THE OYSTER ABROAD.
British Oysters in Ostend Quarters; the Whitstable in a Slow Coach;
Holstein, Schleswig, and Heligoland Natives; Norwegian and Bremer
Oysters; American Oysters; French Oysters; Dutch Oysters; Mediterranean
Oysters, and Classical Judges.
I am not writing a book for the man of science. I could not if I would.
It is for those who love oysters for the eating that I have turned
author; and all the facts which are strung together in the last chapters
were put there for their delectation, and not for the sake of raising
the smile which I saw just now pass over the face of my friend Sawbones
when I mentioned oyster-poultices. Just because I am not scientific, but
only practical, I shall not trouble myself to notice any of the many
species of oysters, both at home and abroad, which, though pretty in
themselves, never find their way to the table, which is the sole field
of my discoveries.
I shall therefore begin my list of foreign oysters with the best of them
all, the next of kin to our Native, and next to it the best oyster in
the world.
1. _The Ostend Oyster_ is nothing more than the real British oyster,
cleaned and fattened in the Ostend oyster-beds. It has a fine, thin,
transparent but deep shell, the upper shell being quite flat; it is very
full, white, and fat, has a very small beard, and is very digestible.
During a south-west wind, which brings to these beds the microscopic
spores of sea vegetation and animalcules upon which it delights to feed,
from the channel, its beard is of a green colour. The Ostend oyster is
much prized in Berlin, which it reaches the quickest of any from the
sea, (in thirty-six to forty hours,) and consequently lives there
several days, remains the longest fresh, and can be sent farthest. Last
winter Ostend oysters were sent to Moscow and Odessa, where they arrived
still good and tasty. The former were seventeen days, and the latter
eleven days on their way. Scarcely any other kind of oysters could be
sent to such a distance. In the autumn of 1847, after the opening of the
Cologne-Minden Railway, the first trial was made of sending these
oysters to Berlin, via Cologne. The result was most satisfactory; they
sold for 1-1/2 thalers the hundred. This caused no little sensation,
especially among the old oyster dealers, who were accustomed to receive
from five to six, even from eight to nine thalers per hundred. The good
folks of Berlin are now supplied with abundant fresh and fine oysters.
The Ostend natives may be obtained from the owner of the oyster beds in
Ostend. I speak of Berlin, as the Germans are great oyster-eaters, and
the North, in a great measure, is supplied from thence.
In Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and Lille, Ostend oysters are eaten
with slices of home-baked bread, and butter. They are served up in their
shells, open, and not broken apart. They have a tender, fragrant, and
melting flesh, and are only half the size of ordinary oysters; but they
gain in thickness what they lose in size. In Flanders and the
Netherlands they are known under the name of "English oysters," but are
called in Paris after the name of the beds where they are reared. They
are in reality Edinburgh "Natives," cleaned and fattened in the Ostend
oyster-beds, and hence called Belgian or Ostend oysters.
The oyster of Ostend cannot be too much recommended to gourmets. It is
to the common oyster what a chicken is to an old hen. It is a draught of
bitter ale to a thirsty palate. It is a known fact, that after having
abstained from food for a long time, the first oyster one eats produces
a kind of unusual rictus (or opening of the mouth), the reason of which
physiologists have never been able to explain. This same sensation is
produced in eating an Ostend oyster, but it is much sweeter, more
lasting, and much more delightful. If the Romans had ever known them
they would have sung their praises both in verse and prose, and would by
far have preferred them to their sadly over-praised oysters from the
Lucrine Sea.
The only oysters which can be brought into competition with those of
Ostend in the same markets are the Whitstable oysters, which have only
recently become an article of trade on the Continent. These are also
"natives" from the Channel, generally larger than the former, but
unequal, not being sorted, very fat and full, but much more tender, and
do not keep fresh so long. The cause of this may be that they are first
taken from Whitstable to London, where they are packed up and sent by
sea and rail to Hamburgh and Berlin, which takes always from six to
seven days. They have a fine flavour, and are by some people preferred
to the Ostend oysters: although the latter, generally speaking, occupy
the first rank. These two species, and that of Holstein, are the best
oysters to be met with in the north of Europe.
