We can't always be on vacation, but we can keep the oysters coming.
| |  | | Melt-in-Your-Mouth Butter and Herb Baked Oysters | | | | | Before last week, I'd never been to Cape Cod, and I was not great at opening oysters. Since then, one of those things has changed.
Now that I've been to Cape Cod I'm wondering why I don't live there, forever on vacation, eating ears of buttered corn and biking on trails that all lead to fish markets. And how many more oysters and clams will I get to eat before I can open them with ease and aplomb?
Ease and aplomb were my vacation guides. After I dropped off my daughter at camp and left behind a year of cramped caution I hit relaxation mode, hard. I alternated reading and snoozing in a portable hammock under the weight of my summer reads, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and the Ghastlycrumb Tinies book I picked up on a visit to the Edward Gorey house.
I devoted myself to finding daily steamers, lobsters, swordfish, scallops, big, ruffled oysters and small, tightly-shut grey clams. When I was little, I used to scuba dive for Lobsters with my dad. We would spot them in the rocks, waving their claws at us, and we'd trick them with one hand, grabbing them from behind with the other hand. Because of this abundance I know my way around a steamed lobster, where to find all of the hidden nuggets of meat under the legs and behind the jaws, and how to use a chopstick to push the delicate meat out of the small legs.
This summer I worked my way through about two dozen oysters and the same number of littlenecks. The anticipation and effort and danger and mistakes I made getting into the shells made everything more exciting and delicious. Each pop of the shell, then detaching of the meat were full of promise for a slippery oyster swimming in clean, salty brine.
I learned how shucking clams differs from shucking oysters; instead of putting the point of the knife into the hinge (as you do with oysters), you force the sharp edge of the blade into the seam with curled fingertips. Then you pull the knife mostly out, but leave the tip inside of the clam and swoop up to scrape against both sides of the top shell to cut the abductor muscles on each side of both the top and bottom of the clamshells. Once this was done, It was easy to twist off the top shell and slurp the little knot of sweet, pink meat. Repeat.
And repeat. Because even if I don't live on the Cape, at least I can keep the oysters coming.
PS. Some kids started back to school this week. How are you doing, parents? I hope that you have all of your sheet pan dinners and Instant Pot recipes lined up to make life easier on yourself. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | The Spruce Eats on YouTube | | | | | | | | | |
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