October is National Seafood Month!
National Seafood Month got off to an unusually good start at Glover Gardens this year, although we didn’t exactly plan it that way.
A stop at American Seafoods in New Orleans turned into one of those glorious seafood hauls that starts rearranging your meal plans before you even get home.
I stopped at American Seafoods after learning about it on Dook Chase’s PBS show, A Cook’s Journey.
This is the segment that sent me there:
I came home with the kind of haul that immediately starts rearranging your meal plans: oysters, soft-shell crabs and beautiful lump crabmeat. Before long, we had grilled oysters bubbling in lemony garlic butter, a soft-shell crab fry-up, and a version of Paul Prudhomme’s crawfish enchiladas con queso that somehow became all crab.
There are worse ways to begin October.
Grilling Oysters at Home
Grilled oysters look like special-occasion food, but they are surprisingly easy to make at home. Once you have a good pile of oyster shells and a simple, flavorful butter mixture, the actual cooking takes only a few minutes.
We’ve learned a few things along the way, though. Most importantly: save the real oyster shells.
They work better than the little metal substitutes, they hold the oysters and all that glorious seasoned butter and cheese sauce beautifully, and if you take care of them, you can use them again and again.
Our Starting Point
Our grilled oysters started with Emeril Lagasse’s recipe for Grilled Oysters with Lemon-Garlic Butter. We liked the basic idea very much and gradually made it our own.
Our version is a little more lemony, a little spicier, and considerably less fussy.
Instead of chives, we use green onions, because really, who has chives when you need them? We add Zippy Sicilian, our favorite house seasoning blend, along with extra red pepper flakes. We also use both the zest and juice of a whole lemon.
And we dispense entirely with the part where you make a compound butter, chill it and cut it into neat little pats.
That is far too fufu and prissy for grilled oysters at Glover Gardens.
We melt the butter in a 2-cup Pyrex measuring cup, stir everything else into it and spoon it over the oysters.
Done.
Our inspiration for this recipe: Emeril Lagasse’s Grilled Oysters with Lemon-Garlic Butter.
First, Save the Oyster Shells
If you enjoy raw or grilled oysters at restaurants, start collecting shells.
Yes, really.
Ask for your empty shells in a to-go box. Your servers, bartenders or oyster bar professionals are always bemused, but always helpful, too, usually offering more shells than you consumed. Bring them home, rinse them well and put them through the dishwasher without the heat-dry cycle. Then spread them out on a towel and let them dry completely.
They clean up beautifully.
And once you have a good collection, you’ll start noticing that not all oyster shells are created equal.
Some Oyster Shells Are Better Than Others
The best shells for grilling have two important qualities: they’re large enough to hold a nice oyster, and they have a good little well or cup shape. That well matters. It gives the oyster somewhere to nestle and, just as importantly, helps contain the buttery, lemony, garlicky sauce.
Flatter and smaller shells are less useful. I have reached the point where I sort ours into categories:
- Best for Grilling
- Second Best for Grilling
- Third Best for Grilling
This may sound mildly obsessive. But it is also extremely practical.
The best shells come out first. The second-best shells fill in when we’re cooking a large batch. The flatter little third-stringers are still worth keeping because when you’re feeding a crowd, quantity matters.
I like to have at least 36 shells available.
That is not excessive. I have watched cousins eat at least eight grilled oysters apiece. (This really happened.)
Why We Don’t Recommend the Metal Oyster Shells
Before we had a collection of real shells, we tried the little metal clam-shell-shaped cups sold for grilling oysters.
They did not work particularly well.
They’re small and shallow, and they don’t cradle the oyster or hold the sauce nearly as well as a real oyster shell.
We’ve also tried the larger metal dishes shaped like oyster shells. They’re better than the tiny ones, but we still don’t recommend them if real shells are available.
It simply isn’t the same. Even if they are practically useful and similar, the look is just wrong.
Real oyster shells are free, reusable and perfectly designed for the job.
Nature wins this round. Every darn time.
