The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-28
PLUMBING OYSTERS.
How the Bivalves Are Prepared
for the Market.
a Process by Which the Toothsomc
Dainty Is Rendered Full and Eat
for tho Tongue OF tho
Epicurc.

Not every lover of the oyster knows
that the size and plumpness which are
so highly priced in the great American
bivalve and which arc so attractive in
specimens on the half-shell or in stew
are not entirely natural. Yet it is the
usual practice for dealers, instead of
selling the oysters in the condition in
which they are taken from the salt
water beds, TO first place them for
time-forty-cig hours, more or less
in fresh or braciish water in order, as
they say, to "fattcn" them, the opera
ton being called floating" or "laying
out" BY this process the body of the
oyster acquires such plumpness and
rotundity and it's bulk and weight arc
so increased rs to materially increase
its selling value.
The belief is common among oyster
men, says the Chicago News that this
"fattcning" is due to an actual gain of
flesh and fat and that the nutritive value
of the molluss is increased by the
process. Such, however, is very far
from being the truth. If bladder be
filed with salt water and then put into
fresh water the salt water will gradu-
ally work its way out through the pores
of the bladder and at the same time the
fresher water will enter the bladder.
Furthermore, the fresh water will go
in much more rapidly than the salt
water goes out, owing to the fact that
the latter is more dense. The result
will be that the amount of water in the
bladder will be increased and the blad-
der will swell by taking up more water
than it loses, while at the same time it
loses portion of the salt. The same
principle exactly applies to the oyster.
Roughly speaking, the body of the
oyster may be regarded as u collection
of membranous sacs. These sacs arc
imprcgnated with the salt of the sea
water in which the animal lives. So
long as the bivalvc remains in the salt
water the solution of salt within it is in
equilibrium with the water outside.
But when it is placed in salt or bracliish
water the salt passes out of the body
and larger amount of fresh water
enters, producing the distension called
''fattcning."
Oystcrmen find that the oysters "fat-
ten" much more quickly in fresh than
in bracl1ish water, quite naturally
Warmth, too, is SO favorable to the
process that it is sometimes found
profitable to slightly heat the water in
which the oysters are fioated. Although
oysters are generally floated in the
shell the same effect is very commonly
obtained by adding fresh water to the
oysters after they have been "shucked."
Oysters lose much of their salty flavor
in floating, of course, and it is chiefly
on that account that the specimens one
eats are SO apt to be less salt than
would be agreeable to the palate. If
the ''fattencW oysters are left too long
on the float they become lean again.
Good fat oysters generally yield five
quarts of solid meat to the bushel, but
after floating two tides or more in a
tide river they will measure six quarts
a bushel. Finally they arc taken from
the shells, if they are to be shipped in
that way, and when the liquor is all
strained off they are washed in cold
fresh water and packed for market In
warm weather they arc put into the
water with ice.
In a report soon to be issued by the
United States fish commission on this
subject it is stated that an average
quart of oysters contains about the
same quantity of nutritive substance as
a quart Of milk or pound of very lean
beef or one and half pounds of fresh
Goldfish or two-thirds of n pound of
bread. Oysters come nearer to milk
than almost any other common food
material as regards both the amounts
and relative proportions of nutrients,
and the food values of equal weights of
milk and oysters are pretty nearly the
same.
a Heavy RIasf