How to Host an Oyster Roast

A few weeks ago, my boyfriend and I hosted an oyster roast at my townhouse. We invited a bunch of our friends and had about 20 people attend. I was a little skeptical about how this would work out considering I live in a fairly small house with no real backyard. I had also never hosted an oyster roast, so it was a learning experience for me. Luckily Clark (my boyfriend) has thrown a few roasts in his day, so he was super helpful. Below is my beginner’s guide to throwing an oyster roast:

The Basic Supplies:

• Oysters
• Beverages (beer!!)
• Snacks and Appetizers
• Hot Sauce
• Horseradish and Cocktail Sauce
• Lemons
• Saltines
• Shucking Knives

The Food: If oysters are going to be the only thing you serve, I’d recommend a bushel for every 5 people. However, I knew that a lot my friends probably wouldn’t eat a lot of oysters, so we also did a low country boil for a main course. We cooked up 3 pounds of shrimp, about 3 pounds of sausage (4 packages), and plenty of corn and potatoes and that was plenty combined with the 2 bushels of oysters we got.

The Cooking: We were fortunate enough to be able to use Clark’s parent’s oyster cooker to steam our oysters, but don’t fret! If you can’t get ahold of an oyster cooker, you can easily steam your oysters by placing oysters over a fire and covering them with a wet burlap sack (make sure it is all natural material or else it will burn) and letting the steam buildup! We had a lot of amateur oyster eaters in our midsts, so Clark decided to cook the oysters a little longer than normal to make them easier to shuck. For the low country boil, we were able to borrow a boil pot from a friend and set that up next to the oyster cooker behind the house. It was super easy to make both simultaneously, and Clark was a cooking champ!

Do NOT sit on oyster cooker once you start cooking

The Setup: We borrowed two folding card tables from a family friend and set one up inside for the appetizers and snacky foods and the other was outside for shucking. I placed 4 shucking knives and a stack of plain white wash cloths on the table to make shucking a little easier. We also had the saltine crackers in jars from Target and the various sauces in small bowls or their bottles on the table. Basically put whatever you may want to eat with your oysters on your shucking table.

The inside table featured all of the snacks, appetizers, and low country boil (we just put everything in large tin serving dishes once it was cooked). I made a cheese board with various cheeses and crackers, we had hummus and veggies, chips and salsa, and of course, boiled peanuts. I got the small chalk board from Michael’s and used a chalk marker to write on it, thanks Pinterest for that idea!

Boiled peanuts are an oyster roast must, in my opinion!

The Beverages: The best beverage to accompany oysters is cold beer! Clark being the ex-frat boy he is insisted that we get a keg, so that’s what we did and it was actually a great idea. It made cleanup so much easier, and we didn’t have to worry about half drunk cans or bottles scattering the porch or basement. We also had a few bottles of white wine for people to choose from along with bottled water. Clark also insisted that we have a tequila station, so tequila and limes were set out on our inside table.

A boy and his keg

The Party: Once our friends started to arrive, we played music, drank, and ate. Clark and his buddies took over the cooking and would dump each batch of oysters onto the shucking table and we would all go at it! Even the non-oyster eaters (and one vegan) tried the oysters and most liked them! It was super successful and doing it in the afternoon meant I was still able to be a grandma and go to bed by 10 PM!

If you are considering hosting an oyster roast, you should definitely do it!! It was so much fun and so easy. Oysters were a little more expensive than normal due to the limited supply after Hurricane Florence a few weeks earlier, but other than that the investment was pretty minimal. I have a feeling we will be hosting annual oyster roasts from here on out!

xx Clare