Power Food

{ POWER FOOD } The Sexy Seafood

Oysters offer tempting taste, great nutrition and—if you believe it—a legendary assist in the bedroom.

The oyster is a salt-water bivalve mollusc—a cluster of species, really—with an odd-looking, wiggly-shaped shell containing a gooey, briny mass whose flavor varies by type (tart or sweet, but always with a tang of the sea). People have been consuming oysters since the Stone Age, as we know from piles of discarded shell remnants that date back 10,000 years.

Oysters were long a delicacy for the rich. But in the 19th century they’d become so plentiful and cheap—in 1889 you could buy an oyster for a penny—that America saw a golden age of oysters. Ubiquitous in taverns, saloons and restaurants, this seafood provided what one writer called “a peculiar charm and an inexplicable pleasure,” and the average New Yorker consumed 600 oysters a year. Early in the Civil War, when Secretary of War Edwin Stanton wanted to rebuke the Union Army in the East for lollygagging in luxury while its comrades out West were fighting, he wrote: “The Champagne and oysters on the Potomac must be stopped.” Ultimately, however, overharvesting, pollution and the introduction of foreign species afflicted with disease brought the oyster boom to a close. The average American’s annual consumption today? Three.

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An 18th-century Italian named Casanova reportedly ate large amounts of raw oysters each morning, and we know what he’s famous for. But are oysters really an erotic stimulant? Evidence is suggestive but not definitive. While a 2005 study by U.S. and Italian scientists found an aphrodisiac effect in rat studies using two amino acids usually found only in mollusks such as oysters—D-aspartic acid and N-methylD-aspartate—no clear causal relationship in humans has been proven between oyster consumption and interest in, or prowess in, bedroom activities.

Still, a three-ounce serving of raw oysters contains more than 300 percent of the recommended daily value of zinc, which is vital for male sexual function. Zinc also helps maintain levels of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that may aid the libido’s operation in both sexes. Oysters are also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids (healthy even for lonely hearts), which in one study increased semen volume in young men. And the nonsexual benefits of protein-rich oysters are legion: They abound in vitamins B12 and D, copper, manganese, selenium and iron. And according to the Cleveland Clinic, a serving of six medium-sized oysters contains just 50 calories.

BUY/STORE/SERVE:

Fresh oysters in a store or seafood market should be kept on crushed ice. When you buy them, their shells should be shut tightly; avoid those with open shells (unless they quickly close up when tapped) and those with a fishy odor. If you purchase frozen oysters, freeze them in their containers or in zip-lock bags and use them within three months. Smoked oysters come in a flat, rectangular tin that can be opened with a key or a pull tab like a tin of sardines.

You’ll need to open, or shuck, your fresh oyster. Do that ideally with a thick-bladed oyster knife, taking care to sever the tough little connector tissue—the adductor muscle, which the creature flexes to close its shell. If you can’t open your oyster in three seconds or less, abandon plans to quit your job and take up full-time shucking. (Aw, shucks!) But if you can, plan a trip to the annual World Oyster Opening Championship in Galway, Ireland, next September 23.

Raw oysters on the half shell are a treat, sprinkled with lemon, cocktail sauce or a mignonette sauce made with vinegar, shallots and white pepper. Smoked oysters spiked on toothpicks can be a wonderful, tangy hors d’oeuvre if you have a taste for them. Oyster stew is a buttery, milky marvel in which oysters are the prizes but the liquid is scrumptious too. For Oysters Rockefeller, oysters are topped with butter, herbs and breadcrumbs and then baked or broiled. Oysters can also be boiled, steamed, fried, roasted or pickled. Cooks prepare oyster stuffing for holiday turkeys, oyster casseroles, oyster omelettes and oyster pasta; oysters have even been known to stuff a taco or two. A quick Google will reward your culinary curiosity with recipes galore. —Timothy Kelley

DID YOU KNOW? Underwater noise pollution from shipping or oil exploration can prompt oysters to close their shells—and maybe miss out on biological clues such as when to eat or spawn, according to researchers.