Matt Armendarez recently posted about his love of sardines on his incredible food blog Matt Bites. In that post, titled An Open Letter, Matt’s outlook on the situation is satirical, light and downright hilarious but as he put it, he just couldn’t keep his love of tinned fish a secret any longer.
I have a confession of my own to make. While I agree with Matt that tinned fish are a tasty snack, in fact, one I would happily sit back in a public venue and enjoy right along with him, I have a much deeper love for another tinned seafood product, namely smoked oysters.
Wow! You should have seen the look on your face!
Right now a whole slew of people are thinking thoughts along the lines of “Wait a minute! I thought this was the food snob guy! You mean he actually eats those little eraser looking things? …From a CAN?”
Yes, I do. I absolutely adore the smokey-and-ever-so-slightly-briny flavor of a good smoked oyster, especially paired with just the tiniest bit of good sea salt. They work perfectly as both a quick snack on a cracker right out of the tin but serve equally well as a fairly upscale appetizer if they are presented properly. The flavors are complex and the texture is surreal.
Yup, I just waxed poetic about a little mollusk in a tin can, packed in cottonseed or olive oil (I prefer the latter.)
Please don’t hate me for this!
I developed my taste for these little gems of flavor at my fathers’ side when I was about 6 I think. This, along with a love of smoked salmon and all things spicy is my father’s legacy to me. He loved rich flavors, while my mother preferred very simple and subtle foods for the most part. (Though she did love sardines and scrambled eggs. A flavor combination I never could fall in love with.)
On top of just being quite yummy, Oysters are high in Omega 3 fatty acids, zinc and are a great source of protein. Eating raw or undercooked oysters can cause serious illness for some people. For more information about these possible issues, please read up on the subject. Even Gulf oysters can cause these problems, so where you get them is not the issue!
As far as I’m concerned they are one of the best snacks around, especially if you’re looking at keeping your blood pressure down like I am. If you think you might want to give these a go, (and you should, you really, really should) try this little presentation. I bet you’ll find that you can actually enjoy a good smoked oyster.
Smoked Oysters with Olive Oil, Sea Salt and Scallions - A smoky love affair
Ingredients
Instructions
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
2 Serving Size:
1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 82Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 6gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 94mgCarbohydrates: 2gFiber: 0gSugar: 0gProtein: 3g
Matt,
Coming from you that is one hell of a compliment! I actually came up with the idea from a recipe on sardine meze, I just omitted the lemon juice. You can find that recipe (If you can call it a recipe) Here
OH MY GOD! I’m sitting here drooling right now because I can practically taste this! I love love love smoked oysters too! I’ve never thought of dressing them up in such a manner and I didn’t even know one could! I’ll be making this recipe this weekend — if I can hold out that long.
Hee! Don’t feel bad; I adore tinned octopus. See? It could be worse.
But if you’re up for trying it, the octopus is wonderful sauteed with a little garlic and olive oil, over a bed of linguine with just a pinch of parm and freshly-squeezed lemon juice. :)
While I ain’t a fan, basically scared of them. Tinned fish is just fine if it’s packed in oil. It’s that damned water packed crud that blows chunks. That was one of Julia’s pet peeves, she just howled about it. Water degrades the quality of the meat! It’s no good! I agree.
Cheers
ps – Just sent a little letter off to the foodnetwork & Irvine attempting to cheer him up and let him know we don’t give a rat’s nut about his resume.
I’m not a big fan of oysters Jerry…tinned or not ( I don’t get the hoo-hah associated with them). Its an interesting way you serve them and they do look “posh” as we say here in Oz.
Jerry, your blog has become a daily habit for me. It’s jogged my memory of what I haven’t done in awhile and inspires me to try new things, Thank you.
My son LOVES those tinned smoke oysters, has since he was just a toddler. My influence I’m afraid, but 40 years later he’s far beyond me in consuming these. I give him a case for each Christmas and birthday. If you wouldn’t mind I’d like to print out your photo and excerpt from this post to put in his April birthday package with a pack of ceramic spoons from Uwajimaya. What a grand idea. I, simple soul am I, am happy with a sleeve of saltines and tin of smoked oysters while watching an old movie ;) I think smoked clams are pretty darned good too; comes in a close second.
I can’t eat oysters. They remind me of the big bags my dad used to bring home that he and my sister devoured alive! They put some lime juice on them and they still moved while they sucked them down. That was a traumatic experience for me so now every time that I see oysters I think of people eating stuff that still moves :-/. Your pics, however, look delicious. I just have to pretend they are not oysters. Ha!
This would be good with canned crabmeat, too. I prefer Bumblebee.
meat with crackers ?? for me this is very uncommon.
Wake up.
Yum — smoked oysters in olive oil (only).
I frequently use them to top a lunch salad. A nice handful of organic lettuce, a few slices of avocado, a favorite salad dressing — oysters on top.
Very, very wonderful!
I’ve never tried them on a salad like that. Will have to do so in the near future!
I was just doing useless information research, as people like to call it ,while having a snack of these delicious morsels. I’ve never bothered with anything more complicated than saltines and an occasional sprinkle of kosher salt. Your recipe looks great but is there a way you know of to make them less appealing and discourage people from eating smoked oysters? I buy them and find the empty tins in the trash where my children have eaten them all. Lol