Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw

by Jeremy Sewall, Marion Lear Swaybill, Scott Snider (Photographer)

Overview

For centuries, oysters have had the power to sustain and delight, inspiring writers and artists, lowly cooks and four-star chefs, laborers and gourmands, and everyone in between. A feast for the eyes and the palate oysters also are rich in history and lore. In Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw, Marion Lear Swaybill presents a wide-ranging visual exploration of this iconic shellfish, including stunning portraits of more than fifty oyster varietals, the latest photographs from some of the country’s most renowned and beautiful oyster farms, and notable illustrations of oysters in the arts and culture, all alongside a lively and informative text. Acclaimed chef and restaurateur Jeremy Sewall provides personal insights, drawing on his New England lineage and his stature in the forefront of the current oyster revival.

Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw is true to its title from start to finish. Chapter One is a primer on all things oyster. Chapter Two introduces readers to legendary oystermen and women from around the country. Chapter Three offers exquisite photographs of more than fifty varieties of North American oysters, along with flavor profiles and ”merroir.” Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw concludes with highlights from the oyster timeline, depictions of oysters in art through the ages and stories of oysters as aphrodisiacs, and parses oyster myths and metaphors. The book also features an oyster glossary and resource list. It is the only book of its kind—a definitive visual companion to this iconic, much loved mollusk.

Overflowing with gorgeous original photography and fascinating anecdotes, Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw is the perfect book for oyster aficionados and newbies, foodies and chefs of all stripes, lovers of photography and art, the environment, history, and the sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789212498
Publisher:	Abbeville Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/01/2016
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	228,567
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jeremy Sewall is an award-winning chef and restaurateur based in Boston and two-time James Beard Award nominee. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, he has cooked in kitchens around the globe, focusing on seasonal ingredients and his New England food heritage. His restaurants Lineage, Eastern Standard, Island Creek Oyster Bar, and Row 34 have received accolades from New York Times, Esquire, Gourmet and The Boston Globe, among others.

Marion Lear Swaybill is an Emmy award-winning television producer, writer, and pioneering media executive. As Director of Program Acquisitions at PBS station WNET, (1981-1989), Swaybill was on the cutting edge of the food-on-television revolution, introducing New York public television audiences to luminary chefs including Madhur Jaffrey, Lidia Bastianach, Martin Yan, Jacques Pepin, Britain’s memorable "Two Fat Ladies" and many others. A cook as well as a writer, her recipes have appeared in the "Great Cooks Guide" series (Random House) and New England’s "Sound Magazine."

Scott Snider is an award-winning natural history filmmaker whose work takes him around the world as an accomplished underwater, long lens, and macro cinematographer. Scott has over 45 major credits for National Geographic, PBS Nature, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, the National Park Service and others. He is the founder of Half Moon Productions, a film and photography studio based in Charleston, South Carolina.

Read an Excerpt

Oysters

A Celebration in the Raw

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By Jeremy Sewall, Marion Swaybill, Scott Snider

Abbeville Press

Copyright © 2016 Jeremy Sewall
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7892-1249-8

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Excerpt from Chapter I: About Oysters

The oyster—“greatly more complicated than a watch.”
—Aldous Huxley

From Ubiquity to Rarity and Back Again

For centuries, audacious eaters the world over have cherished oysters. Undeterred by the rough shell and impervious to the unctuous meat, oyster lovers invariably are rewarded by delicate textures and bright, briny flavors.

Plentiful in waters along the coast and high in calcium, iron, and protein, oysters were a dietary staple of the indigenous population and European settlers. By 1763 a humble saloon opened on Broad Street in New York City, the first public house to put oysters on the diners’ menu. Soon Amboys, Jamaicas, and Rockaways were advertised—then, as now, they were named for their place of origin.

So it began in America.

As the nineteenth century unfolded, oyster establishments could be found in every town along the East Coast and, after the Gold Rush, on the West Coast as well. Thanks to new rail lines and refrigerated boxcars, oysters were now reaching eager diners in the middle of the country too. Fancy oyster parlors sprang up down the street from rowdy oyster bars, and around the corner from oyster pushcarts. For some, a few slurps made a cheap meal. For others, oysters were an essential part of a leisurely dinner out or a sumptuous addition to a beautifully appointed table at home.

