Would u dare eat um

[billyfish]

Would you cook and eat oysters from chichester harbour. They are growing really well now big and fat . Not natives. But are they doing well because of all that human fertilizer southern waters giving them. Surely if they are gathered on a incoming tide and cooked they should be fine ??????

 

[AndrewB]

No!

 

[ltcom]

Need to be filtered with clean salt water and go through UV light too before being acceptable as for sale ......and eating....... as I understand.

 

[Slowboat35]

can't delete a post.

Mods, why?

 

[Slowboat35]

I don't think you can (ie I'm absolutely certain you can't) imagine that oysters are flushed clean by a mere incoming tide. After all, how much of the 'incoming tide' in Chi was also a part of the outgoing?
Plus the pathogens; bacteria and visuses that might give you the West Wittering Chittering won't be flushed by just one tide even in gin-clear ocean water.

Maybe if - are you serious - ugh - cooked...? Really? If you must.

That said, just how much sewage goes into Chichester Harbour? How dirty is it? I'd certainly want to be careful as ther eis significant population around it.
Around my way the E coast oysters grow the size of two large man's hands in our marinas but the lack of throughput of water plus boats flushing out at night and all that antifoul...The estuaries are quite another matter.
Mudflats around Brightlingsea (some actually oyster-shell flats) and Walton backwaters are absolutely full of oysters. Water murky as could be - ie stuffed with nutrients - little idea where sewage could come from and no worries about TBT...Another matter entirely. Fished commercially in increasing quantities as the water quality gets ever better.

There are many websites that provide detailed and up to date bacteriological data on Chichester and all other harbours' water so you can judge for yourself.

Personally I'd be happy to eat them if there had been no heavy rain within several days (to avoid sewage runoff pollution) and happier still if les huitres had spent a couple of days in a net in clean channel water.

As for UV? Not practical for us. UV can't penetrate an oyster's shell. It's a means of sterilising the water in which oysters are stored in bulk prior to commercial sale where the stakes and paranoia are higher. 48hrs in clean channel water would do much the same I have little doubt.
UV treated! Ha! What price artificially 'processed" food, eh?
You'd never sell them at all if you let on they'd been irradiated!

 

[neil_s]

I saw an oyster dredger up our creek a couple of days ago. If the fishermen can take them, I don't see why you shouldn't.

 

[RJJ]

I would go for it. Good for the taste if OK, good for the immune system if not.

How the world ought to operate...if everyone contributes a tenner and there's at least £100 in the pot, I will have 12 and let you know if I'm alive. If you don't hear from me, assume the worst.

 

[Greenheart]

?

That's not a lazy comment, it's a prediction.

 

[salar]

You would need to check the regulations anyway All Regulations : Southern IFCA

 

[ltcom]

They also place them in tanks of clean seawater at room temperature. In the latter case, which is known as depuration, the shellfish filter clean water through their system and excrete most bacteria from their digestive tracts into the water. The dirty water is then filtered and sterilized with UV light.

OSU makes oysters safer to eat with improved purification method

I used to visit a place called Mersea Island, E. Coast of uk, Essex - famous for it oysters - they used UV - whatever that is..... and charged accordingly.

 

[bedouin]

How do you cook oysters?

 

[Tranona]

How do you cook oysters?

With heat. Never had Angels on Horseback - oyster wrapped in bacon and grilled? All sorts of ways of cooking them from the basic just put the shell on the dying embers of your beach fire to Oysters Rockefeller which has a crumb based topping with herbs and lardons done either under a grille or on a barbie.

 

[Stemar]

?
You could pay me enough to eat oysters, because everyone has his price, but I'd be shopping for a new boat soon after.

The first bloke to eat one must have been REALLY hungry...

 

[DownWest]

They used to be poor peoples food in New York, but things have changed.....
We eat them off the rocks here, but I would (more than) hesitate in Chi Harbour.

Mrs likes them cooked: Open, put some breadcrumbs on, then butter and tarragon. Under the grill for a bit, till the crumbs are slightly toasted.

 

[Aussie farmer]

Wicked combination, full aphrodisiac with stage four gastric , that could make a mess up the wall???

 

[AntarcticPilot]

With heat. Never had Angels on Horseback - oyster wrapped in bacon and grilled? All sorts of ways of cooking them from the basic just put the shell on the dying embers of your beach fire to Oysters Rockefeller which has a crumb based topping with herbs and lardons done either under a grille or on a barbie.

My Hong Kong relatives regard the idea of eating raw shellfish with mild horror. Oysters in Hong Kong are often deep fried!

 

[RJJ]

They used to be poor peoples food in New York, but things have changed.....
We eat them off the rocks here, but I would (more than) hesitate in Chi Harbour.

Mrs likes them cooked: Open, put some breadcrumbs on, then butter and tarragon. Under the grill for a bit, till the crumbs are slightly toasted.

In the Downton era it was normal for servants to be hired with promises of pay, lodging and board, with the latter subject to lobster/shellfish no more than x times a month.

 

[Frayed Knot]

Wicked combination, full aphrodisiac with stage four gastric , that could make a mess up the wall???

TBH I think the aphrodisiac quality of oysters is over rated - I once tried a dozen & only eight worked…

 

[DownWest]

TBH I think the aphrodisiac quality of oysters is over rated - I once tried a dozen & only eight worked…

You ate them over a month??

 

[Fimacca]

Nay sir..........