Cooking with the seasons: oysters

For a modest little bivalve, the oyster seems to inspire the most fanatical of followings as well as the deepest of loathing. Garnering an almost Pavlovian response, it’s a food to take up arms over, to write poetry about (see Seamus Heaney or Lewis Carol) or to consign to the slop bin of history with a dismissive flick of the shucking knife. Many foods come with rituals and traditions, but the humble oyster is so encrusted with aspiration and social anxiety that it scarcely seems possible to enjoy it naked and unadorned as nature, and arguably gastronomy, intended.