America was producing upwards of two billion oysters a year. And then, oyster production crashed.

As hungry patrons demanded ever more oysters, the industry responded with aggressive over harvesting that resulted in extensive destruction. Suppliers also began importing common European oyster species to broaden the supply; foreign breeds proved incompatible with local waters and rapidly spread disease.

Across the country, Washington State’s native Olympia oysters were disappearing too. As on the East Coast, over harvesting and disease were the likely causes. Eastern oysters were introduced to the West Coast with much anticipation but failed in the colder Pacific waters.

The once-abundant oyster supply was vanishing.

From the Industrial Revolution onward factory debris, dangerous chemical waste and increasingly damaging pollutants poured into estuaries and battered coastlines. Oyster reefs across North America were decimated, with some dying out altogether. By 1970, “Atlantic oyster culture fell to just one percent of its historical capacity.”

America’s bountiful bivalves became a rarity, a culinary luxury enjoyed primarily by the rich.

To the delight shellfish lovers everywhere, oysters are on the rebound. Over the past several decades, advancements in aquaculture, local food entrepreneurship, concern for the environment, vigorous water quality regulations, and greater producer and consumer confidence have contributed to the great oyster revival.

Though wild oysters abound in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, almost all the oysters we savor are farmed and nurtured along the reinvigorated coasts. More and more are harvested with every passing year.

All over America upscale, trendy restaurants, neighborhood bistros featuring dollar-an-oyster happy hours, and chic, new raw bars are satisfying a demand for oysters not seen for almost a century.

Location is Everything

The flavor of an oyster depends on several things. . . . It will taste like a Chincoteague or a Bluepoint or a mild oyster from the Louisiana bayous or perhaps a metallic tiny Olympia from the Western coast. Or it may have a clear harsh flavor, straight from a stall in a wintry French town, a stall piled herringbone style with Portugaises and Garennes. . . . Or it may taste firm and yet fat, like the English oysters from around Plymouth
—MFK Fisher

Like wine, oysters mirror their natural environment and draw overall flavor from the waters in which they live. There’s the pure, sharp brininess of Atlantic oysters and the sweeter, kelpier smoothness of Pacific oysters. Aquatic micro-zones contribute the more subtle flavor attributes. These highly individualized environments are the reason you hear so many different words used to describe the way oysters taste, look, and feel. Sublimely balanced Island Creeks. Sweet, fruity Hama Hamas. Creamy, herbaceous Hog Islands. Perfect, buttery Kumamotos. Earthy Olympias. Brassy Belons.

Water temperature is largely responsible for the texture of oysters. Oysters from the colder waters of Nova Scotia or Maine, for example, are firmer, crisper, and saltier than those from Virginia or the Gulf. Plumpness and toothiness are influenced by the quantity and quality of nutrients in the water— more nutrients mean more heft and more flavor.

The specific combination of water conditions that determines the flavor and character of oysters is called, somewhat tongue-in-cheekily, merroir , reflecting wine lovers’ use of the term terroir—the combination of soil, topography, and climate that produces different varieties of grapes.

Though there are only five oyster species, merroir produces hundreds of varieties that are distinct in taste, texture, and appearance. Most often, these varieties are named for where they are harvested—for their merroir. Peters Point, Glacier Bay, Blue Pool, Chatham, and Pemaquid are some of the best-known examples.

Understanding merroir is essential if you want to know which oysters you’re ordering and how they will taste and feel in your mouth.

The saltiness of the seawater that courses over the oyster’s body twenty-four hours a day has the greatest impact on its flavor. The Atlantic is saltier than the Pacific so you can expect eastern oysters to taste more of the sea than their western counterparts. There are further flavor distinctions within these broad categories. Oysters from the Chesapeake Bay, for example, are considerably less salty than those grown nearby in deeper Atlantic waters. Firm, briny Island Creek Oysters are considered among North America’s best, in large measure because of the unique water conditions in Duxbury Bay, where they grow.

