San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-10-24
AN OYSTER STEW.
SOME FACTS ABOUT ITS CHIEF
INGREDIENTS.
The Oyster, Where Found, How
Sold and Extent of the Supply.

cotton seed oil fumes-of the dainty oys-
ter greet the passer by of the restaurant.
1t is also the time when the cafes take in
teeir ice cream and milk shake signs and
hang out board, proclaiming the
fact that oysters will be, served here in all
all styles. The chop house, too, hangs
out an additional sign to its already nu-
merous announcements, bearing the word
"Oysters!"
A talk which LIGHT man had with
one Of our largest oyster dealers, devel-
concerning the oyster trade of San An
tonic.
''Oh, yes; this city is a good oyster mar
ket. l should judge, that estimating the
daily consumption Of oysters in this city
at 10000 per day, would be putting forth
some very moderate and decidedly low
figures. No, sir; would not Judge the
consumption of that article of food at
less than ten thousand per day."
"As to the different kinds of oyZters sold
here, they are the small Corpus Christi,
or reef oyster, as ii is called; the Mata-
gorda Bay, the very best oyster in the
market, and the Berwick Bay oyster, the
largest one, which comes from Morgan
City, La. There is also a pretty good
one most commonly consumed in this city
Is the Corpus Christi oyster. A very few
Matagorda bay oysters are disposed of,
as they come considerably higher. Next
to the Corpus Christi animal comes the
Berwick Bay oyster, good, large and
popular variety. We have several oyster
beds along our coast where these oysters
are taken from, the bed at Corpus being
the one most worked now, as it supplies a
very large portion of the interior cities.
These beds are open to the public, as the
fishing places on the streams or the hunt
ing grounds outside of pastures, and are
worked by single fishermen or by oyster
fishers sent out by the various fish and
oyster companies of the place. The COM
panieS buy up all of the animals caught
during the day, can them or put them in
buckets ready for shipment to outside
points. THESE cans contain twenty five,
the buckets 1000 to 1,500loysters and the
barrels, though they seldom come that
way, hold fully 10000 of them.
AS to the supply of oysters, whether
eXhaustable or not, the dealer, said:
THAT is point indeed very hard to tell.
| have been in Corpus, in the business
there, but have never felt enough in
tereSt in the matter to investigate
il. The companies and fishermen
all will tell you that the beds are small
and the supply not great, but you cannot
depend upon their talk, for they seek ev
cry preteXt possible to screw up one or
two notches, the price of this product.
| believe, however, that the time will
soon come when there will be no more
oysters in the beds at Corpus, as immense
quantities are being taken out daily and
none replanted. 1t has been said that
some of the beds were replanted with
oysters, but to the best of my knowledge
this is not the case.
Il, ,lf, Ia 10
near the amount of oysters taken out of
the Texas bays during the season, which
begins September and ends May 81, but
it would run somewhere about 90 ,O00,"
said another large dealer.
Here are a few figures that may inter-
est the man who loves meal of three or
four dozen of the Shiny delicacies. The
purchase them from the oyster com
panies at the coast for eighty
cents per hundred, or about ten
cents per dozen. The dealers sell them
to restaurant men for twenty-five and
thirty cents per box of twenty-five, or
twelve cents per dozen, and the restaur-
ant man hands them to you with some
raw. The Berwick Bay oysters come
higher, so does the Matagorda Bay
variety.
The restaurant man sets to work and
prepares the oysters for you just as you
like them, having his price for every
kind. Oysters raw cost you 30 cents,
oysters fried and Stewed, 30 cents; oysters
broiled, 40 cents, and oysters Dreaded, so
cents per dozen. An old experienced res
taurateur said that fried oysters were sold
most then came raw ones, next followed
oysters stewed, then broiled, and least Of
all Dreaded oysters.
From a health point of view, the con-
sumption of oysters in the manner named
should not be the case, for frying oysters,
like any other fried dish, is one of the
most indigestible modes of preparation.
Raw oysters are the most digeStble,
stewed oysters next, Dreaded land broiled
thereafter, and fried oysters least digesti-
bic of all.
The following is from one of our leading
physicians, and ably sets forth the true
value of the oyster as nutriment and its
general effect on the system:
sOysters constitute a nutritious article
of diet They belong TO the albumlnold
class of bodies and in this respect bear a
close resemblance to eggs which are, as is
we'll known, among the foremost OF nu-
tritious agents.
weight for weight they do not possess
as much actual nutrition as do eggs, be-
cause of the large amount OF water
which they contain, and II they have
undergone the process OF featherlng,
which consists simply IN causing Jnem 10
take up more water, the discrepancy IN
nutritiye value becomes greater as mat
ter of course.
1.-THE oyster, like other articles OF food
NAV have its nut"itive properties impair
ed or wholly destroyed by an oyer-zealous
cook. 1t is obvious from its albuminoid
nature that the raw oyster IS the most
available form for nutrition. Next comes
the oyster stew when properly prepared;
and the fried oyster, which is so tempting
to the palate, is the most difficult OF d.
gestiOn.