By and Bivalve

Dear Mr. Saucy-Pants,

Oyster sauce! Is it made OUT OF oysters or is it a sauce FOR oysters? - On the half shell

My bottle of oyster sauce, purchased solely for its label and name: Panda Brand Oyster Flavored Sauce contains - Water, Sugar, Salt, Oyster Extractives (oyster, water, salt), MSG, modified cornstarch, wheat flour and caramel color. Not really sure what Oyster Extractives are and equally unsure that I really want to know.

The USDA is mute on the definition of Oyster Sauce; meaning you can call any sauce that goes over oysters an oyster sauce without out fear a bureaucracy will sanction you. Our government does caution to discard bottles of opened oyster sauce in event of flooding or extended power outages. In Food Culture in China, by Jacqueline M. Newman asserts that Asian countries routinely use pieces of oyster in their sauces but for import to the United States, only liquid extracted from cooked oysters can be used.

Largely the brown sauce is thought of as a condiment used in Asian food. By most accounts oyster sauce has a Cantonese provenance, but is popularly used throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. Occidentally, Isabella Mary Beeton’s The Book of Household Management, published in 1863, included recipes for oyster sauce. Oyster Sauce and eel pie was apparently a popular recipe in early US cookbooks, and given the near ubiquity of both eels and oysters in coastal areas, such a food was possibly popular with US cookbook users as well - A recipe with a title like that just seems to sully the good name of pie.

Chinese broccoli and oyster sauce is a popular dim-sum plate, but the oyster sauce glazing the green veg is not poured on straight out of the bottle like ketchup, rather it is thinned with water or stock and includes – depending on the recipe – sugar, sesame oil and/or garlic. In the Saucykitchen™, oyster sauce is used sparingly as kind of a corn syrup – helping thicken and adding sweetness to a dish, odds are the 17oz will not be used before the expiration date of October 2010.

The condiment is not especially or for that matter even remotely oystery in flavor or scent. Which would seem to make it okay to use on oysters themselves, but I cannot cite a source that does so. I was able to locate a few preparations for muscles using oyster sauce. After broccoli - beef, chicken or tofu seem to be the most referenced ingredients for use with oyster sauce but that is almost true for ranch ‘dressing’ as well.

For oysters, I’d avoid the syrupy oyster sauce and stick to a contrasting flavors – Gremolata, hot sauces and or cold beer.