As filter feeders, oysters extract algae, plankton, and other food particles from their immediate environment. Along with seawater these tiny organisms give oysters their nuanced flavor profiles and textures. Different seaweeds produce different notes— fruitiness, nuttiness, citrus, mineral, metallic, and vegetal among them. In general, oysters from the Pacific Northwest can be described as having hints of watermelon and cucumber, though flavors are more cucumber-like in British Columbia and more melony in Washington.

In essence, oysters are what they eat.


And When They Eat It

Oysters are highly seasonal. The algae that sustains them bloom in the spring when the water temperatures warm, proliferate in the full sun of summer, diminish in the autumn and go dormant in the winter. Anticipating their dwindling food supply, oysters gorge in the fall, becoming plump and sweet, making autumn prime time for both harvesting and eating oysters. Fueled by their autumn feast oysters hibernate in the winter, when their food supply disappears altogether. They emerge thin in the spring, ready to feed on the newly blooming algae. And so it goes.

Each year they spend in the water, oysters grow another inch or so. In the ancient piles of oyster shells (known as middens) identified by archeologists, there are oyster shells up to two feet long. Foot-long shells are more common and indicate a ten to twenty year growing cycle.

Excerpt from Chapter IV - Oyster Stories

The Original Food Porn

Oysters evoke not only the idea of concealed virtue, since the eatable part is firmly enclosed within the valves, but also—and for the same reason—the power of love.
—Silvia Malaguzzi, Food and Feasting in Art

Centuries before we coined the term “food porn” to describe mouthwatering magazine spreads and seductive Instragram feeds, there were seventeenth century European still-life paintings. Sumptuous foods were rendered in magnificent detail and splendid banquet tables were depicted, laden with grapes, apricots, lemons, pheasants, venison, lobsters, wines—and oysters.

The Dutch, in particular, were obsessed with depicting oysters, no one more so than Osais Beert (c. 1580–1623/24). Beert is considered one the greatest still life painters of the period and the single greatest painter of oysters. [ch4_beert] Among his many gifts was the ability to replicate the play of light on the creamy, lustrous oyster flesh, shimmering oyster liquor, and rigid, pearlescent interior shell.

Considering the array of extravagant representations of oysters in all their glory—Beert’s and others—it’s easy to imagine the Golden Age of Dutch still-life painting as an equally Golden Age of oyster painting. Consistently, oysters were shown as symbols of taste and prosperity. They were also emblems of fertility, sensuality, and sexuality.

Over time grand scenes of lavish feasts of oysters gave way to more intimate, domestic moments, loaded with sexual innuendo. Oysters—and lovers—were put front and center, as the genre evolved from “feast to tryst.”

Jan Steen’s Girl with Oysters (1658–60) shows a quintessential seventeenth century seductress. Innocent and provocative at the same time, she gazes directly at the viewer, seemingly offering the oyster she is salting— and herself. Behind the girl is a bed with closed curtains, as if to accentuate both the artist’s and the girl’s intent. [ch4_steen]

Ironically, according to Dutch food writer and chef Geron de Leeuw, “Rendering an oyster was a bit naughty [in the seventeenth century] since they stood for sexual freedom in a time when Calvinism swept the Netherlands.”

Two hundred years later Edouard Manet painted Oysters, ostensibly for his fiancée. The composition, colors and, perhaps, even the meaning of the 1862 still life reflect the Dutch Masters he assiduously studied at the Louvre. With his bolder, more contemporary strokes, Manet achieves an even greater degree of lushness and sensuality in his depiction of oysters. Like the works of his forebears, if painted today, Manet’s Oysters surely would achieve the hashtag, #foodporn.

The lure of oysters did not stop with Manet. From Henri Matisse to pop art icon Roy Lichtenstein to today’s commercial and decorative artists, there is no shortage of twentieth and twenty-first century oyster paintings. Although later artists have been less interested in sexual innuendo, oysters have not escaped them as objects of sheer erotic beauty.

Roy Lichtenstein delivers pop eroticism in his 1973 Still Life with Oysters, Fish in a Bowl and Book. With the economy of line and hard-edged literalness for which he is famous, Lichtenstein delivers larger-than-life, surprisingly sensual, mouthwatering mollusks. [ch4_lichtenstein]

On a grand scale or small canvas, from one generation and genre to the next, oysters fascinate, captivate, and rouse the creative spirit.

