How to Shuck an Oyster Without an Oyster Knife
Oysters can provide high levels of several nutrients. According to SELFNutritionData, six medium-sized raw wild Eastern oysters provide 509 percent of your daily zinc, 272 percent of your daily vitamin B12 and 187 percent of your daily copper. Ideally, you should shuck oysters with an oyster knife -- a tool designed for this very purpose. Shucking an oyster with a regular knife rather than an oyster knife is a dangerous procedure. With one slip, the knife could plunge deep into your hand and cause a serious injury. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Place an oyster on a kitchen towel and fold the towel over to cover most of the oyster. Leave only the hinge end exposed. This will help you get a better grip on the oyster while also protecting your hand.
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Insert the tip of the flathead screwdriver into the hinged end of the towel-wrapped oyster while holding the oyster down firmly. Pry the oyster partially open. The top shell may break in half at this point.
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Remove the screwdriver from the oyster and use a sharp knife to cut from the hinged end to the opposite end of the oyster. This will separate the two halves of the shell and cut the oyster away from the top half, leaving you with an oyster on the half shell.
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Slide your knife under the oyster to separate it from the half of the shell it is resting in. Your oyster is now ready to eat.
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Tips & Warnings
To make the oysters easier to open, place them on a hot grill for one to two minutes. At this point they will begin to open. Pick them up with oven mitts, and pry them the rest of the way open with your screwdriver, then cover and return to the grill for several more minutes to finish cooking them. This will, of course, leave you with grilled rather than raw oysters.
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- Photo Credit oyster image by Filip Mazurek from Fotolia.com