Glover Gardens Grilled Oysters
This mixture for oyster butter, cheese and herb sauce is enough for approximately 24 oysters, depending on how generous you are with the butter.
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter, salted or unsalted
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 finely minced green onions
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon Zippy Sicilian
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Make the Butter
Melt the butter in a 2-cup glass measuring cup in the microwave. Add the Parmesan, lemon zest, lemon juice, green onions, parsley, Zippy Sicilian and red pepper flakes. Stir well.
That’s it.
No chilling. No shaping. No tiny pats of compound butter.
Get the Oysters Ready
Place one shucked oyster into each clean oyster shell.
Arrange the shells on a baking sheet and spoon the seasoned butter generously over each oyster, making sure some of the good stuff settles around the oyster in the cup of the shell.
The baking sheet is for transportation. It is not going on the grill.
Gas Grill or Charcoal?
We love a charcoal grill. Ordinarily, we will take those glorious coals every chance we get.
For oysters, though, we recommend a gas grill if you have the option.
Why?
The oysters cook in about 4 to 6 minutes, and they need to be eaten immediately. Building a beautiful charcoal fire for five minutes of cooking seems a terrible waste unless you’re planning to grill something else afterward.
With a gas grill, you turn it on, grill the oysters and get straight to the important part: eating them.
Get Everything Else Ready
Before the oysters go on the grill, get everything else ready. They cook quickly and should be eaten immediately.
- Cut a lemon into wedges.
- Put out your favorite hot sauce.
- Have saltines or warm garlic bread ready.
- Set out plates, napkins and anything else you’ll need for serving.
- Make sure the people who are going to eat the oysters are nearby.
Once the oysters come off the grill, the clock is ticking.
Grill the Oysters
Heat the grill to high.
Carry the prepared oysters outside on the baking sheet. The Grill-Meister transfers each oyster shell directly onto the grill grate. As they cook, the butter begins bubbling around the oysters. Some of it may spill over the edge of a shell and cause a brief flare-up. We consider that part of the plan, and a lot of the fun.
Keep an eye on the grill, of course, and move an oyster if a flare becomes sustained rather than momentary.
The oysters should be ready in approximately 4 to 6 minutes. You’re looking for hot, bubbling butter and oysters that are just cooked through.
Do not wander away: four to six minutes goes quickly. Remove them from the grill and place them back on the serving platter.
Eat Them Now
This may be the most important instruction in the recipe.
Eat them now.
Grilled oysters are not patient food.
If you followed our advice, everything else is already waiting: lemon wedges, hot sauce, saltines or garlic bread, drinks, plates, napkins and the people who are going to eat them.
The oysters should come off the grill bubbling, buttery and fragrant and go directly onto the table.
This is not the time to finish another side dish. It is not the time to hunt for the hot sauce. It is definitely not the time to take twenty-seven photographs.
Squeeze a little lemon over one, grab a saltine or a piece of garlic bread if that’s your thing, and eat it while it is gloriously hot.
Then have another.
A Few Things We’ve Learned
Real oyster shells beat the metal versions by a mile. The deeper, more cupped shells are especially valuable because they hold both the oyster and the sauce.
Save more shells than you think you’ll need. Thirty-six is a good starting collection if you ever feed a group.
Gas grilling makes sense for this particular job because the cooking time is so short, although charcoal is wonderful if something else will follow the oysters onto the grill.
And finally, don’t overcomplicate the butter. Melt, stir, spoon, grill.
The oysters are the star.
Recipe Notes
- About the butter: Salted or unsalted butter both work. If using salted butter, taste before adding any additional salt.
- About Zippy Sicilian: Our house seasoning adds herbs, garlic, pepper and a little extra zip. If you don’t have it, substitute a robust Italian herb blend and adjust the garlic, salt and red pepper to taste.
- About the shells: Wash previously used oyster shells thoroughly, run them through the dishwasher without the heat-dry cycle and allow them to dry completely before storing.
- For a crowd: Figure on at least four oysters per person, and six to eight for enthusiastic oyster eaters.
©️ 2026, Glover Gardens