The Food of Love and Lust

Lewdly dancing at a midnight ball
We should for hot eryngoes and fat oysters call . . .
—Juvenal, Sixth Satire

Think of oysters, try not to think about sex.
—Rebecca Stolt, Oyster

Men were eating oysters to enhance their sexual prowess long before pharmaceutical companies began developing drugs for the same reason.

Roman physician and philosopher Galen of Pergamon (129–c. 200) was one of the most accomplished and influential medical practitioners of the ancient world. He attended to many wealthy Romans, including royalty. When Galen’s rich and powerful patients confided about waning sexual desire and other libidinous matters, he prescribed oysters. Not surprisingly, oysters were consumed in vast quantities by the emperors and their courts, notably at imperial Roman orgies where they were piled by the thousands on banquet tables.

From the late first century poet, Juvenal through the Jacobeans and Elizabethans to the pop star Lady Gaga, oysters have epitomized pleasures of the flesh and sparked intimacy between lovers.

C.H. Chartier’s Delectable Demaundes (1566) asked, “Why were oysters consecrated by the auncient to venus? Bycause oysters do prouoke lecherie.” Decades later John Jones, in his play Adstrata (1635), referred to oysters as “self-swallowing provocatives.”

Voluptuous oyster sellers were fixtures on the streets of seventeenth and eighteenth century London, with baskets of oysters strapped to their backs or balanced on their heads, their ample bosoms heaving under the weight. In the eyes of passersby, oyster sellers were one with their wares—objects of erotic gratification.

The legendary eighteenth century Venetian adventurer and lothario Giacomo Girolamo Casanova reportedly downed fifty oysters every morning to ensure his fabulous sexual stamina. In his memoirs, Casanova boasted of 122 liaisons and offered erotic tales of seduction and oysters. To wit:

I placed the shell on the edge of her lips and after a good deal of laughing, she sucked in the oyster, which she held between her lips. I instantly recovered it by placing my lips on hers.

Casanova’s amatory prose was echoed a hundred years later in The Oyster, a scandalous underground magazine of erotica published in Victorian England. The title alone promised eager readers that tales of sex and seduction lay between the covers.

The seductive power of oysters was also showcased in Henry Fielding’s comic novel of 1749, Tom Jones, which was adapted for the screen in 1963. That cinematic rendition featured one of the most memorable, bawdiest food scenes ever filmed, with the raffish young Tom lasciviously slurping oysters for the benefit of the randy wench at his side.

Across the Atlantic, America has had her fair share of risqué oyster seductresses as well.

Michael Ondaatje’s describes one such woman in his 1976 novel Coming Through Slaughter, set in early-twentieth century New Orleans.

The best [whore in New Orleans] was Olivia the Oyster Dancer who would place a raw oyster on her forehead and lean back and shimmy it down over her body without ever dropping it.

Oysters and sex have mingled for decades in New Orleans, perhaps most notably in the character of Evangeline the Oyster Girl. An illustrious Bourbon Street burlesque dancer in the 1940’s and ‘50s, Evangeline seductively emerged from a giant oyster shell to perform her audacious striptease all the while holding an enormous pearl. For a time Evangeline dyed her hair seaweed green to complete her oysterly persona.

The idea for the Oyster Girl comes from a Bayou legend about a beautiful “supernatural seductress” named Evangeline who slept undisturbed at the bottom of the ocean. Every 100 years she’d rise from her oyster bed in search of earthly pleasures.

In real life, Evangeline was the creation Abby Jewel Slawson, also known as Kitty West, a poor girl from Mississippi who, at the age of sixteen, made her way to New Orleans in search of fame and fortune. She hit the oyster-as-aphrodisiac jackpot with the sultry Evangeline. New Oyster Girls have reprised Kitty’s fabled act ever since.

Today’s marketers and magazine editors make their own indelible contributions to the oyster-as-aphrodisiac mythology, especially around Valentine’s Day. Raw oysters are presented as the quintessential offering for modern lovers, with romantic couples shown entangled over platters of oysters, enjoying a hedonistic moment.

