By NANCY JANE KERN
A FEW YEARS ago, I read “The Big Oyster: A Molluscular History of New York” by Mark Kurlansky and found it a wonderful, easy-to-read book with so much history of our colonial beginnings in this state and information about one of my favorite foods.
An older friend who lived in Manhattan for years told me about one of their school trips to the American Museum of Natural History where a giant model of an oyster (Crassostrea virginicas) and its detailed anatomy was on exhibit. She took one look at it and vowed never to eat one. She probably blocked out the real importance of the exhibit.
When Peter Minuit bought Manhattan for $24 in 1626, he showed his intelligence by also purchasing the oyster beds off nearby Oyster Island, later renamed Ellis Island in 1770. Oysters were cheap and abundant food found around Long Island (such as Oyster Bay), Staten Island, and up the Hudson River where they thrived in pristine, unpolluted waters.
The early settlers learned from the Indigenous Peoples like the Lenape to relish the oyster and archaeologists have found huge, ancient piles of oyster shells in excavations showing how important oysters were as a food source.
Of course, the Dutch, being good businessmen and traders, shipped them to Europe. I have early Dutch ancestry; our family has always eaten oysters and included them in our Thanksgiving dinners. Our Austerlitz farmhouse had modest middens of oyster shells, often turned up in our vegetable gardens along with broken bits of blue and white pottery.
Later shipments of oysters came in barrels by train. Spencertown had church dinners of oysters shucked by member wives and their families. My parents and grandparents had fond memories of these events, and oysters were still inexpensive. They were an early version of our current chicken barbecue dinners.
I continue the tradition of a scalloped oyster dish for Thanksgiving. An invitation from one of my nieces this year came with the request that my oysters be the dish I must bring. Her father won’t touch an oyster or even look at them, so we tease him that it leaves even more for his wife (my sister) and the rest of us! I keep giving the recipe and directions to other family members in the hope that this dish won’t be lost.
It is sad that heavy pollution since the late 1800s has killed most of the NY oyster beds, although efforts are being made to restore them. Oysters were once shipped to us from Boston and the east coast. This year my oysters are from the State of Washington. They will be checked for bits of shell (perhaps a pearl?), added to layers of crushed saltines, dabs of butter, pepper, and a mixture of milk and cream. Some add onion and celery that have been sauteed in butter. I am a purist. The oysters have become an expensive luxury, and I want to taste them. In fact, I just may skip the turkey!
