How to Pair Oysters with the Perfect Condiments
Fresh oysters are delicious, whether you’re serving them for a solo dinner at home or offering delicious appetizers at a gathering with friends. While some enjoy eating oysters without any toppings, the best oyster experience is paired with excellent condiments for a pop of flavor.
Whether you enjoy sweet, spicy, or something in between, there is a delicious condiment for everyone. Read on to learn about some of the top condiments to add to oysters at your next delicious seafood event.
What Condiments Are Ideal With Oysters?
The best oyster condiments are simple enough to not distract from the seafood yet packed with enough flavor to make the oyster the star. Several standouts make eating oysters an incredible experience.
Mignonette Sauce
Mignonette sauce is a traditional choice when choosing the ideal condiments for oysters. It’s made with minced shallots, vinegar, and cracked pepper to provide a savory and biting sauce on top of any oyster. The types of vinegar can differ in the sauce, but all contain minced shallots and cracked pepper.
The base of mignonette sauce is bright and vibrant, so it will provide a substantial pop to your oyster experience. It’s best served drizzled over the top of the oysters and paired with a nice squeeze of lemon.
Cocktail Sauce
Cocktail sauce is often the go-to when enjoying oysters and searching for a condiment. You can make it at home or purchase a bottle from the store, offering ample sauce to go around. While some claim the sauce can be overpowering, others look to mask the taste of the seafood.
The typical combination to make cocktail sauce includes adding horseradish to ketchup until it kicks up in flavor intensity. Ideally, serve cocktail sauce cold and allow eaters to add the amount desired to their dish.
Garlic Butter Sauce
You can’t go wrong with a standard butter sauce on oysters. When adding garlic to the mix, you get a fatty and unforgettable taste that will accent the natural taste of the oyster.
The best part about butter is you can mix it with any other toppings you would like. Some leave it as simple as butter and garlic, but you can also add flavors like chives, parsley, and even white wine. Garlic and herb butter is an incredible choice, too.
Horseradish
If you don’t want to mix sugar or acidity with your intense flavor profile, go with some straight horseradish as your oyster topping. You can serve straight horseradish or mix it with cream, chives, lemon zest, lemon juice, and pepper to form an unforgettable oyster-tasting experience.
Lemon Juice
Lemon juice is another straightforward topping for your oysters. While it’s very simple, there is nothing like lemon juice to pull out the natural brininess of the oyster. It also takes minimal time to squeeze some lemon on the protein. It’s also possible for oysters to have a strange reaction when they hit lemon juice - sometimes, they twitch.
Pesto
Pesto is more commonly paired with pasta or a good grilled gruyere cheese sandwich, but it also makes a wonderful condiment for oysters. It’s a very rich pine nut sauce with some acidic kicks from the lemon and sharp hits from the garlic.
You can invest in a jar of pesto at your local grocery store, but you can also make your own at home as long as you have a blender to pull all the ingredients together. While the combination of pesto and oysters might not be the most standard, it’s delicious and unique.
Tabasco Sauce
Our final recommendation for enjoying the ideal oyster is Tabasco sauce. It’s vinegary, spicy, and wonderful, which balances with the sweetness so easily found inside some of the best oysters. If you don’t like Tabasco, search for other chile or vinegar-based sauce selections like high-quality sriracha.
Factors to Consider When Choosing a Sauce
Taste
Of course, one of the first things you should consider when choosing a sauce for your oysters is the taste. Most often, people would describe the profile of oysters as sweet, earthy, spicy, or floral. The taste of the oyster purchased will influence whether you invest in an earthy, sweet, spicy, salty, briny, or vinegary sauce.
If you don’t have experience choosing condiments for your oysters, it might be fun to gather a variety of sauces to determine which will taste best for your taste buds. Try multiple oysters and sauces to locate your winner!
Spice
Another factor to consider is the spice level. If you can’t handle spiciness, it’s critical to ensure you don’t get anything too spicy. For some, tabasco could be considered too much. For others, even adding a layer of garlic to your butter provides too substantial a bite. Carefully consider the spice you can handle before making a final choice.
Base
The base of the sauce will significantly affect your sauce experience. For example, one with a vinegar base will taste very different from a cream base. Consider whether you want something light or rich and determine the base after that point.
Oyster Variety
Finally, consider the oyster variety you will be enjoying. Each has a different flavor profile, and thus, different sauces will taste better with certain oysters. For example, East Coast Oysters are sharp and salty, while West Coast Oysters have more of a vegetative flavor profile.
Where Can You Find High-Quality Oyster Sauces?
Unfortunately, finding high-quality ingredients for your next gathering with friends or a loved one is easier said than done. Your grocery store might have some things you need, but they can be questionable. Luckily, there is an excellent source to find everything you need to enjoy your favorite oysters.
For excellent seafood, condiments, and some ingredients to make condiments, consider investing in Kolikof Caviar & Gourmet. Whether you want some caviar to serve with your oysters or wagyu to add some turf to your surf, you can find it here. Every ingredient is high-quality and sourced from only the best locations, served right to your front door.