Meat To Shell Ratio
We've been thinking a lot about meat content as the oysters break their winter fast and begin their feasting season. Despite the cold or maybe because of the cold, our oysters stay surprisingly fat though the winter. But they are just now starting to grow shell for that fat to expand into. We check the meat to shell ratio periodically. There are no standards for that in the US, but in Europe they grade oysters based on this ratio. They grade "fines" at 6.5-10.5% and "selectes" at >10.5. Their oysters tend to have heavier shells from their very different harvest practices and conditions, but gram for gram our oysters have more meat
Here is how we do the meat to shell ratio: we use our smallest no. 5 size (35-45g/oyster).
Divide the shucked meat by the total weight and you get the meat to shell ratio ratio. The pictured samples were from FEB 6 2023 170g/892g = a whopping 19% in the middle of winter! Last August that number was 21%.
It's been a long winter and today's harvest came in at 17%. But we are seeing new shell growth and they'll fill that shell back up with meat by next August. We'll post this ratio here, then you can look for the difference as the seasons change and between cohorts (young vs older). Our goal is to sell you meat not shell, if the ratio is lower than we like, we'll hold harvest and wait for them to fatten up. But even at 17% they did well through the winter.
Best,
Margo (907) 299-3351