Every summer I try to bridge two of my favorite hobbies - gardening and seafood - into a post. It started with an oyster shell paved garden path. Then, it was pairing oysters with farm-fresh eggs from chickens our neighbors raise. After that, it was turning homegrown peppers into hot sauce for an oyster condiment. I won't lie, I've found it takes a lot of creative grasping and poetic license to pair seafood and gardening. Wish I were as clever as The Beatles. Sure, I could just run through seasonal fish recipes, paired with garden fresh produce. Lobster BLTs, pan seared halibut over summer succotash, mahi mahi tacos with charred corn salsa, grilled ahi tuna and sesame cucumber salad. All delicious, but a bit boring. There's already plenty from the content creating clickbaiters. "OMG you guys! Run, don't walk, to these amazing salmon recipes! #DeInfluence. I like some history, exploration, or at the very least, a little whimsy. Whether successful or not is a different story, but that's usually my aim.
This year I leaned into the gimmick side. The kids and I tackled our annual English pea harvest earlier this summer. I always sow a few different pea varieties around St. Patrick's day, along with other frost tolerant plants like radishes, kale, beets, and lettuce. This means that come Juneteenth, the garden is overflowing with peas. My children won't touch a pea on a plate, but somehow love grabbing them right off the vine and enjoying as a snack. The big harvest has become a bit of a tradition. One day each year, usually a Saturday or Sunday in late June, we wake up and head to the backyard. With warm morning dew on our feet and popcorn bowls in hand, we gently pluck each pod from the garden. Then, we hang out on the deck, sipping coffee and juice, listening to reggae, and process the peas.
When my daughter said "I love shucking peas" this year, it got me thinking - what other foods do we shuck? Is there a reason that we shuck corn but peel bananas, hull sunflower seeds, and husk coconuts? I've heard shell and shuck used interchangeably for peas, but shell and shuck for beans can mean entirely different things. What about peeling shrimp, cracking crabs, and shucking oysters? I really enjoy weird etymology, bizarre grammar, and strange lexicon. Why do we drive on a parkway and park on a driveway? What cruel person decided the fear of long words should be "hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?" Do you think they named oranges before they named carrots?
According to the Britannica dictionary, and similarly across Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, and others, the most common, contemporary definitions of shuck are.
According to the Britannica dictionary, and similarly across Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, and others, the most common, contemporary definitions of shuck are.
shuck (n):
the outer covering of a nut or a plant (such as corn); the shell of an oyster or clam
shuck (v):
to remove the outer covering of (a plant, such as corn) or the shell of (an oyster)
The true etymology of the word is unknown. Just ask Gemini, ChatGPT, or any other LLM and you'll get a host of different answers. That's because these models are programmed to never admit uncertainty, even when sources conflict. I love a good AI hallucination, but I'm pretty excited to see the AI bubble burst. I'm by no means a luddite; I use “AI” for data processing and organization at work all the time. It can do incredible things, and will only get better. But presently, it's more akin to a search engine on steroids than intelligence. It's a streamlined parrot of the internet. It doesn't reason or understand. Rather, it's being deliberately engineered to seem it can for quick investments and money grabs. In the worst cases, it's even being fraudulently propped up. The hype will eventually collapse.
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Abraham Fleming's 1577 account of The Black Shuck |
In American English, shuck gradually evolved to take on other meanings throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. I'm sure you're familiar with the interjection "shucks," such as "aw shucks," expressing mild embarrassment or disappointment. Less commonly, there's shucking off clothing or a bad reputation, as in to discard. It also meant something valueless in the 1800s, like "it wasn't worth a shuck." More recently there's the practice of shucking hard drives, which is taking an external drive and repurposing it internally. Modern variations of shuck are also based in African American Vernacular English. A shuck can be a fraud or scheme, or to shuck can mean to deceive or trick. Think of shuckin' and jivin', which has its unfortunate foundations with the Black community evading undue attention from the authorities. Equally unfortunate is the phrase's racially coded appropriation nowadays, and some don't even realize that when they use it.
I'm not a linguist, computer scientist, or race relations expert, so take all of this with a grain of salt. My research often amounts to shuck. But with that salt, I can confidently say I'm damn good at making well-seasoned and flavorful seafood preparations. So while the etymology and history of the word shuck are fun, I wanted to make a dish with my kids celebrating all things shucked. With our homegrown English peas shucked and on hand, fresh clams, corn, scallops, and oysters all came to mind. Honestly, I couldn't think of many other shuckables. No problem, though, because all that sounded like the start of one tasty ceviche.
