Tasty Rocks
John McCabe

The famous 18th century author Jonathan Swift once wrote: "He was a bold man that first ate an oyster". Oysters are essentially cold, wet, scaly, brownish gray "rocks" with sharp edges. No man is strong enough to pry them apart with his bare hands. Their appearance hardly suggests a culinary superlative. One might wonder what prompted early man to grant these "rocks" a second glance, let alone actually consume one of them for the first time. It likely wasn't founded in his quest for new culinary heights, but rather in plain hunger.

Some contemporaries like the sea gull and sea otter may have encouraged early man to give oysters a try. The clever gull can pick up a smaller oyster or clam, fly over some rocks, simply drop it, and proceed to pick the tasty mollusk from the shattered shell. The crafty otter dives down, picks up a flat rock and an oyster. He then returns to the surface and, floating belly up, then proceeds to break the oyster open and slurps it gleefully.

Whatever the circumstances may have been that prompted the initial "brave" consumption of oysters, one thing is certain: Stone Age Man ultimately ended up loving oysters. The discovery of huge prehistoric shell middens in many coastal regions of the world prove that oysters have been part of mankind's diet for many thousands of years. Permanent settlements of prehistoric man existed 6,000 years ago along the Baltic Sea in northern Europe. Their kitchen middens reveal lots of oyster shells. The same holds true for the kitchen middens of the coastal Indians of North America 4,000 years ago. In contrast to the European tribes, the North American Indians were already cooking their oysters. There's even talk of a "prehistoric oyster stew".

Why did the ancient Native Americans cook their oysters while ancient Europeans didn't? Were the Indians possibly more sophisticated culinarily than their European counterparts? Likely not I believe. The reason for this may lie in the respectively available oysters. The early U.S. East Coast Indians consumed the Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica). The Stone Age Europeans delighted in the consumption of the European oyster (Ostrea edulis). The Eastern oyster grows a lot larger than its distant cousin, the European oyster. A large Eastern oyster can certainly prove to be a most formidable fortress when opening is attempted with primitive tools. However, throwing these "rocks" on the glowing embers of their camp fires for just few minutes would have opened them most conveniently.

The Eastern oyster (as is the case with all the species belonging to the genus Crassostrea) is also designed quite differently than the European oyster. It has sort of a "pot with a lid" design. The oyster meat subsequently cooks nicely in it's own juices on the embers. Conversely, the shell of the European oyster is rather flat with one of the two shell halves (called valves) just a little deeper than the other. Had the European Stone Age dweller pitched them on the embers of his fire, the oyster meat inside would have been rendered to the equivalent of a dry, chewy piece of rubber within a matter of a few minutes. In terms of the European oyster, nothing has changed to this very day. You are unlikely to ever catch a true oyster connoisseur anywhere in the world who has been fortunate enough to get his hands on a batch of succulent (and expensive) European oysters, throwing these gems on his trusty barbecue grill. The Eastern and Pacific oysters in turn are simply ideally suited for grilling.

Perhaps this may also explain why almost all the oysters in Europe are consumed raw today. The European oyster may have, over the course of many thousands of years, contributed to that deep seated belief among most Europeans today, which dictates (erroneously) that the raw consumption of any oyster is the "only right way to enjoy an oyster", hence missing out on exploring the many additional ways of preparing and enjoying oysters. Interestingly, this firm belief did not change with the introduction of the Portuguese oyster (Crassostrea angulata) in the coastal waters of France in the 19th century. The Portuguese oyster is remarkably similar (and closely related) to both the Eastern and Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas). In the second half of the 20th century, the Pacific oyster replaced the Portuguese oyster and now accounts for far more than 90% of all the oysters in Europe. The European oyster is, in comparison, an expensive rarity these days. Nonetheless, and despite some excellent (in particular French) recipes, any oyster consumption other than raw continues to be considered by many Europeans as "downright barbaric". However, rarely do they care to venture out on the proverbial "thin ice" when asked if slurping a live animal from a half shell should subsequently be considered "more civilized".

Many anthropologists believe that there were a number of compelling reasons for stone age people to settle near the sea shore. Collecting oysters and other shellfish was far more convenient and far less dangerous than hunting wild game. The ability to hunt was also influenced by the weather and the seasons. While hunting was generally reserved only for the men, the entire family, including the children, could part take all year long in the foraging for shellfish. Crude stone tools were sufficient to process the bounty of the sea afterwards.

These ancient civilizations likely already knew what we can scientifically prove today: Oysters, besides tasting great, are extremely nutritious!