Photo by © Valeria Boltneva
**This article is a direct feature from the November/December 2024 My French Country Home magazine. To see more articles like this featuring fascinating tidbits about French culture, be sure to subscribe to the magazine!**
Among the typical grand feast that is laid out for the winter holidays, there is one particular little mollusk that always makes its way to the center of the table to launch the festive celebrations in France.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE MAGAZINE
The perfect accompaniment to a coupe of bubbly champagne, French hosts take pride in laying out a beautiful plateau of fresh oysters (huîtres) to officially kick off the holiday meal. Displayed on a bed of crushed ice or thick sea salt and garnished with lemon wedges and ramekins of mignonette, the oyster starter is just as much a work of art as it is an appetizer.
History of Oysters in France
Native to France, huîtres (pronounced “wee-truh”) have been consumed by everyone from commoners to French royalty as far back as the Roman Era. In fact, King Henri IV was said to eat an astonishing 300 oysters at a time while his grandson Louis XIV requested daily deliveries of the briny bivalves to Versailles, where he would slurp down six dozen in one sitting. Even French philosophers like Diderot and Voltaire would eat oysters for inspiration, and Napoleon Bonaparte would swallow them for good luck before battles.
The tradition of serving oysters at Christmas stems, of course, from a great appreciation for their taste, but also that of seasonality and food safety restrictions. Since oysters in France began to be cultivated on sea farms in the 17th century, harvesting took place between the months of October and March.
Consumed as a raw, live animal, eating the meat from the shell during this colder time of year reduced one’s chances of contracting a food-borne illness. Luckily, with the advent of refrigeration, huîtres can now be consumed year-round. But this wider availability hasn’t diluted their distinct association with grand winter celebrations.
The Tradition of Eating Oysters in France at Christmas
As the largest producer, exporter and consumer of oysters in Europe, France certainly takes pride in serving them at gatherings with family and friends. A typical French household buys an average of 9 pounds (4 kg) of oysters per year – and half of that quantity is enjoyed between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.
The majority of these oysters come from the coasts of Brittany and Normandy in the north, where oysters play a defining role in gastronomic culture. But oysters are also commonly farmed in the Bay of Arcachon, near Bordeaux, the southern region of Languedoc and on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.
If you plan to Frenchify your Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve dinner (known as la réveillon), you would be remiss not to include a blooming display of these delicious shellfish – or even just to serve one or two per person as an amuse-bouche.
When purchasing your lot, something to keep in mind is size and assortment. Oysters in France are categorized with a number from 000 to 6. The smaller the number, the larger the oyster. It’s nice to provide a variety, with Nº3 being the most common. But including oysters in the Nº4 to Nº6 range is also an option for those who appreciate the taste as well as those who might be a little nervous to slurp down a bigger morsel. Another designation to look out for is huîtres fines – which are small or medium-sized – versus huîtres spéciales – which tend to be large and meaty.
How to Prepare and Serve Oysters
To shuck oysters, you will need a specific shucking knife that has a slightly curved lip on the end which will help to pry open the two sides of the shell from the connecting tip. Make sure to wear a glove or place a towel in the hand holding the oyster so that the knife doesn’t puncture your skin in case of a slip. You can also request the supermarket or poissonerie to shuck them for you beforehand.
In either case, take care not to spill the liquid inside the shell. When serving, each guest should have a small fork which they will use to detach the meat from the shell. Otherwise, the host can do this for all the oysters immediately before serving so that guests can easily guzzle them down without needing to use utensils.
For the perfect bite, simply squeeze a pinch of lemon juice directly over the oyster and, if you like, add a dash of shallot and vinegar mignonette. Then swallow the oyster straight. The saltiness from the seawater combined with the tanginess of the citrus and the sourness of the mignonette make for a mouthwatering delight. To finish, the huître is best washed down with a sip of sparkling Champagne. Santé!