My son and I headed to Gentile's Market in Newtown Square. They've always got the best seasonal produce in stock. We picked up some ceviche basics - limes, shallots, fresno chiles, green onions, and cilantro. For the shucking portion, we of course grabbed a few ears of fresh Jersey sweet corn. Every region of the country has its own celebrated corn basket, and I'm not going to say Jersey's is better than Nebraska, Iowa, or anywhere else. However, New Jersey is known as the Garden State for a reason, and their produce is top notch. There are a lot of reasons to hate on New Jersey, but their corn isn't one of them. Again, just jokes. Nothing but love for ya, Dirty Jerz.
Next, we headed right across the street to Hill's Quality Seafood to pick up some littleneck clams, scallops, and a single oyster. I've had and made oyster ceviches before and must admit they're not my favorite. I like Veracruz's vuelve a la vida, which usually includes oysters. And the line between ceviches and other Latin American or global raw seafood dishes is a blurry one. Aguachile, poke, kinilaw, tartare, coctel, tiradito. An oyster on the half shell is technically just a crudo. So I do like innumerable raw oyster preparations. However, shucking and mixing loose oysters into the classic ceviche mix of citrus, chiles, and alliums isn't my cup of tea. There's something about the oysters' texture, in volume and concentration, swimming around in the leche de tigre that doesn't work for me. They just don't have the right tooth or body to stand up, and I end up feeling like I'm eating them just for the protein. That being said, you know I had to incorporate at least one oyster into my shucked ceviche.
We halved the limes, chopped the cilantro, sliced the green onion, and brunoised the shallot and fresno. By we, I mean the kids got to massacre a few green onions and some cilantro on the side with their plastic knives while I managed the rest. They did shuck the corn and I sliced some kernels off the cobs. The diver scallops got diced too. Next, it was onto the clams. Same logic as the oysters, raw clams aren't great in ceviche, in my experience. However, while cooked oysters aren't either as their texture remains rather supple, cooked clams take on a nice, firm texture that holds up well. We steamed the clams for 10 mins, and once cooled, the kids and I shucked them from their shells with some butter knives. They absolutely loved this part, and it was toddler safe. Last, the single Wellfleet oyster. Ceviches are often finished with crunchy toppings, adding a nice contrast to the bright and acidic base. And few things are better than a golden brown, crispy fried oyster. I shucked it, dredged in corn meal, and deep fried in canola oil for a few minutes. I set it to the side, and with the prep ready to go, it was finally ceviche making time.
Prep is the laborious part of ceviche. Fine dices, uniform knife cuts, lots of squeezing citrus. All very important. A shoddy chop on onions is no major issue when sautéing, but when eating them basically raw, a millimeter or two can make a big difference. And bottled lime juice isn't even close to fresh, so never cut any corners here. The juice is quite literally worth the squeeze. However, once finished, the rest of ceviche making is just mixing things in a bowl and seasoning. Quite easy. Depending on the type of seafood, it can help to marinate it in citrus juice for 15 to 20 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients. The acid denatures the proteins of the seafood, both firming and tenderizing while giving it that 'cooked' appearance. In this instance, the clams were already cooked and I wanted to keep the scallops crudo, so no marination on this one. The other key step is combining everything in a bowl over ice. Ceviche should be served ice cold, and this set up helps ensure that. You can even find special bowls for serving ceviches, tartares, and other dishes that need to be kept chilled.
Shallot, fresno, cilantro, sweet corn, peas, clams and scallops all came together in the icy bowl with ample amounts of lime juice and kosher salt to taste, then got plated in a hand thrown bowl a friend gifted to us. I thought of finishing it with some spicy peanuts or pistachios, as you'll occasionally hear of shuckin' both. However, I decided to stay classic and added some canchas. They're basically Peruvian corn nuts and are a standard accompaniment to Andean ceviches. We didn't personally shuck and make them, but they were certainly shucked at some point. Topped off with some green onion, a little more cilantro, and of course the fried oyster, the ceviche was good to go. And it tasted great. Spicy, tart, savory, tangy. Various levels of sweet ranging from the corn and peas' earthy sweetness to the clams and scallops' oceanic. The canchas and oyster provided great textural contrast and saltiness. All spot on with no edits, and a delightful bite on a warm summer's day.
Wish I could say my kids felt the same. Since they were integral in the whole production, they were champs and gave it a try. But I suppose ceviche is more of an acquired taste. I'm not giving up, though. They'll be ceviche fiends just like me at some point. However, I can positively report they're now avid shuckers, and nothing makes me happier than that. I hope y'all enjoy the rest of your summer and get a few chances to have some shuckin' fun!
Cheers,
The SF Oyster Nerd