1. When buying oysters, make sure they are tightly closed to ensure freshness
2. Grip the oyster in a cloth on a steady surface, with the flatter shell facing up. Insert the oyster knife flat, into the small gap in the hinge.
3. Turn the knife 45 degrees long-ways, to start prising open the shell. Work the knife around the oyster until the top shell is released.
4. Carefully lift off the top. Clean away any pieces of broken shell from inside.
5. Carefully run the knife under the oyster to loosen it from the shell. Shucked oysters don’t keep, so serve immediately.
Use your new cookery skills with these triple-tested recipes:
Oysters with three sauces recipe
Stir-fried vegetables with oyster sauce
Try more triple-tested seafood recipes
Slate serving board, oyster knife, chef’s own.
An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
