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| Local cluster oysters are sweet and salty. |
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Lowcountry roast
By Becky Billingsley
Originally published in Coastal Carolina Dining magazine
Fall 2003
Oyster memories
The small boy, no more than 7 or 8 years old, was lowered from the little stone bridge near Briarcliffe and into a ravine. He gathered oysters, and then his mother hauled him back to the bridge by the rope she had tied around his middle.
Oh, what some people will do for a few good oysters. Jon Leithiser’s mother has passed on, but her son still loves oysters. He has lots of company.
As a young man Leithiser (pronounced LIGHThyzer) worked at Hussey Motors in Myrtle Beach, and recalls how owner Richard Hussey bought oysters in the winter and placed them on top of a heater in the shop’s garage. The heater cooked the shellfish, and workers munched them throughout the day.
In 1988, a friend invited Leithiser to a back yard roast.
“He had a bonfire in his back yard. We sat around and talked. It was just nice and pleasant. I thought I could do that in my yard, so I started cooking oysters.”
Tom Sullivan of Socastee, dubbed the Oyster Meister by his brother, Dalton Sullivan, says one of his earliest memories involves oysters. He remembers his father and his father’s friends gathering on the banks of the Roanoke River in Williamston, N.C., for oyster roasts.
“Back then we used to use a piece of tin, like roofing tin,” he said. “We’d make a fire [inside a ring of bricks] and burn it to coals. We’d put the tin up over the bricks and lay the oysters on top of the tin. Then we’d take a burlap sack soaked in water and lay that on top of the oysters. It would steam and roast them.”
Sullivan also has fond memories of Bowens Island Restaurant, on Bowens Island near Charleston. The primitive restaurant, which is still in business, had an ill-kempt room just for steamed oyster eaters.
“They’d bring the oysters to you in an old coal shovel and dump them on the table,” Sullivan said. “Back then you paid $6 for all the oysters you could eat.”
Patrons of the restaurant often left messages scrawled on the walls; Sullivan says his and his U.S. Air Force buddies’ names are still there where they wrote them in 1975.
Chef James Clark, executive chef at the Marina Inn at Grande Dunes in Myrtle Beach, has been eating oysters since he could stand up. The native of Elizabeth City, N.C. says he fondly remembers roasting oysters gathered from Currituck Sound.
“They were large select single deep water oysters,” he said. “Every Friday night my mom and dad, in the fall, would get oysters and we’d steam them. We’d do them outside where my dad had a half drum we grilled on…He’d put the charcoal on there, then we’d lay the oysters on there, cover them with the wet potato sack they came in. We’d wait to hear them start popping [open], and then we knew they were ready.”
James and his father, Jim Clark, both live in the Grand Strand area now. They still roast oysters together, and sometimes gather their own.
Social food
Oyster roasts are more about the people eating them than the food, although those who enjoy steamed oysters think the salty morsels are ambrosial.
“It’s a social food,” Tom Sullivan said. “It’s about camaraderie and friendship. You enjoy the oysters and go down memory lane … How many times did you ever see someone go out and sit down and eat oysters by themselves?”
Even people who don’t think they like oysters discover that the combination of oysters roasted outside and enjoyed with a group of friends makes for a delicious casual party.
In an oyster shell, here’s how to have an oyster roast.
Oyster connection
Oysters are available year-round at most area seafood shops, but instead of local ones they might be “select singles,” often from Louisiana. You can certainly harvest your own oysters. The delicious local ones are called “cluster” oysters, with several clumped together to form oyster condos.
“Gathering oysters is a lot of fun,” Chef James Clark said. “Out at Bulls Bay are probably some of the best gigantic clusters. I noticed when I moved here how oysters grow in shallow water. It’s easier to pick them up without having to drag a rake behind the boat like in Currituck Sound. Here we get them at low tide.”
If you’re age 16 or older you’ll need a $10 stamp from the South Carolina Marine Recreational Fisheries. The season is usually mid-September through mid-May. Sometimes the oyster beds are closed during that time, but you can check on the beds’ status by calling the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources at (843) 953-9300. The limit is two bushels per person, per day, and that’s for no more than two days in a row in one seven-day period.
Murrells Inlet is a good place to harvest oysters, but be sure you’re not gathering them in anyone’s privately leased spot. All you do is go out at low tide and pick them up. Be sure to wash off the mud before you cook them.
Adult North Carolina residents don’t need licenses to harvest oysters as long as no commercial gear is used. Limits are one bushel per day, not to exceed two bushels per vessel per day; the season usually starts the middle of October. Call the Division of Marine Fisheries at (252) 726-7021 with questions.
After the roast, oyster shells can be recycled. When the shells are put back in the water, young oysters build on them. A shell recycling drop-off center is off U.S. 17 near Huntington Beach State Park in Murrells Inlet.
The fire
It’s possible to cook oysters indoors – Jon Leithiser remembers his mother roasting them on a cookie sheet in the oven – but eating them gets messy and serving them to a crowd is better accomplished outside.
