Can Oysters Make You Frisky? + The Secret of Chartreuse!

Matt & Olly's Secret Life of Food

Hosts Matt and Olly explore the biological wonders of oysters, discussing their ability to change sex and their role in purifying water. The

Key takeaways

• Oysters are efficient filter feeders capable of processing up up to 50 gallons of water per day.
• The historical consumption of oysters in London reached over 700 million in the year 1864.

Main topics

• Oyster biology and history
• Chartreuse liqueur secrets

Notable quotes

Every plate has something to say, every dish has got a secret tale to tell.

Conclusion

A fascinating deep dive into the intersection of culinary history, bio

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) The Secret Life of Food podcast brought to you by All Good Things, the wine brand created for moments of connection, bringing people together to celebrate all of life's good things. Speaker 1 (0:08) Hi, I'm Matt Tebbert. And I'm Ollie Smith. This is The Secret Life of Food. Speaker 2 (0:12) Now, we've been mates for a very long time. Right. Everyone's baffled by it. like 25 years Speaker 1 (0:17) or something like that at least we've eaten and drunk our way through many different countries now we really obsess over food we look at a plate and we take it apart it's true we do that and i think that every plate has Speaker 2 (0:30) something to say every dish has got a secret tale to tell and every bottle has a message in it and just to share it with the world it's Speaker 1 (0:37) right it's our mission so what we thought is we sit in some uncomfortable chairs we put some microphones in front of us and we talk to you about it. I mean, it's going to make sense because Matt is going to bring the food. He's going to bring the Speaker 2 (0:48) drinks. And then together we'll have a bit of a laugh. Speaker 1 (0:50) So get ready, strap in. This is The Secret Life of Food. Speaker 1 (0:58) So, Ollie, here we are again. I love it. Back in our favourite hot seats. So hot. Little microphones. Broadcasting to sometimes no one. Well, Speaker 2 (1:07) our dear friends. Huh? Our dear friends. Well, Speaker 1 (1:09) let's hope they're all listening today because it's going to be really, really interesting. Yeah, what are you talking about? I'm talking about oysters. Oh, yes. Fresh, delicious, Speaker 2 (1:16) unbelievable. Sexy Speaker 1 (1:17) food. Speaker 2 (1:17) Yeah, it is sexy food, isn't it? I think so. I am going to match your oysters with something that won't go at all, actually, but Chartreuse, one of my favourite liqueurs ever. That's always... It brings me connotations of snowy. Yeah, it's kind of like genipi. It's all the kind of juniper botanicals. I'll tell you all about it. It's green. It's herbaceous. It's delicious. Tell Speaker 1 (1:37) us Speaker 2 (1:37) now. Speaker 1 (1:37) I can't because we've got to do food or fake. Okay, here it is. So this week, food or fake, everyone. Grasshopper pie. Speaker 2 (1:47) I think that's food. I think that's food as well. And even if it isn't... It's not made of grasshoppers. I think it's an American thing. Yeah, because you've got the grasshopper cocktail, grasshopper pie. That could be like the minty, chocolatey, could be the cocktail thing. Or people do eat grasshoppers. I mean, they eat locusts, don't they? Oh, yeah, they do. So it's got to Speaker 1 (2:02) be food, right? Yeah. Speaker 2 (2:03) Food. There's my paddle. Speaker 1 (2:04) I saw... I saw a... Where was I? In Bali. There was Speaker 2 (2:09) a Speaker 1 (2:09) little girl in a field. Yes. And she was like pushing it on spikes. What? They're locusts. yeah she was pushing them down on spikes and then to eat them to eat them oh fun Speaker 2 (2:18) on a skewer on a skewer you mean a skewer Speaker 1 (2:20) yeah but a big stick a big pointy stick going through the fills she was about like five anyway so that's that so grasshopper pie yeah next one food bear claw Speaker 2 (2:30) Ooh. I mean, I want it to be a brand of gym clothing. I don't want it to be a food. I want to wear it and feel tough. I'm wearing my bear claw pants. Do I look very muscular? Bear claw pants? Pants like an American. I'm not going to turn up to the gym in my underpants. Speaker 1 (2:45) Okay. Speaker 2 (2:45) I think that could be food, you know. Speaker 1 (2:47) Bear claw. I Speaker 2 (2:48) think it's Speaker 1 (2:48) fake. Speaker 2 (2:49) I'm going food. I think food. Last Speaker 1 (2:50) one, unicorn cream. Speaker 1 (2:53) Unicorns cream. Unicorns cream? No, unicorn cream. Speaker 2 (2:56) I don't know about that. I mean, unicorns don't exist. I don't spoil it. Shh. I'm so Speaker 1 (3:02) sorry. Speaker 2 (3:03) They Speaker 1 (3:03) might. Unicorn