On their own, oysters a nearly perfect food. You can pluck them straight from the ocean, shuck them, and slurp them down raw. Their sweet, briny flavor needs no complement.
That said, there are times when you want something more than unadorned oysters on the half shell. For those occasions, we have our favorite oyster recipes for you to try.
If you want to keep your oysters raw, you can pair them with a simple, vinegary mignonette. We have versions made with orange, onion, and mint, as well as raspberry vinegar, prosecco, and pink peppercorns. Feeling more ambitious? Take a page out of Eric Ripert's book and top your oysters with cubes of gelée flavored with ponzu, shiso, or wasabi.
Oysters are great fried. Dip them in beer batter to make a crispy fritter, or bread them with cornmeal and pile them on French bread with lettuce and tomato for a traditional New Orleans po'boy.
For you New Englanders, oysters and Thanksgiving go hand in hand. Check out our recipes for oyster stuffing, cooked in or out of your Thanksgiving turkey.
Perhaps America's most famous cooked oyster dish is oysters Rockefeller. The creator, Antoine's in New Orleans, carefully guards their recipe, but our version with an herb-filled roux and bread crumbs comes close. Other baked oyster preparations include stuffing the bivalves with spinach and bacon or crab and shrimp.
You're sure to find a great way to prepare this tasty bivalve in our collection of great oyster recipes.
Sweet crabmeat and shrimp enrich the stuffing of these broiled oysters.
This fragrant sauce is a bright accent to briny oysters, but it’s also delicious with clams, steamed crab legs, and shrimp.
Vin jaune, a semisweet wine from the Jura region of France, enlivens the creamy morel ragù in this elegant veal and oyster dish.
We’ve always been partial to traditional New England–style stuffing, particularly when it’s made with French bread, smoky cured pork, and oysters.
Grill these oysters over grapevine cuttings if you can get them.
This New Orleans po’boy is piled high with fried oysters.
This Taiwanese classic pairs oysters with celery, bean sprouts, and ketchup.
This simple Southern specialty is best made with small oysters and plain saltines.
This elegant appetizer is deceptively easy to prepare—simply bake the oysters with coarse salt and top with a dry white wine.
Grated gruyere can be substituted for garlic in this dish.
These oyster fritters are meltingly tender with a beer batter that is surprisingly airy.
This cornbread and oyster dressing is a holiday staple around the Chesapeake Bay.
This dish, made creamy with milk and butter, smells like a beautiful day at the beach.
Perloo is a cousin of jambalaya from the Lowcountry of South Carolina. It can be made with all sorts of ingredients—in this case country ham, shrimp, and oysters.
The cooks at Gilhooley’s in San Leon, Texas, grill their oysters with parmesan; broiling them works too.
Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin in New York City pairs Kumamoto oysters on the half shell with tiny, melt-in-your-mouth cubes of aspic in various flavors.
These baked oysters are a lighter take on the traditional oysters Rockefeller.
Oyster shells act as a natural serving platter for these crispy fried oysters with a creamy, spicy sauce.
Oysters’ aphrodisiac fame comes from their suggestive shape and briny flavor. Rumor has it that Casanova, the great 18th century Venetian lover, used to dine on 50 oysters a day.
This recipe for grilled or broiled oysters in a briny bath of butter, garlic, herbs, and Parmesan hails from Mobile, Alabama.
This bracing seafood cocktail is a popular Mexican hangover cure (its name means “return to life” in Spanish).
Oysters are fried in a spicy cornmeal breading for this classic New Orleans sandwich.
The original oysters Rockefeller recipe is a closely guarded secret, but this version gets close with an herb-filled roux and a breadcrumb crust.
These sweet-tart green tomato pickles and spicy cranberry-horseradish relish are delicious with roasted oysters, an Eastern Shore staple.
In this version of the classic hors d’oeuvre, oysters are cooked with garlic and wine, then set “astride” toasted garlic bread slices and sprinkled with bacon.
This oyster dish gets its robust flavors from bacon, ham, and sherry.
These Parmesan-topped oysters can also be grilled.
Fried oysters are paired with a garlicky sauce in this toothsome appetizer served at Upperline, a restaurant in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood.
These succulent Sichuan meatballs are fried until crisp, then coated with a sweet and sour sauce. [Get the recipe for Sweet and Sour Pork and Oyster Meatballs (Tangcu Muli Rouwan) »(https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Pork-Oyster-Meatballs/)