The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1895-02-22
OYSTERS UP TO DATE.
The Very Latest Fad Is for
Bleached Bivalves.
White Ones Are Probably Doctored--Oys-
termen Who Ought TO Know Say They
Are Mythical = Natures Own Shell
fish Not to he Improved Upon.

nsh Not to BE Improved Upon.
"Bleached oysters is the latest and
a rapidly growing fad. The fashionable
uptown restaurants are catering to it.
An oyster that does not peer forth
snowy white from the depth of its shell
is considered bad form. 1t does not
appear that the Albino-hued bivalve
is improved by the blanching process.
In fact, it is held by all fair-minded
people who have tried them that the
flavor which gives our oysters their
superiority over all the bivalves OF the
world is destroyed entirely. But they
are said by self-constituted authori-
tites to look better, and it is the
fashion to have them served that way.
The course of treatment to which
the luscious shellfish is subjected to
bringu about the pale and ghostly hue
is the secret of the restaurant men.
The wholesale oyster dealers know
nothing about it.
A reporter for the New York World
went aboard floating warehouse, on
the North river, the other day, and
made an inquiry as to the best method
of blanching oysters. 1t was apparent
that oystermen do not relish the news
paper notoriety which has been thrust
upon the innocent and inoffensive
shellfish.
IF could meet the man who start
ed all this talk about typhoid fever and
malaria in oysters" said one old salt,
I'D chuck him in the bay and hit him
on the head with boathook when he
came up the first time, and there
wouldn't be no second time.
s'As If it amt bad enough that this
has been one Of the worst oyster years
we ever had, but on top of that some
crazy fool up in Connecticut tries to
fatten his oysters in a creek into which
sewer cmpties. What's the result? A
lot Of college students and professors
get sick and four Of them die. What
follows? The newspapers publish it
all over the country, typhoid fever in
oysters, and the business Is almost par
alyzed in some places. Forty million
people eating oysters and four of them
get sick and diel How many people
die every day from eating pork and
beef, yet does that scare anybody?
No, sir.
NOW, on top of all this, some fool
restaurant men go to making their
oysters white, which God never intend
ed they should be, or He would have
made 'em SO. | don't suppose that the
oysters were hurt any by 1t, but some
fellow gets sick, after knocking about
the Tenderloin all night, and remem-
bers that he ate II dozen bleached oy-
sters, and then he hollers that he has
been poisoned.
'Some one writes to newspaper
that sulphate of zinc will bleach an
oyster. don't know whether it will
or not, but chemist told me that it
would not. But the oyster trade gets
it in the neck all the same. Thank
goodness that these stories did not get
out two months ago, or the oystermen
would all be in the hands of the asso-
ciated charities. Our season is over for
cheap oysters, in which the money is
made. Nothing goes out of New York
counts, and culls. The oyster business
after the middle of November goes to
baltimore. There are no oyster can
neries in New York.
This fad for white oysters never
heard Of before this year. There are
no pure white oysters. The oyster
takes his color from his surroundings
and an old oysterman can tell at a
glnncc which one of the beds herea-
bouts an oyster comes from. The Blue
Point is often silvery in appearance.
There is no way that know of to make
an oyster white.
"When the weather Is not too cold
oysters, after being taken up, are sunk
on floats for from twelve to twenty
four hours in braclxish water, generally
near the mouth OF Il fresh-water creek.
This water they will drink freely and
fill up SO that they look fat. This has
the effect Of washing out the sea water
and mud that may have been taken in.
/ know every oyster bed in New York
bay, Long Island sound, or the rivers
of New Jersey, and know Of no oyster
that is what you might call white.
Personally, l would let such alone If
offered me.
Nature cannot be improved upon in
the matter of the oyster, except to give
1t chance to wash out and fatten up
on some half-salt water. When the
people understand that the bleached
oysters are unnatural and artificial
they will become suspicious of them
and be satisfied with the plain, un-
bleached variety"