2. _Channel Oysters._—The oysters which, more particularly in the north
of Germany, are an article of trade, come from the Bay of St. Brieux and
the Rock of Cancale, on the British Channel, between the castle of that
name, Mount St. Michael, and St. Malo, and from the Channel between
Calais and its extreme point near Falmouth. The bottom of this sea is
flat and firm, and its stream near the bottom not very strong, both
favourable circumstances for the propagation of oysters. This
propagation must be very considerable, and the banks where the oysters
breed very extensive, since, in spite of the continual dredging, they
produce a sufficient quantity without any apparent decrease, to guard
against which, the new beds of St. Brieux, mentioned in the first
chapter, are carefully supplied. The dredging lasts generally from the
middle of September till the end of May; during the other months the
fishing should properly be discontinued, because the spawning, which
then takes place, would be disturbed, and because during that time the
oyster is generally not fit for food.
3. _Holstein Oysters_ are very good and fine, but the sea-banks do not
afford enough for the present consumption, so that it is necessary to
have good connexions in order to obtain real and good Holstein oysters.
They are easily distinguished from all the other oysters by their size,
the thin, greenish-blue shells, especially the lower shell. The upper
shell is always concave, by which they are the more easily distinguished
from the Heligolanders, which have always a strong convex upper shell.
As to the little animal itself, it is very fat, white, thick, and
tender, and therefore very digestible. It has only a small beard, by
which it is distinguished from the Norwegian and Scottish oyster, which,
by the appearance of the shell, might be mistaken for the Holstein
oyster by novices in gastronomy. These delicate favourites are to be
obtained from the lessees of the Royal Oyster-banks on the western coast
of Holstein in Flensburg, in the kingdom of Denmark.
4. _The Schleswick Oyster of Husum and Silt_ is very like the
former—almost undistinguishable. It is very excellent, but seldom
exported, and consumed for the most part in Kiel. The two last-named
oysters are often taken to St. Petersburg by sailors, when making the
passage to and fro.
5. _The Heligolanders_ are very large; have thick shells, which renders
the duty and carriage very high, but are not at all fine, and generally
sold in all the innocence of ignorance by dealers as Holstein oysters.
Have nothing to do with _Norwegian oysters_; I only mention them here as
things to be shunned. _Bremer oysters_, the _Neuwerkers_, and the
_Wangerogers_, however, deserve a better fate.
6. _The Oyster of the Bay of Biscay_ is of the same size as that of
Holstein, with a very large beard, like those caught in the south of
England. The beard, like the oyster itself, is quite grass green—a
quality which is to be found generally only with oysters from Dieppe,
Cancale, and the Marennes. Its flavour is very fine and good, but great
care must be taken, in opening the shell and detaching the oyster, not
to break the double shell, which they mostly possess, for this contains
sulphuretted hydrogen, which gives a bad smell and flavour to the
oyster, and poisons the stomach of the consumer.
7. _American Oysters_, though, to my taste, by no means so delicate as
others I have mentioned, are nevertheless superior for cooking. For my
own part, although I have stated that pepper, vinegar, lemon juice, and
other stimulating ingredients, are commonly made use of when eating the
oyster, I offer, in all courtesy, the decided opinion, that the taste
must be vitiated that can swallow such in preference to the delicate,
fresh, luscious, charming little morsel, saturated merely, or perhaps
the word ought to be merely bedewed, like the rose on a summer morning,
by its own liquid life's blood. Americans, themselves, generally prefer
their large oysters even to our British Natives.
8. _French Oysters._—The French oysters are chiefly taken from beds in
the Bays of Cancale and St. Brieux, from Marennes, from Havre and
Dieppe, from Dunkirk, and from the Bay of Biscay. The three first are
very fine, but the distance to Paris is too great; they are therefore
dear in that capital. Those from Dunkirk are similar to those of Ostend,
but not quite so fine; and those from the Bay of Biscay are quite green,
and highly esteemed in the south of France, especially at Bordeaux.
9. _Dutch Oysters_ are both good and dear. The four sorts I recommend
are Seelanders, Vliessingers, Middleburgers, and Vieringers. The latter
are almost the finest and best, but uncommonly dear, and are mostly
consumed in Holland.
10. _Mediterranean Oysters._—I have already referred to classical
authorities for the character the ancients gave those of Circe and the
Lucrine Sea; and the old rule, "_de mortius nil_," forbids me to say in
what rank I place Horace the inimitable, Seneca the wise, and Pliny the
naturalist, as judges of what an oyster should be. Where ignorance is
bliss, people can be very happy. Till the Turk, by an accidental fire,
had become acquainted with the taste of roast pork, there were many less
fires in Stamboul than now. Till the Romans found the Rutupians, the
Lucrine flourished; so did Circe.