cream. Unicorn cream. Speaker 2 (3:07) But what would be in it to make unicorns? I think Speaker 1 (3:09) somebody's made a food out of that. Okay, I'm going to fake because Speaker 2 (3:12) unicorns Speaker 1 (3:13) don't exist. But it's Speaker 2 (3:15) probably a food, isn't it? Somebody branded it. Speaker 1 (3:17) Anyway, we'll come back to that in just a bit. Speaker 1 (3:23) Now I need to tell you all about oysters. Yeah, are you ready lovely settle in? Yes, so Oysters they have eyes covering their bodies to escape even the sneakiest predators. They've got hearts They've got internal organs, but they ain't got any heads. I'm already Kind of swimming in fact hold on. Yeah, they got all the eyes covering their bodies. So you know, I just scallop Yes. Okay, so you know the frill around the scallop? Yeah. Speaker 2 (3:50) Which Speaker 1 (3:51) is taken off before you eat it. Scallop, like tripe. Some people eat it. If you look at it as a super fresh scallop, they kind of like shimmer around. Do you remember Knight Rider? I do. Do Speaker 2 (4:01) you Speaker 1 (4:01) remember the thing, the kit to the car that does that? And it just goes vroom, vroom, vroom. Yeah, the red kit. The scallops do that. And you can see them shimmering around and around and around. It's like lots and lots of little eyes. So they, whether they're eyes or not, I don't know. So oysters have the same thing, like frills? They have, yes. They do have frills. Wow. So they might be much the same. Did you Speaker 2 (4:19) know that? Speaker 1 (4:20) No, I didn't know that. I knew it out of scallops. Speaker 2 (4:22) How do you feel about eating oysters? Now you know they have eyes, organs. I'm fine with Speaker 1 (4:25) that. Because they don't have a head. Okay, okay. I see where that goes. They're also, this is interesting, they're all born male. but they can change their sex regularly throughout their lives depending on the temperature of the water. Speaker 2 (4:38) Okay, so is that an evolutionary, a breeding thing, so we can keep breeding, or is that just a... I have no idea. Don't ask Speaker 1 (4:45) me to follow up these facts. I Speaker 2 (4:46) know that Speaker 1 (4:47) eels are much the same. Eels can change their sex depending on the water. Nice. Okay, so if it's colder, it goes one minute, hotter, it goes another. Basically. They're filter feeders, obviously. We know that. They can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day. That's huge. Yeah, so what does a 50-gallon tank look like? Speaker 2 (5:03) I mean, that's big, isn't it? That's like a big fish tank. Yeah, a Speaker 1 (5:05) massive fish tank. So imagine a big fish tank with one oyster in it. And it can do all of that. With dirty water, put that oyster in, by the end Speaker 2 (5:11) of Speaker 1 (5:11) the day it's clean. But isn't Speaker 2 (5:12) that why people are fearful of eating them? Well, it is, because they Speaker 1 (5:15) take on all the shit. So very often when you get ill from eating an oyster, it's not a bad oyster, it's the norovirus that is in the water that they've filtered and taken on. Speaker 2 (5:28) So how to avoid that? Do we want to eat oysters only from places with big ties that are very fresh? Well, you Speaker 1 (5:33) avoid it by getting them zapped. So you get them from, like, certified sources. Speaker 2 (5:39) When you say zapped, do you mean like an infrared type? Well, I think they Speaker 1 (5:41) pass them through a UV light. So they don't use chemicals or anything like that because obviously they're filter feeders that they wouldn't want to take chemicals on. So, yeah, they pass them through the UV light, which kills any bacteria. Oh, this is a good one. Not all oysters produce pearls. Okay. I actually, I was in a Chinese restaurant in Bayswater once and I had an oyster. Yeah. And I would put it and then he broke my tooth and it had a pearl. I've still got it today. It had the dodgiest looking unpolished pearl I've ever seen. So it was, imagine it like it's Speaker 2 (6:12) a Speaker 1 (6:12) round lump. Slightly rough. And it was kind of like knobbly on one side. