The Oyster Craze of New York City

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I love the duality of never having shucked an oyster but having a specific bake pan for them

Overharvesting of oysters resulted in a precipitous decline in the health of the Chesapeake Bay. Oysters are filter feeders and helped to maintain the health of the bay. Maryland and Virginia have undertaken projects to restore the oyster beds; It is not an easy project.

Great video. One of the cool sounding jobs that arose from the US oyster trade was "Oyster Trainer". Once oysters started being transported inland they wanted them to stay closed & fresh for as long as possible. So the job of training oysters became a thing. Oysters would be laid on the shoreline where they would still get covered by the incoming tide. When uncovered by water someone would walk along the shore tapping the shells to encourage them to stay closed. As the "training" developed they oysters would be moved further up the shore, spending longer out of the water. This along with the tapping got them used to staying shut for longer periods. Once this was complete the oysters were ready to be sent by train packed in ice. Sending oysters long distance isn't relatively new either. The Roman Empire loved oysters & thought the British Rutupian oyster was particularly wonderful. They shipped them from Britain to Rome (which in a straight line is about 1000 miles). Its postulated that they did this in stages with the oysters either in water filled tanks or amphora/barrels in the ship & stopping to refresh the water or lay them out in estuaries. This way they could freshen up & plump up by feeding on the plankton in the water, arriving in Rome in top condition. So good were they at sending oysters places that Apicius is said to have devised a method of packing oysters so that he could send them to Trajan while he was campaigning in the Parthian desert (115 AD).

My favorite thing thing about this channel is the moderate skill level instead of dealing with a refined chef that talks down to you. The humility is appreciated!!!

I work as an archaeologist in Belgium and we regularly find oyster shells in medieval and Roman sites. Even back then they were often transported dozens or even hundreds of kilometers inland. The Romans already built artificial oyster farms on the atlantic and north sea coasts because they enjoyed them so much.

My great-great grandmother Sarah ran a boarding house in the early 1900's along the Lehigh canal. Being so close to a trade hub, she was able to put oyster stew on her usual menu, in season and at a very fair price. When the family moved further north and inland, oysters were very rare and to be looked upon suspiciously if fresh. In the 1950's, the family still missed her oyster stew, so she put in a special request with Jerry, "The Huckster," who traveled throughout the region, buying, selling and trading goods to be offered to the rural citizens. He'd take your pots to be mended, your scissors to be sharpened, and would buy your eggs and butter. His old war-wagon of a Suburban had a scale inside for weighing nails and produce, and always smelled like bananas and chewing gum. Jerry came back in a month with three quarts of home-canned oysters from "down the shore." The stew was as good as it had ever been, the family has this wonderful story to tell, and Jerry put all three of his children and all 7 of his grandchildren through college, cash on the barrel!

Giving this a like purely for Cloyster grinning over Max's shoulder during the oyster episode.

I always thought of oysters as this fancy thing, to think that they used to be so accessible is pretty wild!

Cloyster smirking while Max describes New York devouring oysters as fast as they can find them is a mood.

They couldn't get enough of oysters in the 19th century, and now in the 21st century I can't get enough of MAXIMUM MILLER💯

Great Episode Max. As a child growing up in NYC in the 60’s, I loved eating “Oyster’s Rockefeller” which were served at many fine restaurants, and many more dive bars. When I looked up the recipe in later life, it was similar to this, but not the same. This seems more like what I remember! As a 9 year old, I once ate 5 plates of a dozen at my Grandpa’s retirement party. He’d been Oscar de la Renta’s shop manager in the Garment District. There were all these Union/Mob guys in amazing suits who would cheerfully buy Jerry’s grandkid another plate. Of course, none of these were “baby” sized. Just like what you made. Thanks for bringing back a good memory! I’m glad to hear they are bringing them back to NY Barbour.-Evan

Regarding the oyster panic, it is interesting to note that oysters are natural water filtration systems. They feed by essentially taking water in, keeping in molecules such nutrients and/or pollutants and returning the water cleaner in the environment. It is the reason why they are becoming popular for water restoration projects. It is also why you should be aware of the waters they are grown in, cause if they are from a heavily polluted area, they are likely to carry bacteria that can make you sick. See for example, consuming oysters growing in waters where sweage is being dumped, would be quite likely to spread cholera, since they would be contamimated with the bacteria.

As a rookie fish monger who shucks oysters every week, you did fine opening them up

Thank you for covering NYC's history with oysters! I used to work on the Billion Oyster Project to repopulate oysters in New York Harbor, and I always appreciate people raising awareness about our history with that!

To add a bit of my own culture's oyster history, Korea also has its share of middens, some dating to the Neolithic Period. A midden at Dongsam-dong, Busan, Korea shows that stone age Koreans also loved oysters, along with a variety of other seafood (including sea urchins). This is an absolute amazing episode, so much history and variety of history, all with oysters in the background or forefront. You can really tell this was a passion project, keep up the great work!

The history of oyster craze on the west coast of the United States is an interesting story as well. Washington State has a small native oyster called the Olympia oyster that was very nearly eaten to extinction in the 1800s when people all along the west coast wanted oysters, and tons were shipped them from Washington to California during the gold rush. Today serious efforts are trying to restore the populations of these small native oysters here in Washington, although competition with non-native oyster species brought in for farming can sometimes hamper those efforts.

Oysters and other easily harvested shellfish like clams and mussels have long been a staple for the poor. My best friends family were lobster fishermen and she was always embarrassed to eat lobster sandwiches at school because it was something that only the poor ate and she got teased .

So the fact that many oyster saloons became brothels...is this why oysters are considered an aphrodisiac? It would make sense as I don't see why other mollusks such as clams, scallops, and mussels don't have the same connotation. Another fine episode!

I'm so glad you made a video on this! I go to college for archaeology in Gettysburg PA, and in one of our excavations we found a TON of oyster shells. It turns out that there were two oyster parlors in town during the 19th century, one of which was owned by a freed slave. He also sold ice cream lol.