The Bivalves That Fed A Nation

After tackling the history of salt and cod, writer Mark Kurlansky now profiles oysters, of which New York once had many:

Through the oyster, Mr. Kurlansky’s current book traces the social, economic and environmental history of New York City and its waterways, starting even before the Europeans came on the scene, with the oyster-loving Lenape Indians. From the shells in the middens, or refuse heaps, archaeologists have concluded that the Lenape ate tons of oysters. With the Dutch, then the English and eventually every other group that arrived, the abundant oysters in the harbor and the rivers contributed to the city’s economy.

The Dutch did just fine shipping oysters to Europe, though they were disappointed that the city’s oysters could not revive their pearl industry — they are the ones who named Pearl Street — but Eastern American oysters, Crassostrea virginica, do not make gem-quality pearls. All the native oysters on the East Coast, from Louisiana to Newfoundland, are C. virginica, a different species from many West Coast varieties and from European oysters.

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He marvels at the human taste for oysters. “They take work, and they are not terribly nutritious,” he said. “And a hundred or more years ago oysters were a food that was consumed in more or less the same form by every social class. Throughout most of New York’s history, oysters were incredibly cheap. You could get all you could eat for 6 cents, an entire plate for less than what a hot dog cost, at a time when a single out-of-season strawberry cost 50 cents.”