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was natural. I'll Speaker 2 (6:17) dig Speaker 1 (6:17) it out and show you. I'd love to see that. So that, so it's a bit of grit that goes in there and they kind of spin it to try and. to cover it, to get rid of it. They spin it in this... Mother of Pearls. Whatever it is. Yeah, the magic stuff. But also, when I went to a farm in China to see where pearls come from, so, you know, manufactured pearls, they actually put tiny little microscopic pieces of dirt, essentially, into these huge clams. Oh, Speaker 2 (6:46) those poor things. And then they Speaker 1 (6:47) leave it alone, and then the clams produce the same. And depending on the colour of... But the clam, I think it was the clam or whatever you put in there, the little piece of stone or rock or something, it produces different coloured pearls. Speaker 2 (7:02) Amazing. So that's where you get sort of pink ones, grey ones, all that stuff. Speaker 1 (7:05) Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:05) That's extraordinary. Yes, Speaker 1 (7:06) exactly. Speaker 2 (7:06) So when you found it at the restaurant, did you tell them? No, of Speaker 1 (7:10) course I didn't because I thought they might want it. Speaker 2 (7:11) They might, yeah. Speaker 1 (7:12) So I've still got it in a little kind of tiny, I don't know, like a case at home. Like your gallstone. Speaker 2 (7:18) Yeah. Speaker 1 (7:19) You've had yours out. I've had mine out. Didn't let me keep the stone. Speaker 2 (7:23) My Speaker 1 (7:23) dad has his out. He's forgotten. Speaker 2 (7:24) What Speaker 1 (7:25) does he Speaker 2 (7:25) do? They just Speaker 1 (7:25) rattle around in a little pot. Nice. Yeah. Anyway, the oldest evidence of oyster consumption dates back to 164,000 years ago in Mosul Bay in South Africa. And it's known as the point of origins. Okay, Speaker 2 (7:40) but that makes sense because it's something you could grab out the water, crack it open. You can see people doing that. Speaker 1 (7:45) I'm always astonished by the first people who go, do you know what? Let's try that. Speaker 2 (7:50) Let's have a go at that. I would be such a coward. I'd be a coward. I'd be like, you're out of your mind. I'd rather, I think I'd rather eat that pig over there. Speaker 1 (7:57) Although that's quite weird as well when you think about it. Yeah, I don't want to eat a pig now. Broccoli. I'd go for that. Easy. In the 19th century, oysters were plentiful, obviously, and cheap. I think they used to sell them, or sell them, they used to give them to prisoners. Is that right? Well, they certainly were the working person's food down the dots. Oyster and stout was a big kind of thing. They were sold on every street corner in London. Yeah. Okay. And in the year 1864, over 700 million oysters were consumed in London alone. That's huge. Yeah. So everyone was at it. So they were commonplace. So oysters and gin, weren't they? Yeah, that was the game. You're Speaker 2 (8:34) all falling into Speaker 1 (8:34) Thames. That famous Hogarth sketch. It was a really accomplished painting. So Speaker 2 (8:42) they must have been really inexpensive. Yeah. So where were they all growing? Right around the coast? Speaker 1 (8:47) They Speaker 2 (8:47) were in the Thames. They were Speaker 1 (8:49) in the Thames? Yes. Which is why, okay, it gets better. It gets better. So after 1900, there were fears regarding the safety of oysters. Given that they had the ability to purify water, sewers were laid on the oyster beds in the hope that the oysters would filter all the sewage. Obviously, they didn't. No. Because they couldn't keep up with the demand. No. And therefore, huge numbers of people were getting ill. Poorly. And then blaming the oysters. I know, isn't that awful? People are so terrible, aren't they? In 2024, the London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, announced that he wants Oyster to return to the River Thames as part of a 10-year plan to clean up the capital's rivers. I'm always impressed when rivers Speaker 2 (9:32) are kind of granted status of kind of, I think one of them, or several of them now, have been given personhood status because they have a right to be in a certain way without the contaminants. And I quite like that idea that they have a natural state. Speaker 1 (9:44) It is great. Speaker 2 (9:45) Natural state of being. Let's not talk about the rivers. Speaker 1 (9:46) Well, you brought it up. get livid well that's what the water companies are doing to the rivers it's Speaker 2 (9:52) infuriating Speaker 1 (9:52) shocking scandalous this is our Speaker 2 (9:54) common infrastructure our common environment and you're absolutely right to be cross please continue Speaker 1 (9:59) pumping oyster Speaker 2 (10:00) me up matt Speaker 1 (10:01) uh right well anyway he took inspiration from a similar project in new york city new york plans to return one billion oysters to the hudson river great fantastic Speaker 2 (10:12) i love Speaker 1 (10:13) the thought of voice do you remember um thames used to have um white bait Yeah, yeah, Speaker 2 (10:17) yeah. Speaker 1 (10:18) And they used to scoop them out. What's that very famous pub right down Speaker 2 (10:21) east? Speaker 1 (10:22) Oh, I know. I know exactly the pub. Right on the bank of the river. Yes, and they used to scoop them out Speaker