Gordon Tries Smoked Oysters | Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted

They're all live oysters. This is all live oysters, so they're everywhere. I'm here in Maine on North Haven Island, where I'm going to harvest oysters with Adam, a local farmer of America's favorite mollusk. This little tiny bed can produce 250 to 300,000 oysters a year. I'm walking through the water, thinking, "So where are these things?" I'm actually standing on them. It was a proper oyster bed. They're free; nothing's caged, nothing's in racks. The size of this are tomato—that is insane! What an amazing little river.

So, the freshwater comes from a freshwater pond up here, yeah? And then the tide comes from the sea, and then the two meet, and it creates really good algae blooms. Yeah, so they get the advantage of the tides, obviously, and the flow and the flow. And so that's a gorgeous one, that's a beauty there. The extreme tidal fluctuations of this estuary and the mixing of fresh and salt water are part of what makes this the perfect environment to grow the oysters.

How did they get here? Um, I grew oysters in the pond for years, and I had this kid harvesting for me, and he shucked the oyster and dropped them on the bed, and they created a natural spawn. So, I came down the next morning, and the whole 17-acre pond had 3 feet of foam on it, and I was like, "Oh my God, what's going on?" Wow! Some of the oyster larvae swam into this connected estuary where they ended up thriving on the gravel bottom.

So Adam now replicates this process for each new batch. "Do you actually want, you want to try one?" "I love one now, please." "Yeah, you kidding me? Do that. Look at that! Oh my God! Try that!" "Thank you!" "Just look at the color! My God, they're nice and thick, dense, creamy."

Mhm, cheers! "Look at that! Cheers!" "Cheers!" "Bloody hell, man! There's a reason I have five kids. Guess how many kids I've got?" "How many?" "Five!" "No, that's awesome!" For me, it makes a big difference having these free-range bottom-cultured oysters because they're spread out. There's nothing set in cages; they're not hanging horizontally or vertically. They literally are laying on the bed of that river, and then this surge of saltwater against the freshwater is just producing, you know, a perfect oyster. Honestly, some of the best oysters I've ever eaten.

"Oh my God! All right, let's go smoke some big ones." So these oysters here are market oysters. So this is like half-shell market, gotcha? The big ones like this one we got today, that is not a half-shell oyster. "How'd you open something like that?" "I'll shuck this one. You can see!" "Check it out, man, look at that! I mean, honestly, wow!"

So then we brine that overnight, and then it's beautiful. So beautiful! And then this is what it looks like after 24 hours of smoking. "Oh my God, right here!" So they've already been brined and smoked. "Wow! Yeah, and then the way we finish them is another process. We pack them in virgin olive oil with a couple of other little secret ingredients."

"I love all this secrecy!" "We got to have a few secrets." "That smells sweet; is there honey in there?" "Yeah, there is!" "See, you got me. You got me!" "Chefs share their secrets, right?" "Yeah, one enough!" "My God! Mhm, wow! That is so good!"

Smoked oysters are out there, you know, it's a fine balance when something's so salty, creamy, and delicious, but amazing flavor. What works for me there is that honey. "Any herbs in there or you're not going to tell me?" "You're such a..." "I know Melissa won't have a jar like that. May I take the fresh oysters, yep, the clams, and just a jar? Because that could be the secret weapon!" "Do it!" "Yeah, take it! Thanks, bud!"

"Showare the love! I think I've become a Mainer now; I've got to cook like one." So these little pockets of magic—fingers crossed—are going to have the edge over Melissa. "All right, cool!" "That's awesome! Care, thank you!"

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