Oysters from the shallow bay south of the Loire estuary, shucked on the fish rows at Talensac and stacked on brasserie plateaux through the cold months with a glass of Muscadet beside them.

The bay of Bourgneuf sits between the southern edge of the estuary and the Île de Noirmoutier, a wide shallow basin of tidal flats worked for shellfish for centuries and for salt long before that. Its oysters are the ones a Nantes brasserie means when it puts a plateau de fruits de mer on the table, and they arrive at their best through autumn and winter. The pairing with Muscadet is not marketing: the saline, low-alcohol, faintly prickly sur lie style really does hold up against a raw oyster better than most whites.

Where to eat Huîtres de la baie de Bourgneuf in Nantes

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Make it at home

Serves 435 minIntermediate

Ingredients

  • 24 oysters
  • 50g salted butter, softened
  • 1 shallot, very finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
  • 50ml Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur lie
  • 30g fine dry breadcrumbs
  • Black pepper
  • Coarse salt or crumpled foil, to steady the shells

Method

  1. Shuck the oysters, keeping them in the deep half-shell with their liquor. Set them on a tray on a bed of coarse salt or crumpled foil so they sit level.
  2. Soften the shallot in a small pan with a knob of the butter for 3 minutes, add the Muscadet and reduce until almost dry. Cool.
  3. Beat the cooled shallot into the rest of the butter with the parsley and plenty of black pepper.
  4. Put a small knob of the butter on each oyster and scatter with breadcrumbs.
  5. Grill under a very hot grill for 3 to 4 minutes, until the butter is bubbling and the crumbs have browned. Serve immediately, half the dozen hot like this and half raw with lemon.

Editor tip. Do not grill them for more than four minutes. Past the point where the edges just ruffle an oyster turns rubbery, and the contrast is the point.

Common allergens: Molluscs.