Modern scientists have also been taken with oysters, though they have sought a biological answer to the timeless question, Are oysters aphrodisiacs? In 2005, Antimo D’Aniello of the Laboratory of Neurobiology in Naples and George Fisher, a professor of chemistry at Barry University, Miami reported a connection between oysters and increased testosterone in animals.

Studying mollusks, the researchers found that oysters are rich in rare amino acids that triggered increased levels of sex hormones in laboratory animals. The scientific jury is out on whether there is enough evidence to suggest a human link, but D’Aniello and Fisher’s findings fascinated their associated at the American Chemical Society nonetheless.

Apart from the amino acids noted by D’Aniello and Fisher, oysters are rich in zinc, a key nutrient found in male sperm. Do zinc and the recently identified amino acids make a difference? If you consume enough oysters, they may simulate your libido—or not.

Whatever the reason, when oysters do titillate, the aphrodisiac effect is less likely connected to your actual body chemistry and more a reflection of your overall sensory experience. The power of suggestion can be powerful indeed and should not be underestimated when it comes to oysters, nor should persuasive cultural subtexts reinforced from one generation to the next.

In the long trajectory of love, lust, and oysters, perhaps the fabulous Lady Gaga should have the final say on the subject. With legions of fans hanging on her every note, she minces no words in her 2013 hit song, Venus:

Have an oyster, baby
It’s Aphrod-isy
Act sleazy

When all is said and done, written and sung, it may be that oysters are aphrodisiacs simply because we say they are.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Oysters by Jeremy Sewall, Marion Swaybill, Scott Snider. Copyright © 2016 Jeremy Sewall. Excerpted by permission of Abbeville Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Author’s Note

Introduction

Chapter 1: About Oysters

Chapter 2: Oystermen

Chapter 3: Simply Oysters

Chapter 4: Oyster Stories

Notes

Glossary

Resources

Acknowledgments

Index

Editorial Reviews

10/31/2016
Swaybill, an Emmy Award–winning TV producer, and seafood chef Sewall join forces for this quick overview of their favorite bivalve. Chapter one contains a short history of oysters in America, an explanation of why different types have different flavors, and a look at shucking knives, which can range in price from $10 to $2000. The second chapter profiles several oyster farmers and the farms to which they are devoted. Then comes the main course: 100 pages of close-up photography. Dozens of opened oysters get the treatment, which consists of two large photos that focus on the swirls, ridges and gooey guts of the interior, as well as the beautiful and intricate patterns of the outer shell. Wildlife cinematographer Scott Snider shoots them all stunningly against a black background, giving them the eerie appearance of mollusks lost in space, or perhaps a lengthy Rorschach test suitable for SpongeBob SquarePants. A few sentences accompany each entry, providing information on how, where, and by whom the oyster was grown. Despite Sewall being a James Beard Award nominee, the only recipes are two simple mignonette sauces for those who feel the need; raw oysters are the order of the day. Instead, the final pages contain a brief education on oysters in art and history. Pliny the Elder, it turns out, wrote "effusively and at length" on the subject, and a catalog of artists, from Édouard Manet to Roy Lichtenstein, have immortalized them on canvas. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"2016 Holiday gift guide selection "

Parade

"Oysters are back, and luckily writer Marion Lear Swaybill and Chef Jeremy Sewall are here to celebrate one of the few food groups chefs are happy to leave alone, knowing they are best eaten cold and raw."

Eli Zabar

"2016 Holiday gift guide selection "

Mic

"2016 Holiday gift guide selection "

Foster's Daily Democrat

"Reveals everything you wanted to know about the shellfish"

The New York Times

"2016 Address gift guide selection"

The Boston Guide

"2016 Holiday gift guide selection "

Mic

AWARDS

2016 Holiday gift guide selection — Mic

2016 Holiday gift guide selection — Parade

2016 Address gift guide selection— The Boston Guide

2016 Holiday gift guide selection — Foster’s Daily Democrat


PRAISE FOR OYSTERS

“Oysters are back, and luckily writer Marion Lear Swaybill and Chef Jeremy Sewall are here to celebrate one of the few food groups chefs are happy to leave alone, knowing they are best eaten cold and raw”—Eli Zabar, New York’s neighborhood grocer

