You Are So Shuckable – From the 2026 Oyster South Symposium
This is an AI-supported transcript of the 60-minute panel in the video above, captured at the 2026 Oyster South Symposium.
I appreciate you all coming back after lunch. I know that can be a tough transition. I just had to rush and leave Beth with the bill so I could get back here in time.
Julie and I were both interested in this idea of what makes an oyster shuckable. As a throwback—Julie said this was okay to play, and I don’t see her here yet—we’re going to start with a short clip. John, can you press play?
Let’s go back to shucking for a moment. Are you a front shucker or a back shucker?
Oh, goodness. I guess I’m a back shucker. I’ve never said it like that before—that just sounds a little naughty. I shuck from the hinge. Am I blushing? Yes. I typically go through the hinge unless it’s a brittle shell, and then I go through the side. I have not mastered the art of going through the front like old school, but I’ve seen it done and it’s pretty badass.
I wanted to show that for a couple of reasons. When Julie saw that, she said, “So much collagen.” That clip is from 2016. It was filmed at the first Oyster South Symposium at Auburn University. For those who were there, Mary and Laney were doing filming. I found some old video of Boris and Marcos as well. It’s a good throwback.
The reason I was especially hopeful to have shuckers here is that I want to think about two questions:
What makes an oyster more or less shuckable than another?
Can we quantify shuckability?
Why would we want to do that? I understand that if you’re a grower and your oysters are hard to shuck, you probably don’t want a score that says they’re hard to shuck. This is not intended to be a Wine Spectator–style score. The idea is that as a grower, you need to know if your oysters are problematic for shucking. You want a measure of that so you can change it if you choose to. Maybe you don’t want to change it, and that’s fine—but we’ve struggled with how to improve this if improvement is the goal.
When Julie and I started talking about this—especially for a skilled audience—we fully understand that the skill of the shucker matters. Familiarity with the type of oyster matters. Are you shucking a Belon? A Pacific? That matters. The shucking knife or tool matters. The method—hinge, bill, or side—matters. The position—tabletop or in hand—matters. Time since harvest matters. We know all of those factors affect the experience.
That’s not what we’re asking.
We’re asking: what is the shuckability of the oyster itself? What makes an oyster more or less shuckable that a grower can influence?
That’s the question.
I’m going to go through some examples and get your opinions.
Most people let others see oysters like this—the top shell, right? Pretty common.
I call this the “bottom lip break.” I find this less common, but sometimes the oysters are brittle enough that when I get the knife in, the front bill shakes. I’ll take the blame for that shuck. It was taken in my lab, so I know that’s a scrambled oyster.
The hinge blowout—can you play that video? You’ve all seen this. That’s a pretty mild version. It’s probably still servable compared to some you’ve seen.
I found a new word: elf shoes. I looked up the official name for that shape, and it turns out that in the 1950s those shoes were in style and were called “Winkle pickers.” So this is now the Winkle picker hinge for me. You can see how that makes it hard to get the knife in.
Then there are “shoe horns.” You can get the knife in, but trying to get it across becomes an issue.
We played with what to call this one, but we settled on “pancake butt”—where it’s so close that it’s hard to find a place to insert the knife. I’ll take credit for that name.
Then there are “speed bumps.” When you get stalactites or stalagmites from mud blisters and my knife hits that, you can see a piece of adductor muscle behind it that I wasn’t able to get out cleanly.
I had to generate this next one because I couldn’t find an example. I call it “downward dog.” If you flip the oyster over, it looks a little like the yoga pose. It’s actually fairly easy to get the knife into, but getting a clean shuck is very difficult.
Let’s go back to Julie’s slide with the pans.
I got very emotional in the Oyster Confessional, which is why I’m a little late. I blame Kevin.
Any guesses why I put a bunch of pans on this slide?
I started thinking about shuckability in terms of user experience. In our kitchens, everyone has a favorite pan. You might start with nonstick because it’s easy. Then you move to cast iron, which is phenomenal for certain things. Then stainless steel, which gets food very hot but is more high maintenance. You have to understand how to use it to get a good cooking experience.
Oysters are similar. Some are easy and straightforward—perfect for beginners. Others require skill and understanding to experience their beauty.
Can we think about oysters in terms of product user experience?
Is shuckability important? In selling and marketing, products that are easy and enjoyable to use tend to do better. Think about the brands you love. They make your life easier. They’re effortless. Convenient. You don’t have to rethink the decision every time.
Live oysters on the half shell need to be shucked. So shuckability is critical to user experience.
Ease of use is an important consideration, especially for growers. It’s a key product benefit for new shuckers. If we want to grow the market, we need more people shucking oysters. The beginner oyster has to be effortless to open.
I’ve been developing Level Three curriculum for Oyster Master Guild and incorporating expert opinions. This is Becca Ang, director of procurement at Wulf’s Fish in Boston. She has a concise way to evaluate oysters, and I think it’s helpful to hear what she looks for from a wholesale perspective. This is similar to what Patrick McMurray does.
The first thing we do is take it out of the bag and look at consistency. First and foremost is size. What do we actually have in front of us? Then shape and overall cleanliness. I pay close attention to the hinge to make sure it’s an easy shuck. In a perfect world, you’d sell every oyster, but ease of opening really matters. We can have beautiful oysters, but if they’re difficult to open, customers shy away.
Next, we shuck them and look at the meat. Is it opaque or watery? Does it fill the shell? Assessment is relative to the time of year and the oyster’s life cycle. Then we taste and evaluate the flavor profile to see where it fits in our roster.
That’s her initial evaluation.
We understand there are external factors that drive shuckability. I’ve worked with growers who raise bottom oysters that don’t come out of the water often and tend to have sponge and mudworms at the hinge. Their answer is that people need to learn to shuck from the bill. If you shuck from the bill, it’s not a problem.
That’s true—but it’s a big ask when you’re just happy to have someone who can shuck. I’m not opposed to the idea, but I’m not sure it’s a long-term strategy.
There’s getting the oyster open, and there’s getting it open while still delivering a quality product.
That’s what we’re trying to emphasize.
So we’ve covered:
Top shell
Bottom lip break
Hinge blowout
Winkle pickers
Shoe horns
Pancake butt
Speed bumps
Downward dog
Can we quantify the shuckability of these oysters?
To do that, we need to make sure we’re measuring everything that’s important. That’s where I want your feedback. I’m seriously planning a “Science of Shuckability Summit” where we bring in shuckers and different oysters and control variables like knives and hinge versus bill techniques. We would try to learn which oysters are quantitatively more shuckable than others.
We wanted to start by learning a little about you—where you work. If you’re out of the country, just put it in the blank and I’ll figure it out.
Next: what are the most common issues you see? Not necessarily the most challenging—just the most common.
And then: as a shucker, what are the most challenging issues you have trouble solving with your knife?
As we transition, please also share anything we should consider that isn’t on this list, and what you personally find most challenging. We really wanted your feedback.