Smoked Oyster Spread makes a delightful, tasty, nutrient-rich snack for the entire family. In traditional cultures, oysters are considered a sacred food — not because they hold pearls inside, but because they boost fertility and improve birth outcomes.
Indeed, oysters are one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Just a half a cup of these babies gives you 300% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B12, 600% of the RDA for zinc, and 80% of the RDA for vitamin D.
The problem is, many of us don’t know how to eat them or prepare them. Shucking fresh oysters can be intimidating for oyster newbies, and many of us have never even eaten them, let alone cooked them. So, how are we supposed to eat this sacred, nourishing food?
Enter the hero of the day: smoked oysters.
Thankfully, you can purchase sustainably-caught, smoked oysters in BPA-free cans or jars. My own local supermarket carries two varieties! Smoked oysters can make quick meals and snacks, like this Smoked Oyster Spread.
This recipe is featured in the recipe section of my soon-to-be released book, Beautiful Babies: Nutrition for Fertility, Pregnancy, Breast-feeding, and Baby’s First Foods. The first half of the book is a tome on nutrition and eating well, while the second half has more than 50 recipes to help you incorporate these nutrient-rich fertility foods in your diet.
Can I take a moment to brag about this lovely cover? And to marvel at the fact that Joel Salatin wrote my foreword?
You can pre-order the book on Amazon here. The listing is rather bare bones right now while we’re waiting for Amazon to update it with the real cover and publisher’s information, but you can still lock-in the pre-order savings!
Now, for the recipe:
Smoked Oyster Spread Recipe
The Players
- 2 4oz. jars or cans smoked oysters, drained (where to find BPA-free smoked osyters)
- 1 ½ cups Greek Yogurt
- 1 tsp. Homemade Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 green onion, diced
- salt & pepper, to taste
The How-To
In a bowl, mash the smoked oysters with a fork. Mix in yogurt, Worcestershire sauce, green onions, and salt & pepper. Serve chilled on Grain-Free Garlic & Rosemary Crackers or with sliced veggies like cucumbers or jicama for dipping.
Enjoy!
(photo by Trevor Pritchard)
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Looks yummy! Just a note — the smoked oysters are not listed on Crown Prince’s list of products that they supply in BPA-free cans. I have emailed other suppliers looking for BPA-free canned oysters and haven’t had any luck!
Hmmm. I’ll have to look into that! When I looked a couple of years ago, they were on a list of BPA-free canned seafood along with Wild Planet and Vital Choice.
I know Wild Planet recently withdrew their claim of being BPA-free because they did extensive testing on the cans rather than just taking the can’s manufacturer’s claim at face value. Their own in house testing revealed trace amounts of BPA where none was meant to be. Discouraged, they removed the claim from their packaging while they look into solutions.
It’s possible that these other sustainable seafood canneries have backpedaled as well…
I’d also be interested in knowing if these supposedly BPA-free cans are also free of BPS, which I understand is just as bad.
I am one of those people afraid of oysters. I will totally have to try this.
Congratulations on your new book! It looks so lovely!
Thanks, Dawn!
Yum! I just ate some smoked oysters today. I had no idea they were so nutritious.
YAY!
Generally anything smoked is not too healthy, as smoking increases the carcinogenic content.
Hmmm. It’s my understanding that smoking does not increase carcinogens unless you home smoke in such a way that the animal fats drip down into the fire and rise back up as smoke.
Industrially smoked meats avoid this problem altogether, and the home BBQ master can avoid it as well with a well-applied drip pan and keeping the meat off direct flame.
I checked on the Crown Prince Website, and only some of their products are BPA-free (smoked oysters are NOT one of them) 🙁
http://www.crownprince.com/bpa-free-cans.htm
Smoked oysters in olive oil (SO/OO)–BPA content aside–are nearly impossible to find. Crown Prince is one of the few brands that provide these little gems in olive oil; nearly every other brand of canned oysters is in cottonseed (or worse) oil. However, Crown Prince is out of stock, as is Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Aldi’s and our local health food stores. And, all of these sources have been SO/OO-free for almost a year now! What is going on?
Can anyone point me to a source (online or retail) for quality canned SO/OOs, and I’ll worry about their BPA/BPS content later?
–Hunting in the ATL, USA
I don’t like getting them in anything other than olive oil either.
That said, would it be terribly inconvenient to get them in the undesirable oil and then just wash them really well before you use them?
Maybe that can be a temporary solution while you wait for Crown Prince, Vital Choice, or other suppliers to get them back in stock.
I have been wanting to add oysters to my diet because I have a zinc deficiency, and this recipe looks great! Only thing is the Crown Prince canned oysters are sourced from South Korea, and I remember that there were some health issues with shellfish from Korea last year. In fact, I did a quick search online and came across this article from last May that says the FDA banned Korean shellfish from U.S. distribution because of water pollution levels there: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-05-17/business/35455444_1_shellfish-robert-croonenberghs-molluscan Do you know if there are other brands that don’t source oysters from Korea? I live in Virginia, and I’ve been hearing good things about Rappahannock River Oysters, so hoping to try them soon: http://www.rroysters.com/
Anyway, thanks for your blog, Kristen! Love the info you share.
I contacted Crown Prince after seeing that the
smoked oysters were not on their BPA-free
list. They got back to me very quickly and
confirmed that the oysters do indeed contain
BPA at this point in time. Only some of their
products are BPA-free.
Thank you, I just moved and haven’t been able to get to the supermarket, I moved with 3 cans smoked oysters, container Greek yogurt,, club crackers and shallots. Voila your recipe came up.ext time I’ll have worstershire and scallions. thanks for giving me something delicious to eat, for the time being