"Reveals everything you wanted to know about the shellfish."—The New York Times

"If you know someone who considers the world their oyster, is obsessed with seafood or other aphrodisiacs, this book is for them." —Parade

"Chef Jeremy Sewall and journalist Marion Lear Swaybill present historical anecdotes and plenty of quotable factoids, plus information on growing cycles and growers, and tasting notes on 54 varieties." —The Wall Street Journal

"A beautiful volume featuring oysters as art, along with descriptions of how different oysters are raised, how they taste, as well as suggestions for serving them at home." —Forbes

"Features pretty portraits of oysters and oyster farms, plus briefings on bivalve prep."—The Boston Globe

"If oysters are an aphrodisiac, let this beautiful book speak volumes." — Mic

"Gorgeous oyster centerfolds." — Tasting Table

“One can only say, ‘About time!’ It is a delight to have a book that treats this beloved mollusk from every possible standpoint. It is at once a field guide and an eater's companion, an entertaining romp, and a cookbook for those who like it raw. We've long been awaiting a volume such as this. The marvelous photographic gallery, revealing the character of each of dozens of oyster varieties, would by itself be enough, but this is ever so much more. Truly a pearl.” — Nach Waxman, Founding Partner of Kitchen Arts & Letters

“Marion Lear Swaybill wanted to make an ode to oysters that was as much a guidebook as an art book celebrating their inherent beauty. With Boston chef Jeremy Sewall, she wrote Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw … They worked with dozens of oysters farmers and photographer Scott Snider to produce a beautiful yet compact ode to more than 50 varietals and the history, lore, art and science behind them."—Food Matters, Austin American Statesman

“Though many have a fondness for oysters, Chef Jeremy Sewall and writer Marion Lear Swaybill gush with an outright passion in this love letter to the beloved bivalve. Jeremy, an expert taster and professional oyster pusher, offers up a range of mouth-watering descriptions while Marion puts forth a solid primer covering everything from the rich history of oyster culture in this country to notes on how to identify certain species and, more importantly, how to open and enjoy them. If you’ve been on the hunt for a book that thoughtfully covers all things oyster, you're in good hands.”— Erin Byers Murray, author of Shucked: Life on a New England Oyster Farm

"Then comes the main course: 100 pages of close-up photography. Dozens of opened oysters get the treatment, which consists of two large photos that focus on the swirls, ridges and gooey guts of the interior, as well as the beautiful and intricate patterns of the outer shell. Wildlife cinematographer Scott Snider shoots them all stunningly against a black background, giving them the eerie appearance of mollusks lost in space.”—Publishers Weekly

“The authors’ deep love and knowledge and the incredible photography casts the oyster in an even more beguiling light. It’s truly a work of passion and art.”—Barton Seaver, author of the best-selling For Cod and Country: Simple, Delicious, Sustainable Cooking

“If you love eating oysters but know little about all the various East Coast, Gulf Coast and West Coast varieties, then we’ve got a handy reference for you … Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw is a primer on everything you need to know about these ambrosial bivalves…you’ll find more than 200 pages brimming with beautifully photographed oysters, their origins and flavor profiles, as well as helpful insights on the history and current revival of oyster farming in America.”—Food Republic

"A gorgeous look at this popular and delicate mollusk, from decadent history, to modern oyster farming, to many varieties and their unique properties."—Omnivoracious

"I have to admit that I am not an oyster enthusiast and couldn't imagine how you could have an entire book devoted to the subject. What a revelation! The book is not only a comprehensive encyclopedia of oysters but you've included the history and provenance as well as a look at the passionate people who are working to restore oysters to a sustainable place in American cuisine. Oysters may or may not be an aphrodisiac but they clearly inspire passion among its devotees.”—Chris Fennimore, Producer/Host, QED Cooks, Pittsburgh

"Mollusk-lovers rejoice! Jeremy Sewall and Marion Lear Swaybill dive into the depths for an expansive exploration of the beloved bivalve."—Boston Chefs

"This is a good general reference book on oysters, just not for the home cook."—The Manhattan Book Review

From the Publisher