent my hand from running down on the blade if I slip.

OP, in addition to a good oyster glove, use an old rag or towel to grip each oyster and give yourself a bit of extra protection.

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OP, in addition to a good oyster glove, use an old rag or towel to grip each oyster and give yourself a bit of extra protection.

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This is all I do.

Rinse them off very well as stated
Rag to hold them and I like the dexter knives just fine.
As stated throw any tough ones back in the box and work them later
You want to lightly but firmly jab the knife in and twist it back and forth until you find the sweet spot to pop the shell.
Then run the knife along the top shell to cut the top shell off at the hinge, repeat on the bottom shell

for raw, prepare a pie pan or baking sheet with ice ahead of time so you can rest them on the ice without spilling the liquid out

for baked or grilled, I use one of those cookie sheet grates to hold the cleaned oyesters so that the juice doesn't spill out.


Save any shells with the right shape and proper depth (good bowl shape) for later as you'll get some oysters with shells that are not good for grilling/ baking. They are too flat or irregular shape to hold sauce and juices

I'll shuck 4-5 sacks a year and have been doing so for several years. I can go thru a sack in 30 minutes or so with my trusty Dexter. I don't think that is very impressive or anything. Just giving you a timeframe for a mildly experienced redneck oyster shucker. You're probably looking at an hour + being a newby.

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Mmm what time should we be there?

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anytime man. There may be shitty, gritty oysters, but the Tigers will be on.

I watched a college buddy from the parish cut right through his palm trying to shuck an oyster. If I'm shucking an oyster I'm using a knife resistant glove and an oyster knife.

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How much does a sack go for these days?

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I last checked early this year and was told $68---and that was for a mini-sack that contained less than 8 dozen oysters, and to me that is obscenely high.

Of course I come from a time when I could buy oysters by the 100 lb. sack that had 20-22 dozen oysters in them and they cost all of $10 a sack.

It's an abomination what has happened to raw oysters in the N.O. area.

That lever works well with the exception that there's the possibility of losing a lot of the oyster's water since the oyster is on it's side when opening. I still use it when opening up a bunch of sacks as it makes it too easy, but since you need a knife to cut the muscle any way I just quickly pop them and hand them to someone with a knife to finish them off. You still get a oyster swimming in its water and you can shuclk a whole sack in quarter of the time.

I also wash the hinge portion on the shell. When ready to open place a small clean towel next to you. When you pop the hinge open just a little wipe the tip of the knife off on the towel before preceding opening the oyster the rest of the way.

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I also wash the hinge portion on the shell. When ready to open place a small clean towel next to you. When you pop the hinge open just a little wipe the tip of the knife off on the towel before preceding opening the oyster the rest of the way.

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I'm old school. I use my bare wrist and forearm to clean the knife if need be.



True story.

The wife and I were invited to a block party in the fall about 2 years ago and it was a pot luck type deal so I brought a pot of jambalaya. When we got there, they had a neighbor smoking chicken and pork on his Masterbuilt and another neighbor with a Weber that was grilling freshly opened oysters, only he had no oysters to cook.

A neighbor across the street had gotten 500 beautiful singles and they hired a guy out of a local bar to shuck them. I go across the street to see what the holdup was and the guy they hired was on his phone looking at u-tube videos on how to shuck oysters. He had no clue and had never shucked an oyster before and the few he tried, he butchered.

Soooo, I sent him packing and spent the next few hours shucking for the party with the wife taking trays of 2-3 dozen at a time for the guy to grill them.

The guy they hired told me he had seen a guy open them and didn't think it was so tough-----------now he knows.

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Never shucked one in my life.

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You're looking at 1.5 hours for a sack, maybe shave off 15min if you're a natural and have good equipment. As others have said, get the Dexter knife, a good glove, and an oyster lead.