Oysters in the KK

[LarryR]

I read somewhere that after cooking oysters on your grill you should wash your grates. Anyone ever done this or heard of this? I've been grilling oysters for years and never done this and never had an issue with my grates. I'm doing some this weekend and if there's any concern I'm just going to throw them on the gasser or kettle vs. screw-up my KK.

[bryan]

I think it is a salt issue. I have not had a problem here on the Gulf Coast.

Check this out.

[Amphoran]

Years ago, I totally ruined a relatively nice gasser grilling (lots of) oysters.

These were big pacific oysters. The problem was not so much salt as the huge gush of liquid they all produced getting into the burners and clogging things up. I also tried them on an old weber, and the gush(es) extinguished the charcoal.

With a drip pan with good capacity, it should work in the KK, but I've not done them in mine. These days I steam oysters, NC oyster-bar style.

Mike

[T Rex]

Living on the ocean, we have also done our share of Oysters and yup, also ruined a BBQ.......

The way we used to do ours is to place them on the BBQ with the round side down, wait until they pop, use two forks to pop off the top shell, pour in some garlic butter and wait for it to start to bubble....... I tried putting the Oysters on a bed of rock salt inside a baking sheet to keep them stable so as not to lose any nectar but quite frankly this is a pain in the ..............

The best way I found is to either microwave them or put them on a baking sheet in a hot oven until they open, take off the top shell, pour in a little garlic butter......... no muss on fuss. We have not used a BBQ since we perfected the above methods.

I love my KK and I would not subject her to Oysters even though I am sure that you could do so quite easily using a drip pan as Amphoran suggested......

T Rex

[Amphoran]

My technique has evolved over time.

It began with some LARGE bonfires as I cleared 30 years worth of woody debris from defunct cabinet shop that had chucked all the scraps out the window.....

We got a HUGE bed of coals, and found that you could toss big pacifics onto them and they'd cook quickly and beautifully. Had to use a pitchfork or long handled spade to get them off. With a bit of timing, you could have them anywhere from just warmed through to smoked.

After the debris ran out, I started firing off 40 pounds of charcoal in a split barrel, with a sheet of hardware cloth over the top to hold the oysters. The barrel would get red hot. As we got older and toddlers appeared, this started to seem a bit unsafe (g), so I tried the grills and ruined them.

Then I visited NC and their oyster bars, and adopted their steaming technique. I have a 10 gallon milk can that sits on a high BTU gas burner, and pipe the steam from that into a wooden box. The top of the box has a hole just large enough to hold a large galvanized bucket. The bucket has a fifty or sixty 3/4" holes drilled in it. As the steam works up through a bucket filled with oysters, it condenses and heats them up fairly rapidly (but not as rapidly as 40 lb of charcoal!) and pretty uniformly.

This year's oyster roast, I'll continue to steam, but will try some in the KK with a deep drip pan. It would be nice to have the option of some smoke. That will be at the end of may, and I'll see to it that the event isn't imaginary...

[LarryR]

Glad I asked

Scratch Oysters in the KK, I'll use the Weber Kettle for them. Thanks guys!