Natives tend to be better quality than pacific or rock oysters, though they are slightly more expensive. Only use oysters that are tightly shut in their shells or which close when tapped. Any oysters that stay open are dead and should be thrown away.

Aficionados insist that they’re best eaten raw, perhaps with freshly ground black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice or drop of Tabasco sauce. However they can be steamed, grilled or poached, too, and they make excellent canapés.

Oysters can be battered into tempura, simmered into a sauce to serve with robust flavours such as beef or pork or even cooked with cream and served inside a hollowed out brioche roll.

Baked oysters with sautéed potatoes and seaweed salad

Find us here

Baked oysters with sautéed potatoes and seaweed salad

Whole baked plaice in butter sauce

Beef and oyster pie

Scallops with pickled shallots and oyster dressing

Pan-fried sea bass, poached oysters, sage, capers and brown butter

Brill cooked on the bone with sea vegetables and mash

Vegan mushroom risotto

Wagyu beef in XO sauce with oysters, pickled mushrooms basil and mint

Carpetbag steak with potato cake and greens

Beef, oyster and ale pie

Salmon with oyster velouté and a vegetable crumble

Beef shin and oyster pie

Fruits de mer with homemade rye bread and whipped butter

Buyer's guide

Preparation

Typically made with oyster

Oyster sauce

Other seafood

Clams

Cockles

Crab

Crayfish

Cuttlefish

Langoustine

Lobster

Mussels

Octopus

Oily fish

Prawn

Scallop

Brown shrimp

Squid

Whelk

White fish

Winkles

Other shellfish