There are a couple of cooking methods. Tom Sullivan and James Clark both use big pots. They put a few inches of water in the pots and set them over a gas flame. When the water is hot, a sieve-like metal basket containing dozens of oysters is suspended over the water and the pot is covered with a lid. It only takes four or five minutes for the oysters to get hot and start opening.
Sullivan built a special table he keeps in his garage for roasts. It has a hole in the middle that he places a trash can under. He dumps the oysters on the table, which is covered with newspapers, and after the oysters are eaten shells can be chucked into the hole.
Jon Leithiser built a pit in his back yard out of bricks and put a piece of steel on top. He gets a hot wood fire going, and then dumps half a bushel of oysters at time on the metal. A thick towel that has been soaking in a bucket of water is laid over the pile of oysters, and the fire’s heat causes the wet towel to billow up and create a steamy pocket in which the oysters roast. After a few minutes the towel is removed with tongs and a hungry crowd surrounds the pile of hot, juicy oysters.
Getting at the oysters
Whether the oysters are cooked in a pot or over a fire pit, the shells are too hot and sharp for most people to handle with bare hands. Leithiser provides guests with thick rubber work gloves to wear over the hand they grab oysters with. Sullivan has small towels attached to metal clip-rings – like the towels attached to golf bags – which guests clip on their pants’ belt loops and use for handling the hot shells.
An indispensable tool for oyster roasts is the oyster knife. These are special short-handled and short-bladed knives with blunt tips. The tip is inserted into the slightly opened oyster, and with a little leverage the shell pops open. It’s important to not use a sharp knife to open oysters; it would be extremely easy to stab yourself. Oyster knives are available at many area stores, including Wal-Mart.
Any unopened oysters can be tossed back in the pot or on the fire to cook a little longer.
Eating the oysters
The oyster knife is usually used to scoop out the meat, although some people open several oysters at a time, place the halves with the meat on a plate and then use a fork to eat them. It’s common, especially with the first couple of batches, for people to be so eager to get at the oysters that they eat them straight out of the shell with no garnishes. Many oyster lovers also enjoy drinking the juice, called the liquor, that’s inside the shell.
Sometimes there’ll also be a tiny crab inside the shell. That’s a bonus, and those crunchy tidbits are eaten whole.
Saltine crackers are an oyster roast standard. An oyster is placed on the cracker and doused with a little hot sauce before it’s eaten.
The hot sauce is a variable. The host usually has at least some Texas Pete, cocktail sauce or melted butter. It’s common for guests to bring their own favorite hot sauces, such as Leithiser’s homemade mixture of fresh chili or habanero peppers, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and fish sauce that he grinds up with a mortar and pestle. Sullivan mixes Texas Pete with ketchup and hot pepper vinegar, while Clark favors bottled Crystal hot sauce.
Some guests dispense with the crackers and simply put a few drops of hot sauce on each oyster.
Side dishes
While at least a couple of dozen oysters per person (double that for serious oyster eaters) is the main attraction, it’s nice to have a few more dishes to round out the event. Tom Sullivan boils shrimp and his wife, Carol Sullivan, makes chicken bog. Guests often bring dips or other finger foods.
Jon Leithiser says if the oyster roast is a spontaneous gathering among a few neighbors he doesn’t worry about side dishes and concentrates just on oysters. But if it’s an “official oyster roast” with invitations and a firm date and time, he invites guests to bring whatever dishes they choose. His table is usually laden with spicy cheese dip kept warm in a crock-pot, fruits, salads, seafood dips, cakes and cookies.
Chef James Clark and his oyster roasting partner, father Jim Clark, favor vegetables such as late harvest corn on the cob and potatoes at their gatherings. The chef also has a favorite roasted vegetable dish that’s cooked in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet or Dutch oven, right in the fire the oysters are roasting on.
“This dish could also be done in the oven,” he said, “but outdoor fire really makes for a nice smoky flavor on sweet root vegetables.”
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Open Fired Roasted Root Vegetable Salad
Chef James Clark, Vidalia’s, The Radisson Plaza Hotel
Any root vegetables and fall squash will do, but these are some of my favorites.
Ingredients:
For the marinade:
½ (one-half) cup olive oil
½ (one-half) cup vegetable oil
¼ (one-fourth) cup garlic, rough chop
3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
3 tablespoons celery seed, toasted
3 tablespoons honey
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ (one-fourth) cup each fresh thyme and basil
The vegetables:
4 parsnips
4 carrots
2 rutabagas
2 butternut squash
2 red onions
2 yellow beets
2 large turnips
Preparation:
For the marinade, mix well with a whisk all ingredients except salt, pepper, thyme and basil. Add vegetables and toss. Season with salt and pepper. Place iron skillet or Dutch oven on fire and get it hot. Put vegetables in hot pan; toss. After 5 minutes, toss again, using a wooden spoon, to caramelize the vegetables. When vegetables are half done, add fresh herbs and continue to cook; total cooking time is about 45 minutes. 15 minutes before vegetables are done, toss the oysters on the fire so both will be ready at the same time.
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