Grilled Oysters St. Louis

Have you ever grilled on an island? Grillin’ Fools Tom and Greg do every year while on vacation on Dauphin Island, Alabama, toting a travel charcoal grill. Our recent trip had us focusing on grilled oysters, particularly in this event, utilizing products from the St. Louis region where all of us reside. Call these Grilled Oysters St. Louis a Gulf/St. Louis fusion.

 

 

In order to make Grilled Oysters St. Louis we obtained a few local products to legitimize our effort. Obviously the oysters didn’t come from the area and we sourced those fresh from the Gulf area. In fact, Tom usually buys a whole case of the critters and we dine on them all week. Here’s the items required. Those of you that aren’t local aren’t going to understand some of the references. We will try to explain as we go. 

 

 

The Hill is an Italian neighborhood in St. Louis with immaculate residences, specialty markets, and dotted with fabulous Italian restaurants. We found DiGregorio’s Market to be an excellent store to procure great cheeses and cured meats.

 

 

Provel cheese is a St. Louis original made famous by being a primary ingredient in St. Louis-style pizza. It is a white processed cheese product consisting of white cheddar, Swiss, and provolone. Provel melts easily into a gooey, buttery texture. We selected the rope variety for this recipe. It is available shredded and sliced as well. The rope version is great in salads and I add a few strands to soft scrambled eggs. Provel slices are a great addition to grilled steak sandwiches.

 

 

Have you tried pancetta? No? Here it is:

 

 

 

It’s the best brush-on steak sauce ever! It is by no means a dipping sauce used to mask the flavor of bad steaks. It’s brushed on during cooking to enhance the flavor of a great steak. It also makes for a great marinade and ingredient in things like meat loaf, soups, stews, etc. It’s a combo of many ingredients that works magic on steak so we thought we would try it on grilled oysters. It will change the way you cook scallops if you give them a 30-45 minute bath in the sauce. It transforms portobello mushrooms into something magical.

 

 

Let’s grill ’em. Mmmm smoke ‘n steak sauce!

We are going to grill these oysters in the half shell which makes for the perfect heat shield so the oyster meat cooks perfectly. So bring the the grill up to medium to medium high heat (350F-400F). Place the oysters over the fire until the liquid starts boiling. When the liquid bubbles for 30-60 seconds, the oysters are done. 

 

 

Take a closer look to see the rope Provel melting into a gooey, buttery state. Once the oysters bubble for 30-60 seconds they’re done!

 

We pulled them from the grill and headed to the seaside deck to feast on these briny morsels. The St. Louis style oysters were a hit with all the guests at the beach house. They would’ve been better had we remembered to add the crispy, crumbled pancetta! Yep, we screwed that up big time. They were still very tasty but we missed that crunch and punch from the pancetta. I guess we’ll just have to grill another batch. Or maybe one of these other grilled oyster recipes. 

 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below or send me an email.